ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, February 14, 1997              TAG: 9702140038
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER

MAKING A NEW RIVER DEBUT

He's a confident 24-year-old ex-Army brat who can't remember a time when he wasn't playing violin. Derek Reeves will be the star soloist when the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra comes to Virginia Tech's Burruss Hall Auditorium Tuesday night for a concert of Russian favorites.

The Japanese-born Indiana University graduate student, who began lessons when he was 30 months old and made his concert debut at age 5 with a Vivaldi concerto, will perform the great Violin Concerto in D by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky.

It will also be the New River Valley debut of the RSO's new music director and conductor David Wiley. In fact, if you stretch it a little, you could say it's a homecoming of sorts for Wiley, given that his parents, David and Mary Wiley, retired to the Pilot area three years ago. Wiley's studies at Indiana University overlapped briefly with those of Reeves, and the two have worked together previously.

"My ambition is to become concertmaster of a major symphony orchestra and along with that I'd also like to have a solo career and teach and possibly play in a chamber ensemble too," said Reeves, who is preparing himself for the psychologically grueling process of auditioning for a spot in a good symphony.

"The competition is pretty fierce. But I find that the people who have the most experience usually end up doing the best jobs. Once you get past a certain level, technique usually isn't that much of a consideration - the most important factors are experience and heart and confidence, and I feel like I can be a good competitor."

Apparently, growing up in a family that was simultaneously military and musical helped instill the competitive spirit in Reeves, who is the youngest of three brothers. His oldest brother attended West Point and the middle brother went to the Air Force Academy.

"My dad was a lieutenant colonel when he retired, and he always started bands wherever he was. He plays sax and he has a phenomenal ear. Anything he's ever heard he can reproduce on his instrument, and I think I got my ear from him," said Reeves.

"My mom was a violinist and pianist and singer. She always wanted one of her sons to play the violin in the Suzuki method [in which students start at a very early age]. When we moved to Minnesota there just happened to be a great Suzuki program pretty near our house."

Reeves says his earliest and very hazy memories involve his violin teacher. "I remember it only vaguely, mainly certain sounds from my teacher's violin. I remember being sort of awe-struck by the sonorities - I remember those senses and sounds more than actual scenes," said the violinist.

Two decades later, Reeves already has a respectable amount of professional experience. As a high school student he performed with his school orchestra at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. He has soloed with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Indianapolis Philharmonic and several other orchestras, and he's concertmaster of three small symphonies.

He's already mentally preparing for stepping into a job in a major symphony. "The process is kind of nerve-racking, playing behind the screen and all. It's easier to play when you can see who you're playing for. And you never get to finish a piece - they ask for these two- or three-minute excerpts from various pieces and you have to do them in rapid succession and it's very cold and very impersonal.

"You can expect certain things. They'll always ask you to play the first page of "Don Juan" by Strauss, and you usually have to play the second movement of the Schumann second symphony," said Reeves.

His showpiece Tuesday night is one of the greatest Romantic violin concertos, full of heartfelt melodies and virtuoso pyrotechnics. Also on the program is the overture from Mikhail Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmilla" and the Symphony No. 1 of Sergei Rachmaninov.

Tickets remain for the "From Russia With Love" concert, which is sponsored by the New River Valley Friends of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. Admission is $12 for the general public, $10 for seniors and $5 for students.

LENGTH: Medium:   78 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  FILE. Tuesday will be the New River Valley debut of the 
          Roanoke Symphony Orchestra's new music director and conductor David 
          Wiley. color.