How many 14-year-olds do you know play seven different instruments and still maintain a high grade point average? More importantly, how many of them can play the bagpipes?
Meet Allyson Crowley-Duncan, a freshman at Shaker High School who has a laundry list of instruments she performs with, which include voice, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, piano and the bagpipes.
She began her musical endeavors at age 7, when she started playing piano, but she has been singing her entire life. Allyson said she started with the piano because teachers would not take younger students for singing lessons.
They said, ‘Wait until she’s 13 and her voice is at a consistent spot,’ she said. `But it’s been the same since I was 10.`
Now she is one of the youngest members of the St. Rose Women’s Chorale group as a community member. Her mother, Justine Crowley-Duncan, said it gives her daughter a lot more singing time.
Allyson is now discovering that she’ll need even more practice with the piano if she wants to get into a school for music because it is a requirement that they be able to accompany themselves with a different instrument.
Crowley-Duncan joked that bagpipes wouldn’t really work out.
`Her voice teacher has got her playing piano again saying, ‘If you’re going to be auditioning to get into music schools, you need to be better at the piano,` said Crowley-Duncan.
`You need to have a good piano background,` added Allyson.
One instrument she begged her mother play, though, was the alto saxophone.
`She wanted to make the jazz band when she got to junior high,` said Crowley-Duncan. `So we borrowed a sax from a friend who said, ‘We’ll never need it again.’ And two days before her audition, he said he needed it back. So we needed to run out and get a saxophone because we knew that this was one of her interests.`
Over the years, Allyson began picking up other instruments. While playing all these different instruments takes up a large amount of her time, she said it keeps her focused.
`Towards the end of last year, my grandmother was giving her,` Allyson said gesturing toward her mother, `a hard time because she was saying, ‘She’s doing too many things, her grades are going to suffer. Then when my report card came in, I had a 4.0 GPA.`
Some of the musical groups she participates in, such as band, wind ensemble, full orchestra and chorus, are during class periods. Jazz band and girl’s chorus take place after school, along with bagpipe practice.
`It’s manageable,` said Crowley-Duncan.
While instruments such as the saxophone, clarinet and piano are part of the high school repertoire, Alyssa became fascinated with the bagpipes and Celtic culture after her father adopted her, adding the Duncan portion to her last name.
`I was studying Celtic heritage, and then I got into Scottish heritage and I started listening to bagpipe music,` said Allyson. `And I thought it would be cool to play the bagpipes because I was already so involved with music that bagpipes would have been a difficult but really cool instrument to take on.`
Crowley-Duncan said her daughter is very fortunate to be a part of the Scotia-Glennville Pipe Band, which is competing in Scotland in 2012 for the World Games as a juvenile division grade three band, something the family is saving up for. She hopes to move onto Oran Mor, the level one pipe band, which is the highest grade you can reach as a bagpiper, before she ages out at 18 years old.
Allyson said bagpipes open the door to several opportunities because of the uniqueness of the instrument, as well as the fact that not many kids her age actually know how to play it.
She has performed at events for the Hannah’s Hope Fund, the Scotia Naval Operational Support Center during their morning drill, the St. Jude’s Family Food Festival Fundraiser and various other events.
`She’s very talented,` said Jo Flannigan, organizer of the Food Festival. `She’s very learned. She played four different songs for us, and she appeared very comfortable doing it. We’ll definitely invite her back.`
Commanding Officer of the NOSC in Scotia, Mark Junco, said Allyson was a nice break from the recorded version of the National Anthem they usually play for drill in the morning, as she sang it herself. She performed during quarters, which is when they hand out rewards and announcements for what will go on during the weekend.
`She blew everyone away and nobody was expecting it,` said Junco. `She started singing the National Anthem with an amazing voice and everybody was talking about that the entire weekend.`
He was also impressed by her ability to wake up so early and perform a little after 7 a.m. She was invited back for their Family Readiness Day Conference in April to play the bagpipes. The day is meant to prepare soldiers for deployment. While her audience the last time around was 200, he said she will be performing to a much bigger audience.
`She did a tremendous job,` he said. `No one has ever come to us to sing the National Anthem. They were all in awe this little girl came in and sang it in a way that just blew them all away. The fact she does all these events tells you something about her character.`
Even at age 14, Allyson has her eyes set on a career in music. While her mom said she’d love to perform in a rock band with the bagpipes, learning songs such as `Bad Romance` by Lady Gaga and `Thunderstruck` by AC/DC, her dream is to go to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She even has picked math and music as her double major, hoping to either become a performing artist, an idea she referred to as `a long-shot,` or a teacher in music education.
With everything on her plate, she is loving life, as her mom said, `she gets happier by the minute.“
