Slice: Violinist synthesizes jobs

Melissa Tatreau straps a bright-blue violin case onto her back, grabs a cup of to-go coffee and hurries into the building.

It’s 10 o’clock in the morning at Lewis and Clark Middle School, and Tatreau is beginning one of her typical Saturdays.

She’ll spend the morning teaching students in a youth orchestra, play a wedding in the afternoon and in the evening perform as a freelance violinist with the Omaha Symphony.

Tatreau is a professional violin teacher and performer. But like many classical instrumentalists, the 31-year-old Omaha native is also an entrepreneur. To make a living, she’s become adept at creating and cobbling together lots of different jobs.

Among other things, Tatreau is also a member of the Lincoln Symphony and a teacher at the Omaha Conservatory of Music. When stars such as Rod Stewart, Josh Groban and Mary J. Blige come to town, Tatreau often plays in their pickup orchestras.

It all makes for some frenetically active days.

“I sure keep busy,” says Tatreau as she walks briskly into the school. “Teaching is what I love to do most.”

Tatreau has some heavy instructing to do this morning.

As she enters the building, Mark Haar, operations director for the Omaha Area Youth Orchestras, hands her a slip of paper. It contains her assignment. Tatreau has been hired to coach the orchestra’s honors viola section. She quickly scans the paper and sees there’s a lot to be done.

“The string section is particularly ‘wimpy’ this year,” the assignment reads. “Please work on getting them to play with a big, full sound. If you can also get their bows moving all in the same direction and playing the same type of articulation, that would be a huge accomplishment.”

Tatreau enters a classroom and finds a group of elementary-school-age violists sitting behind music stands, their instruments on their laps. The children look eager but remain quiet. Tatreau breaks the silence.

“I hear you guys have a concert next week,” she begins. “We have five things to work on, so where would you like to start?”

More silence.

“How about ‘Star Wars’?” Tatreau finally suggests.

The kids dig into the viola line of the famous movie theme and play it more or less in tune. But their playing lacks energy and volume.

“Now, what’s the dynamic supposed to be here?” Tatreau asks.

“We’re supposed to start loud and get louder,” volunteers Emma Hull, an 11-year-old from Edison Elementary.

Tatreau nods approval.

“The dynamic is fortissimo, which is Italian for double strong,” Tatreau explains. “Let’s play again with a lot of sound, and this time I want to see the strength in your faces.”

Joshua Kaniho, an 11-year-old Joslyn Elementary student, follows Tatreau’s instructions to the letter. As his big sound fills the classroom, the boy does his best to look strong. His mock scowl mostly calls to mind a cartoon villain. Tatreau loves it all the same.

“Beautiful,” says Tatreau. “You guys are giving me goose bumps.”

The violists turn next to Mozart’s Overture to “The Marriage of Figaro.” This is a difficult piece full of fleet-fingered passage work and sparkling melodies. Tatreau stops the group after just one measure.

“You’re holding the final eighth note in the phrase for too long,” Tatreau says.

Tatreau suspects there’s more to this sloppy phrasing than mere errant bowing. She notices the children are also slouching in their seats. This viola section is clearly in need of a little military polish and precision.

So the teacher devises an exercise. She instructs the kids to sit straight in their seats with their feet flat on the floor. Whenever Tatreau snaps her fingers, the violists must stand quickly at attention.

With their posture fixed, Tatreau sets out to correct their bowing.

She has the children run through the Mozart again with synchronized bowing. Their phrasing and articulation improve immediately.

When they finish, Tatreau snaps her fingers. The children jump to attention. They are clearly pleased with their own playing.

“So what have we learned today?” Tatreau asks.

“Play together,” says Emma.

“Make a big sound,” says Joshua.

The kids forgot the most important thing.

“Always have fun,” Tatreau says.

Tatreau has little trouble connecting with the students. That’s probably because she was once one of them.

She began studying violin at Holling Heights Elementary School at age 9 and within a few years was playing in the youth orchestra. Later she was concertmaster of Omaha’s Intergenerational Orchestra, a pops ensemble composed of musicians under 25 and over 50.

