‘Tickling the ivories’ pays off for Lindsey Vickers

By RAY WYCHE
Staff Writer

Lindsey Vickers’ days have a sameness about them: a three-hour session each day, Sundays and holidays included, with the 17-year-old Hallsboro girl on a piano bench practicing, practicing.

Her undeviating devotion to perfecting her talent at the keyboard is paying off.

Next month, she will be the guest piano soloist at a concert of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, an honor she earned by winning an audition competition involving high school students from throughout southeastern North Carolina.

The competition involved not only pianists but also performers on other instruments. The orchestra annually selects one student-musician skilled at playing any orchestra instrument to be guest soloist for one of its concerts.

Vickers is the third of Dr. Sharyn Edwards’ music students at Southeastern Community College to win the coveted selection as guest soloist with the Wilmington orchestra.

Daughter of Sherry and Wayne Vickers of Hallsboro, Vickers is a senior at Columbus Christian Academy and is dually enrolled at SCC where she is a piano student of Dr. Edwards.

The audition that put Vickers in the coveted soloist spot for the concert was held in Wilmington and was judged by three music school faculty members from East Carolina University.

Vickers’ featured work at the orchestra’s concert will be Mozart’s Concerto No. 12 in A Major. The piano solo portion of the work will have Vickers playing for about 10 minutes, she says.

Dr. Edwards has high praise for Vickers, not only for her talent but also for her dedication in perfecting this talent. Her passion for practicing is outstanding.

“She is an exceptional student,” Dr. Edwards says. “I don’t make her (practice); she has to want to do it. Her piano talent has grown immensely. She has discipline and it has paid off for her.”

Vickers admits that lengthy practice sessions have a down-side, such as aching fingers, but are necessary to perform at the level she is aiming for.

Her school work coupled with keyboard practicing limits her time to listen to music other than that she makes.

“I really don’t have time to listen to much music,” she answers when asked what type music she prefers for her personal listening.

She plays the piano at her church, Mount Olive Freewill Baptist, north of Hallsboro. “Almost every Sunday,” she says.

Vickers’ plans at the present are to attend Southeastern for at least one year and then transfer to a four-year college to study music.

“I think I want to be a music teacher,” she says.

Dr. Edwards said most colleges require music students to audition before being accepted. The student must also qualify academically, a requirement that presents no problems to Vickers who leads her senior class at Columbus Academy.

Dr. Edwards says scholarships are available at many colleges for exceptional music students, and adds that Vickers can apply for such scholarships.

“I think she has a wonderful chance. She will apply herself,” she adds.