After one year at Julliard, cellist Kenneth Olsen decided studying in one of the world’s most exclusive music programs might not be his ticket to success. So he became nomadic.
At the start of the summer he moved to Chicago to participate in a young musicians’ professional studies program. About a week before the program began, he heard about a job opening for a cellist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
After the initial audition, he became the only person to advance to the final round, yet didn’t get the position.
“I just didn’t play as well as I could have, which is just the case with these things. Auditions are a very funny thing. You can be as prepared as possible, but on the day of the audition, so much comes down to luck and what happens in that moment,” said Olsen, a 1999 Colonie Central High School alumnus.
Although he didn’t get the position, the judges were impressed and asked him to substitute in the cello section that summer. He became well acquainted with the symphony and its players, enjoying the work. Five months later, auditions started up again for the same job. Olsen advanced to the finals once more, and with better luck this time, secured the spot.
“I’ll never forget. (The director) called me in his office. I hadn’t even been told I had won. He said, ‘So, you’re not in school?’ and I said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘You don’t have another job?’ and I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow morning at rehearsal.’ I literally started the day after,” Olsen said. “It was kind of a whirlwind. I was only 24.”
Today, Olsen has been the assistant principal cellist for the symphony for the past eight years. Because of his accomplishments, Olsen is joining two other alumni to be inducted in the Colonie Central High School Hall of Fame this year.
Since 1994, the high school has honored more than 55 graduates in the Hall of Fame. This year, Music Department Chairman Peter Cannistraci nominated Olsen, who began playing cello in third grade at Shaker Road Elementary School.
“I’m thrilled that he’s been accepted. I think it’s overdue,” Cannistraci said. “Music is such a competitive field. If someone goes into music performance, they have very little chance of making it as a performer. Kenny is the only one I know that has been able to do that.”
Cannistraci said when Olsen was his student in his senior year of high school, it was his modesty that stood out.
“Sometimes kids who are very good think highly of themselves. Kenny wasn’t like that at all. He was very unassuming,” Cannistraci said. “You would never know the caliber of his musicianship because he wouldn’t tell you. But you would know when he started playing.”
Picking up the instrument seemed second nature for Olsen. After he’d been playing the cello for a short time, his music teacher called his parents, both musicians themselves, to suggest private lessons.
“I think he realized it was something I was going to excel in. I think it was something that came naturally to me,” Olsen said, adding he listened to classical music as a child.
He started with a private tutor and when she moved away, he began traveling down to Poughkeepsie every Saturday to take lessons with Luis Garcia-Renart, a professor at Bard College.
Starting to feel connected to his instrument, Olsen began playing in a long string of groups. He joined the Empire State Youth Orchestra in seventh grade. Every summer in high school, he tried a different musical program, including the New York State School of Music Association at Skidmore College and Boston University’s Tanglewood Young Artists Orchestra.
“When I went to Tanglewood, I started coming into my own as a cellist a little bit. That was when I met people all over the country and internationally, being around kids my age that felt as passionately about music as I did gave me a great perspective,” Olsen said. “It also introduced me to lifelong friends that I’m still friends with today.”
Things continued to escalate and at only 17, he spent nine weeks at the Aspen Music Festival and won a competition there. Miraculously, Olsen was able to stay an A student while spending almost every weekend performing with different orchestras or at festivals.
“I definitely prioritized my music stuff, but I took pride in getting good grades,” Olsen said. “I actually missed my high school graduation ceremony because I was on tour with the youth orchestra in Cuba … which was amazing.”
While a student at Colonie Central High School, Olsen taught himself the violin to challenge himself while playing in the school’s orchestra.
Even with everything he had accomplished up until that point, Olsen said he credits Richard Aaron, a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music, for his success. Aaron taught Olsen in Cleveland, where he received his bachelor’s degree.
“I really don’t think I’d be here in Chicago today if it weren’t for him. He’s still the most sought after cello teacher in the country,” Olsen said. “He completely shaped me as a cellist.”
Post-Cleveland, Olsen tried Julliard for a year but said he was “ready to be an adult” and independent, away from a university. From there, he found his place in the Chicago Symphony.
While working in Chicago, Olsen still finds time to broaden his musical horizon, including being a founding member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra and a member of the Civitas Ensemble. He has also worked on many events with the symphony with children.
Olsen is proud to say he came from a public school system like South Colonie. Teachers like the late Mark Cornell and Cannistraci helped and advised him throughout the years, Olsen said.
“South Colonie is really lucky to have such a great music program. People always want to know how I started playing and I tell them about public school,” Olsen said.
Since being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Olsen said he is honored and remembers seeing the photos of the other inductees while he was in high school, especially of an alumnus who had graduated in the 1950s and became the assistant principal bassoonist in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
“I don’t know where my life is going to lead me. I really love Chicago and am happy here. This is the kind of job that is a career,” Olsen said. “There’s not a whole lot of places to go from where I am. I don’t what the future holds for me. I’m excited to see.”