Ben Shields, Musician
Mr. Ben Shields
On May 24th, Ben Shields stood on stage before the audience at the Peninsula High School Auditorium. As the featured soloist at the season finale concert of the Gig Harbor Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, he debuted a new piece for his hometown audience. He performed Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor. Ben, a senior here at Henry Foss High School chose to go to Foss rather than go to school in Gig Harbor, the city in which he’d lived for nearly all his life. The reason: Neither Peninsula nor Gig Harbor high schools have full-sized chamber orchestras, but Foss does.
Shields, now 18, has been playing the violin since he was 4. In the past 14 years, he’s become an accomplished player. He performed with the Peninsula Youth Orchestra in elementary school and the Tacoma Youth Orchestra for the past nine years, when he also served periodically as concertmaster. Playing music has become more than just a hobby. The way he describes it, playing the violin is a compulsion. It has become as important to his daily life as breathing. "You have to get lost in what you’re doing," Shields said. "And nothing else matters. For me, it’s as if I have an obligation."
Redacted from Paige Richmond at the Gateway (http://www.gateline.com/106/story/1529.html)