Bach speaks to former BPC student Nick Reeves

Nick was introduced to the cello when he was a first-grader at BPC. His first music teacher, Dina Weinshelbaum, who has been teaching cello here since 1993, recognized right away that Nick had a gift. “I’d assign him a piece and he’d go home, find a recording — or several — on YouTube, and then practice until he could play it the way he heard it,” she said. “I think he’s always had a really natural connection to the instrument; it’s a part of him.”

She observed the joy and emotion with which Nick approached the music, even as a six-year-old. When he heard something he liked, “his face would completely light up,” she said.

During this middle and high school years, Nick played with the Oakland Symphony’s MUSE youth orchestra, Berkeley Youth Orchestra, Young People’s Chamber Orchestra, as well as in bands with his friends. He loves jazz, Leonard Bernstein, Glenn Gould, but Bach resonates, most of all. Last summer, Nick was invited to perform solo at Yo-Yo Ma’s free outdoor concert in downtown Oakland. There he played Bach’s Cello Suites No. 2 before a crowd of several thousand.

After graduating high school, Nick is taking a year off to relax, practice, and prepare for music conservatory auditions in the spring. His musical future sounds very promising!