Pekin senior eager to go east to expand jazz horizons

Photo: RON JOHNSON/JOURNAL STAR

Nathan See, an 18-year old Pekin High School senior, belts out a jazz standard on his saxophone at the Speakeasy Art Center in Pekin last Friday evening.

PEKIN — Nathan See doesn’t feel overwhelmed playing his saxophone during performances. A level of comfort comes with the territory inherent in the jazz music that See performs with a fun and easy-going flourish.

The closest he ever got toward a feeling of anxiousness — and it was more appreciation on the part of the Pekin native than anything else — was in January 2013 at the Illinois Music Education Conference. Rehearsing with a small group considered the best of the best in the state, in a room for the All-State Jazz Honors Combo concert, See discovered he was the only one of the eight-person ensemble who wasn’t a high school senior and from the Chicago area.

“They were all seniors in high schools and all Chicago kids and all going to awesome, prestigious music schools,” said See, who was a junior at Pekin Community High School at the time. “It was a pretty good feeling for me.”

Now in his senior year, the 18-year-old has garnered another year’s worth of accolades for his musical prowess and has fixed his sights on college. He applied to a slew of schools before trying out for admission to Berklee College of Music, located in Boston. Only a few weeks later, he was admitted to Berklee on a four-year, full-tuition scholarship, worth more than $30,000 a year. See will fly out to Manhattan in March to audition for the Manhattan School of Music and will then narrow his college choices.

“I know New York has the better jazz scene,” See said. “That’s where most jazz musicians go to make it happen. But Boston has an incredible thing going on there, too.”

Karli McCann, director of bands at the Pekin high school, said See’s combination of skill and work ethic will keep him playing the saxophone well beyond his college years. When a tornado ripped through a part of Pekin on Nov. 17, See sent a picture to McCann of him practicing by candlelight.
“I started to think that this kid is something else,” McCann said.

Though his peers in Chicago attend art schools with music curriculums, See has been plying his trade in his high school jazz band and performing at the Speakeasy Art Center.

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