Shaker Heights Middle School student Lizzy Huang is an easy-going, modest 13-year-old who wants to do her part to introduce more young people to classical music (and maybe, just maybe, add it to their playlists). She has been playing the violin since she was five and last month, she won the 20th Annual Cleveland Pops Jean L. Petitt Memorial Music Scholarship. As the contest winner, she played a piece from her favorite composer, Pablo de Sarasate, with the Pops on February 2 at Severance Hall. “The music world is so diverse. A lot of people dismiss classical music and they haven’t even heard some of the pieces that were so famous back then,” she says. “Classical music is truly pure and everyone should listen and get involved with it. It’s something that should never die out.” Watch a video of Lizzy playing her performance piece, Sarasate’s Duo, Navarra with her performance partner, Alex Zhu of Solon, and read on to learn how she manages her time and finds balance in her life as a musician, student and athlete. 

How did you get started playing the violin?
I started playing when I was five, but I really became interested when I was three and taking piano lessons. I saw an orchestra concert and told my mom that I wanted to play the violin. So my mom took me to a violin shop and they gave me a violin, but then they told me that I was too small to play. I started crying and my mom had to give me a lollipop so that I would trade back the violin. When I think about that story, it motivates me even more today so that I keep practicing. Sometimes I think about that story now to motivate me to play. 

How much do you practice the violin each day?
I have one one-hour lesson each week at the Cleveland Institute of Music and I try to get in about two-and-a-half hours of practice each weekday and maybe three-and-a-half hours on the weekend. I usually wake up around 5:50 a.m. to practice for an hour, then I go to school, head to swim practice, come home for homework and then I practice for another hour-and-a-half before bed. Most days, I crash pretty hard around 10 or 10:30 p.m. Managing my time is not something that comes naturally to me. I’m a person who gets easily distracted, so a lot of times, my parents have had to help keep me in check. It’s hard for me to stay focused, so I’ll do things like listen to Hamilton or to classical music while I’m doing my homework and when I’m practicing violin, I don’t keep my phone in the room. I’ve had to figure out ways to be better at staying focused and balance -- those are things I work on every single day.

If you spend that much time playing, you must have a passion for violin. 
I do. I love classical music so much. It has evolved a ton over the year. What I enjoy doing is seeing which ways I can make my playing sound the best. I also love to experiment with pieces and sight read, too. Playing music helps keep my mood in check. It’s what I do when I’m feeling down. Music is a humongus part of what I do because it’s so much a part of me. Even when I’m playing music, I don’t feel myself moving -- it’s just an automatic instinct. If there wasn’t music in my life, I don’t know what I would do.

The piece that you played with the Cleveland Pops is about seven minutes. How do you memorize a piece that long?
For me, when I practice a piece over and over again, over time, I just find myself playing without the music. Some of it is muscle memory with my fingers and some of it just gets wired into my brain so I end up playing mindlessly, almost. Sometimes, the way the music is phrased and moves, I can just see the direction and the notes of the music in my mind. 

I’m super pumped and excited to play with the Pops. I really really really enjoy this piece. It’s so fun to play and my partner, Alex, and I play really well together. I’m not even so much nervous as I am on an adrenaline rush to play at Severance. 

How long have you played with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra?
I got in last year. COYO takes up a lot of my time -- on the weekends, our rehearsals are four hours long and I play in the chamber program and that’s another hour-and-a-half rehearsal. It’s a lot of work, but I really enjoy it because I really enjoy playing with an orchestra. And I’ve met so many people there, so it’s a different group of kids. It’s really cool. 

Any thoughts about playing professionally when you’re grown up? 
I do want to become a soloist.I’ve been thinking about that since I was about seven. I think it would be great if I could become a world-class musician. At one point, I thought being an architect would be cool, but I gave that up pretty quickly.

You’re also a swimmer who swims one of the more difficult strokes -- breaststroke. Has that come naturally to you? 
I’m not as strong as freestyle or butterfly and one day, I just realized that I could actually swim breaststroke. And some days, I feel like that’s the only one I can actually do well! I really love being on the Middle School Swim Team. We have so much fun. We all support each other and we keep each other going during those really hard sets at practice when you just want to stop and get out of the pool.  

What do you appreciate about playing with the Middle School orchestra, where the level of experience is more broad than COYO?
I love orchestra at the Middle School because of all the people. The range of experience makes it even more special because you can see that everybody has their own take on music and orchestra because we all come from different backgrounds. I’ve really enjoyed the experience.

What do you like to listen to?
One of my favorite violinist is Gil Shaham. He’s an amazing violinist. I love how he incorporates his musical qualities and he’s very good technically. His style is so pure, he’s just amazing. My favorite composer is Pablo de Sarasate. I love these Spanish dances and his style. A lot of composers dedicated their music to him, which is super special.