Tatreau always wanted to be a teacher. As a child, she used to play pretend school with her grandfather, the late Donald Cushenbery, a former education professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

But she didn’t know what subject she’d teach until she met orchestra teacher Patty Ritchie at Central Middle School in Millard. Ritchie’s boundless enthusiasm for life and music inspired Tatreau to study music education at UNO.

One of her instructors, Omaha Symphony first violinist Anne Nagosky, suggested she pursue violin pedagogy, a specialized degree in teaching music. Tatreau followed the advice and earned a master’s degree in pedagogy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

She returned to Omaha and worked briefly as a teller at First National Bank. It was her last nonmusic gig.

About six years ago, Omaha Conservatory of Music violin teacher Mary Amador drove up to Tatreau’s bank window and mentioned an opening at the school for another violin teacher. Tatreau has been teaching at what she calls her “dream job” ever since.

During her UNO days, Tatreau found a creative way to earn extra money. Along with three classmates, she formed a string quartet to play weddings.

The Mahr Quartet derived its name from the first letters in the founding members’ first names: Melissa Tatreau, Angie Diaw, Hyun-Jeong and Rachel Means.

The quartet has changed personnel a few times since its founding in 1997— the current lineup includes first violinist and quartet manager Tatreau, second violinist Anne Sorensen, violist Debbie Martinez and founding cellist Means. But the group has never missed a wedding season.

Wedding quartets tend to be successful, Tatreau says, because they add a touch of class to the ceremony. In fact, a good quartet can make even the cheesiest wedding song sound sophisticated. One of the Mahr Quartet’s specialties is “And Then I Kissed Him” from the movie “Pearl Harbor.”

After a morning of teaching, Tatreau heads for Mary Our Queen Catholic Church, arriving about 40 minutes before the wedding of Teri Schultz and Robert Armbruster.

The quartet members set up their music stands near the altar. They quickly review the afternoon’s program.

“OK, guys, it looks like today we’re playing ‘Wedding’s Greatest Hits,’” Tatreau says.

The quartet is scheduled to play Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” Pachelbel’s Canon in D, Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus” and other popular classical numbers during the ceremony.

But first they play a prelude concert as the guests arrive. They open with an arrangement of Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” and follow with “And Then I Kissed Him.”

Between songs, the musicians engage in playful chitchat.

“You know what’s really become hot at weddings are Beatles songs,” said Tatreau. “Soon we’ll be playing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at weddings.”

Not at this wedding. The next song on Mahr’s playlist is the wedding fixture “One Hand, One Heart” from “West Side Story.”

“I’ve already had way too much caffeine today,” says Sorensen at the end of the song.

Tatreau, who began her day with the big to-go cup, smiles in agreement.

Later in the afternoon, Tatreau is still buzzing from her coffee when she arrives at the Holland Performing Arts Center for a rehearsal with the Omaha Symphony.

Violin legend Itzhak Perlman is in town, and the symphony needed extra freelancers to play during the concert’s second half.

Backstage before the concert, Angela Cassette, the symphony’s operations manager, tells Tatreau and fellow freelance violinist Melissa Pruss that they are free to sit in the hall for the first half, provided they can find empty seats.

The hall is sold out, and even the chorus balcony is filled with Perlman fans.

Moments before the concert starts, Tatreau and Pruss scope out two open seats in the middle of the hall.

When Perlman finally emerges onstage, walking slowly with the use of his crutches, the entire audience stands.

Tears well up in Tatreau’s eyes. Perlman has been one of her lifelong heroes.

Tatreau finds a better seat for the concert’s second half.

She sits with the violin section, no more than 20 feet from Perlman. The legendary violinist launches into his signature piece, the “Theme from Schindler’s List,” and the rest of the orchestra joins in.

Perlman played on the soundtrack to the movie, and in concert he performs the theme with searing emotion.

At the end, the audience erupts in thunderous applause.

Tatreau and the other violinists applaud in the time-honored tradition of their profession, tapping their bows on their music stands.

Tatreau taps her bow with gusto, and at the end of the concert seems almost reluctant to leave the stage.

“I just played ‘Schindler’s List’ with Itzhak Perlman,” says Tatreau at the end of her 12-hour day. “Now that’s a Top 10 moment of my life.”

Contact the writer:

444-1076, john.pitcher@owh.com