Cellist Dawnabella Baez has a dream: to attend Berklee College of Music and someday become a professional musician. The dream began with private instruction through the Cape Symphony Youth Orchestra Program (CSYOP) during the pilot phase of its Instrument Access Program (IAP) in Spring 2023.
Through IAP, young musicians are provided with an instrument (as needed), a year of weekly private lessons, and CSYOP ensemble membership, all free of cost thanks to generous donors and community partnerships. Participants are recommended by their music teacher at Barnstable Intermediate School and Barnstable United Elementary School, based on their passion for music and demonstrated commitment to learning. Currently, ten students in grades 4-8 are participating in the program; a few more will be added this spring.
Dawnabella has been taking weekly lessons and rehearsing with Debut Strings, CSYOP's ensemble for advanced beginners, for almost a full year. She’s grown as a musician, as a cellist, and as a person. Her personality and drive inspire teachers and fellow students alike.
We recently learned that Dawnabella is moving away from Cape Cod, and will no longer be able to participate in IAP or CSYOP. The school she will be attending does not have a strings program, and she wouldn’t have a cello to continue playing, in any case.
This didn’t seem right.
CSYOP Director Kyle Spraker, teaching artists Noah Janowicz and David Gable, and Dawnabella’s school strings teacher, Valerie Bahr, put their heads together. They devised a plan to give Dawnabella a cello of her own (with brand new strings and a carbon fiber bow) so that she can continue to pursue her dream.
Kyle wasn’t done. He contacted our good friend and Cape Symphony’s former Director of Education Su D’Ambrosio, now with the Rhode Island Philharmonic & Music School, to see about connecting Dawnabella with the youth orchestra program there.
On the evening of her last cello lesson with Noah, he and Kyle arranged to surprise her with this special gift, as their way of saying thank you to her for being one of the first IAP students, and paving the way for others to benefit from this new program.
Her smile says it all.
Dawnabella’s teachers and fellow CSYOP members will miss her tremendously. We wish her all the best on her musical journey, and want her and her family to know that Cape Symphony is proud of her. We only ask one favor in return: keep making music with your cello!
