With all he’s accomplished, 16-year-old Tristen Jarvis is all too modest.
The Colonie High School student has a 97 GPA, but more important to him, he plays the double bass in the Empire State Youth Orchestra; his school’s Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Band; the Empire State Youth Jazz Ensemble; three side band projects; and he sings in Chamber Singers, to name just a few musical projects. And with everything he’s doing, he said he “feels bad” he doesn’t have enough time to work on composing.
“Why wouldn’t you want to practice? That’s all I want to do. Just play all day,” Jarvis said.
And you know what they say about practicing.
After performing two movements of the Sonata for String Bass by Henric Eccles at the New York State School of Music Association in April, Jarvis received a perfect score of 100 on a Level Six piece, the highest level of difficulty for the competition. Because of his score, Jarvis was the only student from the South Colonie School District invited to play at the NYSSMA All-State Music Festival in Rochester this past November. Joining hundreds of students from all over the state, Jarvis played the string bass with the All-State Symphony Orchestra. Under the direction of Kenneth Kiesler from the University of Michigan, Jarvis became assistant principal for the 12 bassists in his orchestra, technically making him the second best student bassist in the state.
This role didn’t go to Jarvis’s head, though.
“It should just be you’re ahead of these people so you can lead better. Doing justice to the music,” he said.
Jarvis attributed much of his success to his school and to private lessons.
Through the South Colonie School District, students can pick a string instrument to play at the end of third grade. Jarvis picked the double bass, and hasn’t stopped playing since fourth grade. He had been participating in sports, but wanted to make music his sole priority.
“He kind of veered away from sports,” Patricia Jarvis, Tristen’s grandmother, said. “His music is his home run. His music is his touchdown. His music is his goal. It’s no different than someone playing another sport.”
By the end of seventh grade, he completely stopped playing sports and began taking private lessons.
“I was like, ‘Well, I think I should learn it more intensely.’ (With private lessons) you learn faster,” Jarvis said. “Use it for your advantage. I don’t like when people go, ‘Oh, you’re just good ‘cause you took private lessons.’ But you should want to because it makes you better. So you’re giving yourself a disadvantage by not.”
Jarvis also said his school’s music department has helped shape him over the years, and couldn’t feel more blessed.
“I guess I’ve been fortunate to have so many awesome people to be around. It’s so different than any other department,” he said.
Since he found his passion early on with the fourth grade music program, Jarvis and his grandmother are worried that the school may soon be forced to cut some of the art and music departments in the coming year.
“I don’t feel like anybody knows how important the music program is,” Jarvis said. “If you just look at the facts with the music program, almost every kid is right at the top. And they’re always the most successful.”
With such an ambitious musician, Jarvis’s current orchestra teacher Peter Cannistraci said it is “hard to think of our music department without thinking of him.”
“He really is Mr. Music around here. He’s just doing so much music that I think he goes above and beyond as far as involvement,” Cannistraci said. “He really takes the cake I think as far as student involvement, and he’s only a junior, which is great because that means we get him next year, too.”
With so many musical accomplishments under his belt, Jarvis said he will be applying to music conservatories, including Ithaca College and Purchase College, for double bass performance. He said one of the best things about his time at All-State was making friends with other musicians that were just as passionate as he is, something he hopes to find in college.
“I wasn’t nervous, I was just mindful because I was the only one from my school. Right when I got there people helped me with my stuff,” Jarvis said. “You can just start a conversation about music and they won’t think you’re weird.”
While he plans to pursue his master’s by his grandmother’s wishes, he’s not looking at teaching right now.
“I always worry about him having a tin cup down in NYC trying to make enough money to make scrambled eggs. It’s a risk to be a musician,” she said. “If he finishes his master’s, he has more options.”
Jarvis said he plans to keep climbing to whatever musical step is next. As a lover of all types of music, including orchestral, jazz and rock, he wants to excel in every genre.
“I just want to be a recognized musician. I like the guys that do everything,” he said.