Young Performers Win Judges’ Hearts--and Scholarships

Whittier area high school student Linda Martinez knew she had to make her audience feel her love for jazz. So she lost herself in Hoagy Carmichael’s “Lazy River,” and near the end of her piano solo, even started to sing.

“It wasn’t just my fingers playing--the music was coming out from my inside as well,” the California High School senior said.

The audience--and the judges--got lost in it too. Linda, 16, won first place and a $5,000 scholarship in the jazz instrumental category of the Los Angeles Music Center’s fourth annual Spotlight Awards.

Two other area high school students--Megan Elizabeth Watson, 17, of Long Beach and Rhonda Halderman, 15, of Whittier--were runners-up, each winning a $2,500 scholarship in the competition Tuesday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles.

The event, funded by grants from the Pacific Telesis Foundation and other corporate and arts organizations, was the culmination of a six-month competition for more than 400 high school students, mostly from Southern California.

Two finalists were picked in six performing arts categories: jazz instrumental music, classical instrumental music, pop/musical theater vocal, ballet, jazz dance and opera. Each of the 12 finalists, ages 14 through 18, performed Tuesday night.

“It’s awards like this that make all the hard work worthwhile,” said Linda, who plans to attend the USC School of Music.

She said she chose “Lazy River” because “it’s a song that you can just snap your fingers to and enjoy. But to the trained ear, it’s also a song that they can say, ‘Oh, yeah, I understand what she’s doing.’ ”

Linda, daughter of Carol and Julio Martinez, said she enjoys jazz because it offers her the opportunity to compose on the spot, so she never has to perform a song the same way twice.

Linda plays piano in the California High School jazz and concert bands and clarinet in the marching band. She also composes, plays piano with a jazz combo twice a week at coffeehouses and has been admitted to the young composers program at the Yamaha Music School in Buena Park.

She began taking piano lessons at age 5, and a year later composed a four-minute song she called “Raindrops.”

At 13 she was selected to compete in the Los Angeles Jazz Classic Festival. That year she placed second, and the following year, she placed first.

“As you learn jazz,” Linda said, “your ability to play gets greater, and you start enjoying the music and actually fall in love with it. It’s so rewarding. I play just to relax sometimes.”

Ballerina Megan Watson, who studies at the Independent Learning High School in Piedmont, had her most difficult moment of the competition in the semifinal round. She beamed as she heard her name announced as a finalist, but her excitement quickly turned bittersweet. It was the first time she had edged out her identical twin sister, Leah.

Megan and Leah are daughters of Ginny and John Watson. They train at the San Francisco Ballet School in San Francisco, and both girls made it to the semifinals. But Megan’s “Sugar Plum “ variation from “The Nutcracker” beat out Leah’s “Wedding” variation from “Don Quixote.”

“Because of our closeness, I would have wanted her to win or to make it to the finals with me,” Megan said.

A Joffrey Ballet performance of “The Nutcracker” sparked their interest in dance at age 5, the twins said. Both enrolled in tap and jazz dance at 7, and at the Ballet Art Center in Long Beach at 10. By the time they were 14, they had performed with the Los Angeles Classical Ballet company.

After finishing ninth grade at Millikan High School in Long Beach, the pair moved to Berkeley to live with their aunt and uncle so they could train with the San Francisco Ballet Company.

Backstage at the Spotlight Awards, Leah acted as Megan’s coach.

“I was so nervous,” Leah smiled. “I was taking all of Megan’s nerves. She hardly was nervous at all during the performance.”

“I was off the music at some crucial parts,” Megan said. “I do believe that you are never perfect, and even the greatest ballerina has something to work on.”

Singer Rhonda Halderman, at 15 the youngest competitor in the opera category, only began operatic training six months ago. She says she surprised herself by beating more than 60 contestants in the first round of auditions and 10 in the semifinals.

Her parents, Diane and Bob Halderman, said Rhonda sang show tunes with accurate pitch and a natural vibrato at age 5. Since she was 11, she has performed in about 10 musical theater productions, including “Annie” and “The Sound of Music.”

Last year she began commuting to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in Los Angeles after finishing her freshman year at La Serna High School in Whittier.

“I like the school I’m at now because it helps me with my insecurities and helps build my confidence. Students there . . . don’t make fun of you,” Rhonda said.

She said she fell in love with opera six months ago when teacher Jeremy Guillian asked her to sing pieces he had composed.

For her final Spotlight performance, Rhonda sang Giuseppe Torelli’s “Tu lo sai” a four-minute Italian Renaissance art song.

Rhonda said she hopes to return next year to compete in the pop/musical theater vocal category. After high school, she wants to attend the Boston Conservatory of Music.

Rhonda said she was glad she met Linda and Megan.

“There was a moment when we all jokingly said that no matter what happens, we’re all winners,” she said. “And that’s true. I’m happy for all of us winners, because we’re all talented, and we’re all going places.”