Page 36 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2015

PEOPLE orchestrated performance
Lizzy Vogel, 17, started playing the violin
when she was 11. She will be studying violin performance at Belhaven University this fall.
She performs on an Italian made baroque violin.
Young violinist practices up to seven hours a day
story by Susan Ruddimann photos courtesy Lizzy Vogel
lizabeth “Lizzy” Vogel of the Kiln has a favorite saying she follows: “I either play now and pay later or I pay now and play later. I want to get it done early.”
This intense 17 year old spends up to seven hours a day practicing the classical violin, and will continue her violin studies in college. She is the daughter of Mike Vogel and Treva Vogel.
As a youngster, her mother started Lizzy with piano and dance lessons. Treva herself is a former ballet dancer and she knew how to play the violin. Soon she heard Lizzy saying she also wanted to learn how to play the “vee-lin.”
“I said when we find a teacher, you can take some lessons,” Treva said.
Lizzy’s first teacher was the daughter of a friend. “I started playing at 11, which is fairly late. But I constantly practiced and fell in love with the violin,” she said. “It’s always been my happy place. I can interpret my feelings.”
A year later, Lizzy joined the Gulf Coast Symphony Youth Orchestra and became a student of Stephen Redfield, a member of the University of Southern Mississippi School of Music. Lizzy also performed with the Southern Mississippi Youth Orchestra in Hattiesburg.
“The violin came so naturally to Lizzy,” Treva said.
Lizzy was home schooled, allowing her more freedom to pursue her violin studies. Her mother took her to weekly lessons, first at USM, and for the past year and a half, at Belhaven University in Jackson where she is a student under Song Xie, associate professor of music.
Vogel enjoys listening to her daughter practice a piece on the violin. “The key to a good violinist is being able to hear. Lizzy
has a good ear. She listens to what is being played and she tries to interpret it from the way she feels in her heart,” Vogel said.
This fall, Lizzy will be a freshman at Belhaven University where she will major in music and study violin performance.
36 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • July 2015
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