meet your
Musicians
Chris
Q
Who or what first inspired you
to pick up your instrument?
I started violin in fourth grade
in upstate New York. The
string teacher came around
with the string instruments
and I picked the violin because
it was small like me.
Chris Scroggins
Second Violin
A short documentary film about Hitler’s
concentration camps may seem an unlikely inspiration for a teenage musician,
but for Chris Scroggins, Night and Fog
did just that. “After I saw that documentary, I immediately understood that life
and good times were precious and that I
should make the most of my talent.”
Over time, Scroggins has come to view
herself and the musicians of the BSO as
healers, with music as a means of release
for the audience and the Meyerhoff as a
refuge. To sooth her own soul, Scroggins
turns to Mother Nature, specifically state
and local parks, where she goes to relax.
She also has a favorite animal sanctuary
where she plays with the animals awaiting
adoption. These forays into the natural
world have inspired a parallel vocation for
Scroggins, who is also a nature photographer. Not surprising given her love of the
Chris
12 O v ertur e |
www. bsomusic .org
earth, she’s pleased to be in a profession
that leaves no environmental footprint.
“It makes me very happy that my violin
will last for hundreds of years and be
played by many who come after me.”
Rene Hernandez
Assistant Principal Trumpet
Many musicians in the symphony began
playing an instrument at a young age,
but Rene Hernandez may be the only one
whose career began in a Buddhist marching band. When he was 12, his mother
took him to a Buddhist meeting where he
met the youth bandleader.
“The following Sunday, I had a trumpet
in my hands,” he recalls. “We were
constantly performing. I learned how to
play in no time.”
From city streets to symphony halls,
Hernandez grew up performing, and
by 16, he was on tour in Europe.