Holy Family sax player swings at Kennedy Center

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There are few things that can tempt a musician more than the sight of a vacant piano bench.

    That’s the situation Cameron Hall found himself in a couple of years ago, during a family cruise to Mexico.

    After getting the green light from the ship’s band director, Cameron sat at the piano for a half-hour, knocking out classical pieces such as Mozart’s “Turkish March,” and the folk standard “House of the Rising Sun,” the latter to the delight of his mother, Beverly.
    “It was a really simple version, but she likes it for some reason,” said Cameron, who plays his primary instrument – the saxophone – at the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass as a member of the Manna Choir Band in his home parish of Holy Family in Luling.
    This summer the 16-year-old got to take his musical talents to his biggest stage to date: the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where he was the tenor saxophonist in the National Association for Music Education’s “All-National Concert Band.”
    Cameron, one of two Louisiana teens who made the cut for the prestigious 60-member ensemble, was selected out of thousands of high school musicians nationwide.
    “We had gone (to the Kennedy Center) on vacation two times before and saw some free concerts. I guess I just thought, ‘It would be good to perform here one day,’” said Cameron, who performed four pieces with the elite band after a series of intense rehearsals. “Just the size of the place is amazing – and the acoustics. We had a lot of people there.”

Sax an early favorite
    Cameron, a dual resident of New Orleans and Luling now in his senior year at Lusher Charter High, picked up his first instrument – the clarinet – as a fifth grader.
    “I wanted to play saxophone, but the saxophone section was full,” recalls Cameron, who switched to his preferred instrument a year later and began taking formal lessons. A member of the woodwind family, saxophones come in a variety of sizes and corresponding pitch ranges, including soprano, alto, tenor and baritone. Cameron said he likes how the saxophone can lead the melody in the “smooth jazz” of artists such as Kenny G, or “blend and sound good” with any kind of music.
    “The sax was actually invented for marching bands to be used as an instrument in between a brass and a woodwind – the sound of it is in between a trumpet and a clarinet,” Cameron explained. “Now it’s used in concert bands and everything else. I like the sound of it, especially when someone plays it really well.”
Selection process
    Before playing at the Kennedy Center, Cameron, who has made the All-District Concert and All-District Jazz bands every year he has auditioned, earned a spot on the 2011 All-State Symphonic Band as a second-chair tenor saxophonist. Applicants for the All-National Honor Band were asked to submit audiotapes of themselves playing seven pieces showcasing their sound quality and precision. Cameron learned he had made the band via email.
    “I didn’t really expect to make it at all,” said Cameron, whose interest in music often has him doing his homework in cafes, libraries and in the car as he trundles between school and his many performances and practice sessions. Cameron is a member of the St. Charles Parish Community Band, a student in Tipitina’s internship program, a volunteer musician in plays mounted by River Region Performing Arts, and part of the New Orleans Concert Band, directed by Dr. Charles Taylor.
    For the last three years he has performed with the metro area’s top 40 high school musicians in the Loyola University Wind Ensemble, co-directed by Col. John Bourgeois and Dr. Joe Hebert. His other honors include receiving the 2011 Jazz Award, bestowed by Claire Conti, founder of the Premier Honor Band and band director at St. Mary Magdalen, St. Philip Neri and Metairie Park Country Day.

Vibrant music ministry at Holy Family
    Cameron has been part of Holy Family’s choir band since the seventh grade, alternatively playing the clarinet and saxophone. The group of two dozen singers and musicians, directed by David Haydel, also features trumpet, trombone, guitar, bass, flute, French horn and drums.
    “We have to play with singers, so I guess it’s a different feeling than playing at a concert,” Cameron notes. “I have to play softer.”
    Throughout it all, Cameron has managed to earn academic honors at Lusher and a second-degree black belt in taekwondo. He spent the past summer in the Tulane Science Scholars Program, a selective program for high schoolers who demonstrate exceptional talent in science and math.
    “I want to be a neurologist,” Cameron said, “and still study music.”
    For more on Holy Family’s Manna Choir Band, speak to Haydel after the 9 a.m. Mass or call him at (985) 785-8143.
    Beth Donze can be reached at [email protected].