I had the good fortune to interview sixteen year old Dequan Smith McConvey, Cayman Islands 2019 Young Musician of the Year. He played two classical pieces to win the title, Kol Nidre by Max Bruch and Elegie by Faure.

Dequan auditioned for and won a scholarship to go to the beautiful Wells Cathedral School in the UK. Wells offers specialist music scheme for students who wish to pursue a career in music. They receive pre-professional training from teachers who are world-class musicians themselves, many of whom are active performers and teach at UK conservatories. Dequan’s mother, Fran, a musician herself playing organ, piano and violin, told me she is thrilled he won the place as this school is the only specialist music school that has a community also made up of non-specialist musicians. As the school says, this helps musicians maintain a balanced perspective and equips them for the role they may play as a musician in the wider world.

The school is sponsored by the UK government and receives pupils from all over the world. Before Dequan even got to go to the audition at the school he had to send taped recordings of his cello playing.

When I interviewed Dequan at his parents, Fran and Des, home in Newlands, Grand Cayman, I could see how proud they were of their adopted son.

You see, Dequan has been playing the cello for only three years. In just that short time he has grown to such a level, passing all the grades available to him here, with distinctions, there is no more tuition at a higher available level in this country.

Before he took up the cello, Dequan started learning the piano, the trumpet and the violin. Fran piped in, “As a violin player myself, he was terrible.”

At a school summer camp, three years ago, Fran needed something to keep her son “quiet”. There was a cello available and she gave it to him to play. When he started to move the bow over the strings she couldn’t believe her ears. She also noticed Dequan was enjoying himself. He loved playing the instrument and couldn’t put it down. He was, she said, “obsessed with it.”

Nine months later he was invited, initially to play the piano or the trumpet, to go to the music summer camp at Luzerne Music Center in New York. The invitees didn’t know he was now a cellist. Dequan loved it there. He said, “I learnt a lot”.

So much so, that when he won “The Young Musician of the Year” competition and the prize was $500 and a trip abroad, his parents asked if itcould be changed to money as Dequan wanted to go back to Luzerne. To help pay his way there he regularly busks outside Foster’s Supermarket in the Strand near The Seven Mile Beach. To date he has collected US$1,000, mostly from admiring tourists.

When I asked him how he felt after winning The Young Musician of the Year competition he said he was “pleased”. However, gaining a place at Wells Cathedral School is the pinnacle of his life so far.

In his first meeting with the Headmaster and the Head Boy of the Sixth Form Dequan was not enthusiastic. He felt intimidated. It was when he went on the tour of the school and visited the String House where pupils were playing, Dequan became in awe. He said it was for him “an eye-opening experience”. He can’t wait to get there and learn.

When he appeared before the panel of judges he was very confident. He played two intricate pieces, both ten minutes long, without music, accompanied by a professional pianist, and was very upset when the allotted fifteen minutes was up. He had to stop as the pianist wasn’t accompanying him anymore. Dequan was playing the first movement of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. The first piece was E. Bloch’s “The Prayer”.

The judges praised Dequan’s interview skills he had to do with other students applying for a place.

Fran praised his “amazing memory” for music. Although he reads music very well he has a “gift” for memorizing it. She bought him a CD player plus a collection of cello music by the great masters of the instrument. She found him playing along with these great musicians. Music he had never heard before.

Why does Dequan love playing the cello?

Because he feels the instrument is an extension of himself. It is like the human voice. He gets immersed into the sound.

Fran echoed that. She said she sees and hears cellists that are technically 100% perfect but Dequan plays with his soul as well. She can hear him in the music he is playing. He also looks like a “cello player”. He always has a connection with the music. Together they become one.

Dequan loves listening to all the great cello players and believes he can play as well and even emulate them as he learns. His standout cellist is the late Jacqueline du Pré.

“She is unlike any other cello player,” he said. “She is amazing. I’m going to be like her. I will strive to be even better.”

He gets lots of invitations to play, especially at children’s talent shows. He does, but is not enthusiastic. He can’t play the “heavy” classical music he loves and has to play ‘pop’ music or the ‘pop’ classics children will know. Any deviation and it won’t be well received. As Fran pointed out to him, he has to learn to play to his audience and not the other way around.

He understands that but he would like his audience to also appreciate that he is not a commodity that can be bought. He wants people to understand that when they hear a classical musician many, many hours have gone into practicing over many years, the piece of work that they hear once, mostly for less than an hour. Some, even, for just five minutes. It’s not something that can be picked up and played immediately. Most classical pieces are very difficult but playing them without making a mistake is the reward. If you make even one tiny error the whole piece is of music is flawed. It’s gone.

He is not interested in playing in an orchestra just as a member. He will do it to gain experience and to learn from conductors. He wants to be a soloist. The best of the best. That’s his goal.

I asked Dequan about his spiritual life. He said he goes to church because he wants to. Not because he is made to. He loves God.

“If I didn’t have God in my life,” he said, “ I wouldn’t be able to play as well. It’s God that wants me to play better and I do it to please Him. If I didn’t have God beside me I would lack confidence in my playing. It is HIM that guides my hands not to be a good musician, but the best. And, who can you turn to in times of trouble? Without God, you’re on your own.”

Dequan finished my interview with this statement:

“I think God is a very good Cellist.”