Students Make Beautiful Classical Music For A Cause

The crisp notes of classical music will reverberate throughout the Old Whalers’ Church in Sag Harbor on Sunday.

While the church and the composers being played are old, the participating musicians will largely be a youthful group—mostly students from the East Hampton, Southampton and Sag Harbor schools. And the concert’s raisons d’être is a noble one. “Classical Students at the Old Whalers’ Church: A Concert to Benefit Pediatric Cancer” is a benefit for Katy Stewart, a 12-year-old Pierson Middle School student who is battling hepatoblastoma, a rare form of liver cancer.

“When musicians express themselves, they enrich all our lives,” is the motto for the benefit, the proceeds of which will go toward Katy’s Courage Fund, a fund established by the Stewart family.

The afternoon will feature performances by a select group of musicians, four of whom have been chosen to play at the New York State School Music Association Conference in Rochester in December, according to Stephanie Beroes, a Sag Harbor resident who helped organize the event. This list includes violinist Maxfield Panish, a junior at East Hampton High School; cellist Chris Beroes-Haigis, a Pierson High School junior; violinist Kristina-Li Neknez, a Southampton High School senior; and soprano Elizabeth Oldak, a Pierson High School senior.

The program is headlined by a number of short movements from longer works by Mozart, Handel and Rachmaninoff, among others.

The East Hampton High School Chamber Group, composed of Mr. Panish playing first violin, Meghan Hess on violin, Abigail Houston on viola and Caitlin White on the cello, will open the concert with Mozart’s String Quartet No. 13 in D minor.

“Playing the violin is all about singing through the violin and making beautiful music,” Mr. Panish wrote in an e-mail. The young musician said he practices about four hours daily. In addition to playing in a string quartet at East Hampton High School, he plays in an orchestra and in a piano, violin and clarinet trio at the Manhattan School of Music on Saturdays. He will also play a solo of Handel’s Sonata No. 4 in D major.

Mr. Panish’s 12-year-old brother, Leo Panish, a seventh-grader at East Hampton Middle School, who said he took up the violin because he was inspired by his older brother, will play the first movement of Giovanni Viotti’s Concerto #22 in A minor on the violin.

“It is a wonderful song that I think many people will enjoy,” said Leo, who has performed at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan with the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. “I would like to let people know that playing an instrument is wonderful. It’s a great way to express yourself in an amazing way.”

Star violinist Ms. Neknez, 17, a resident of Southampton Village, is expected to play the first and second movements of Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315, “L’estate” (Summer) from Vivaldi’s best known piece, “The Four Seasons.”

“I loved the sound, the color of the wood, and how there are different sounds that can be created from one instrument. I loved being the one who made other people smile when I played a piece that I was working on in my private lessons,” explained Ms. Neknez when asked what about her instrument resonated so strongly with her after picking it up as an elementary school student.

The program will also include a solo by Mr. Beroes-Haigis on Henry Eccles’s Sonata in G minor. He and guest cellist Phillip Munck, a University of Virginia sophomore, the only participant without a local connection to the East End, will play a duet of the first movement of Vivaldi’s Concerto in G. Mr. Munck, who has recently signed as a recording artist with Oluponya Records, with also play Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, Opus 34.

The concert will be rounded out by additional performances by other up-and-coming local musicians. Pierson High School freshman Gustave Clerin will perform Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat major Opus 9, No. 2 on the ivories. Pierson High School junior and Sag Harbor Community Band member Emily Verneuille, 16, will play Fantasie Caprice, Opus 118 by Charles Lefebvre. Ms. Oldak, 17, who has studied classical voice for five years, will be singing selections from the musical theater, accompanied by Amanda Jones, a former vocal music teacher at East Hampton Middle School, on the piano. Another accompanist, Christine Cadarette, a music liaison at The Playhouse Project in East Hampton, will accompany the string musicians throughout the afternoon.

Also participating in the concert will be Fighting Chance, a Sag Harbor organization which provides services for people affected by cancer. Duncan Darrow, the founder of the group, is expected to provide introductory remarks.

While raising funds for Katy Stewart, the concert will also serve to showcase local students’ musical talent, explained Ms. Beroes. “It’s a chance for the community to hear students perform classical music outside of a school setting.”

“Classical Students at the Old Whalers’ Church: A Concert to Benefit Pediatric Cancer” will be performed at the Old Whalers’ Church in Sag Harbor on Sunday, November 7, at 4 p.m. A $10 donation is suggested. Checks can be made out to “Katy’s Courage Fund.”