Serena Z & the Facets

I'm going to shamelessly plug a fabulous young violinist here, who just happens to be the daughter of a couple of good friends, but I believe you're going to be hearing a lot about her in the near future. Serena Harnack has been studying classical violin since the age of 4 and has just completed her first year at Berklee on a full scholarship! I've known her mom since our college days at NIU and her father since I became a customer at their very cool music store in Lombard, IL. when I was gigging in the late 90's. Both of her parents (Mandy and Steve) are great musicians and have definitely done a fine job instilling music into their daughter by encouragement and by example.

Last year, I got back in touch with Mandy right after David Bowie passed, as I knew that she was a huge fan of his from way back. In the ensuing months, we chatted about Serena, who was just finishing high school, winning major competitions on her instrument and trying to figure out what to do next. At some point, the topic of Berklee came up and I was told that Serena was a bit ambivalent about applying/attending. When I was told that she was offered a full scholarship, I mentioned to Mandy about the discussions I had read here about how maybe the quality of the school had diminished due to the fact that as long as you had the considerable amount of money required to pay tuition, you would most likely get in. The fact that Berklee was willing to pay for her entire ride, I told her not to hesitate a moment and accept the offer. I felt, from reading about other people's experiences on these pages, that Berklee would not only be very good for musical training, but would give her great access to how the industry works today and create some very valuable connections for her career. So, I thank you all for being very honest about your assessments concerning this topic, that I was able to pass this along and help a friend to make a very important decision.

In closing, I would like to post this most recent video of Serena playing Eric Johnson's, Cliffs of Dover, on unaccompanied violin. I hope you enjoy it and are inspired to check out more of her videos on her Youtube channel. - The Gear Page