Freshman Paves Way to Become a Professional Violinist

Freshman Catalina Narvaez recalls the time when she first discovered the violin at the age of four. She was attending a concert with her mother, and she instantly saw herself as a musician. "I begged my mom to buy me one. From then on I officially started playing and practicing at the age of 5.” Since then, her goal has been to become a professional violinist. 

Violin was not her only interest at the time. “I also did ice skating which was really fun when we competed.’’ Sadly, during Covid, she had to give up ice skating, but she realized how much it brought her closer to the violin. Quitting the ice skating competition gave her more time to devote to her violin practice. Soon, she made a promise to herself to devote her time to violin daily, and to get better and better as the years go on. 

As of right now, Catalina practices violin during school in orchestra and also outside of school with her professional violin teacher. Catalina said, ‘’Right now I practice 2-3 hours everyday on the weekdays.’’ Even though it is a lot of work she doesn’t mind putting in the effort. ‘’I love violin so much so I don’t mind putting in as much effort as possible," she said.

Catalina prefers to practice outside of school opposed to during school because she is able to challenge herself beyond the school curriculum, and is able to play without judgment. Catalina’s short term goal is to major in music and says she wants to enroll in the Manhattan School of Music as a pre college student prior to beginning college.

Freshman Emily Kean, who is in orchestra with Catalina, recognized how passionate and talented Catalina is throughout her time in orchestra. Emily said, ‘’[Catalina] has always been very talented at what she does, and not only with violin, but when she would ice skate. She shows how passionate she is and how determined she is towards it.’’ She describes how hard it is to get to that level and how much work Catalina has put in, towards achieving her goal. Emily has no doubt that Catalina will go far with pursuing her violin dreams. 


Catalina says that she looks forward to achieving her goal and can't wait to look back and see how far she has come.