Lakeside student to perform at Carnegie Hall

Credit for interview and article:

Tanner Newton The Sentinel-Record | February 7, 2019

Edited by Krystyna Valdivia for this website

Link to article:

https://www.hotsr.com/news/2019/feb/07/lakeside-student-to-perform-at-carnegie/#:~:text=The%20Sentinel%2DRecord%2FTanner%20Newton,Hall%20in%20New%20York%20City.

Krystyna Valdivia, 17, will play her violin as part of the 2019 High School Honors Performance Series. Valdivia, a senior at Lakeside High School, had tried out for the program three times. Not expecting to get in on the fourth try, Valdivia said that hearing she had finally been accepted "was kind of like a dream come true."

"I picked the violin up, and never put it down,"

In the years following her first performance. Valdivia found success with the instrument. She has won several school talent shows and won a scholarship at a Garland County talent show. She is also a member of the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra and the pep band at school. For her fourth attempt at getting to perform at Carnegie Hall, Valdivia got help from one of her teachers, Neal Moss. "I owe a lot of this" to Moss, she said, who encouraged her to keep trying. To apply for the program, students have to record two pieces, a slow one and a fast one. Moss had a better microphone than Valdivia had previously used, and a dozen takes later, she had her submissions recorded. Two other people that Valdivia said have helped her get to this point is her parents, Krakowiak and Martin Valdivia. "They were just as happy as I was," Valdivia said about their reactions to her getting accepted. "They are always so encouraging, they are always proud of me. I have such amazing parents," Valdivia said. Valdivia also credited her teachers, Keith Klosky and Brittany Osman. Stratton said the school is very proud of Valdivia's accomplishments. She said she learned about the honor when Valdivia's mother came to school to discuss the days Valdivia would have to miss for the performance. "I thought 'Wow, this is a big honor ... this is wonderful,'" Stratton said. One thing both Valdivia and Stratton pointed out is that not only will Valdivia be representing herself in New York, but also her state, city, school and heritage -- her mother is Polish and her father is Peruvian. "It kind of puts Hot Springs on the map," Stratton said. On representing Arkansas, Valdivia said, "I'll do my best to show everybody what we've got." Over 20,000 students applied for the program and only around 150 were selected, a news release said. Valdivia, along with her mother, grandmother and younger sister -- who has also taken up the violin -- left for New York Wednesday and will return on Monday.