Bismarck Tribune

By VIRGINIA GRABy VIRGINIA GRANTIER

When Hannah Porter was age 2, she pointed at a woman playing a flute, and told her dad, "I want to play that."

She'll be playing for about six or seven minutes Saturday night.

Porter, now 17, will be the guest soloist at a 7:30 p.m. Saturday concert - Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra's final concert for the season.

She was picked out of the six local high school musicians who auditioned earlier this year in the annual Young Artist competition. The prize:$500 and a soloist opportunity.

Dennis Simons, who is the symphony's interim conductor and one of the competition's three judges, said as he listened to the auditioners he thought it was going to be a tough decision. But he said Porter "shone a little bit above everybody."

"She's a stunning player,"said Simons, who is a former concertmaster of the London Philharmonic, among other credits.

She could become a flute player for top orchestras, "without a doubt,"he said. "She's got a very good chance of making a real name for herself."

Porter's instant attraction to the flute at age 2 didn't wane.

The woman she pointed toward, Linda Schmidt, is a flutist and teacher, and she remembers Porter as a toddler being brought into Eckroth Music periodically where Schmidt worked.

"She wanted to see the flutes, so her dad would bring her in,"she remembered.

"We would take the flutes off the wall. She would look at them and touch them."

Porter said that as soon as her fingers were long enough, she started playing. Her birthday present at 7 was, yes, a flute. She started taking lessons that summer from Schmidt, one of the symphony's flute players.

Schmidt said it didn't take long to realize something.

"Iknew she was very gifted the first couple weeks,"Schmidt said. "She could produce such a beautiful sound very, very quickly."

In elementary school, Porter could have played in a high school band. And now Porter's technical skills have now passed Schmidt's skills, Schmidt said.

Porter, daughter of Tom and Jenifer Porter, recently stood in the family's living room in bare feet, jeans and a wrinkled T-shirt, and blew some music by memory - the piece she'll play Saturday, "Concertino in D Major for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 107" by Cecile Chaminade, a French composer and pianist. The piece was composed in 1902 for the flute competitions at the Paris Conservatory.

It isn't the hardest piece Porter has ever played, Schmidt said. But it's a show piece that gives the audience a lot of everything.

It's loud, quiet, sweet, demanding and at times moves through some passages like a frantic bird.

Porter has plans, always. This year's plan is in one of her school notebooks. She has made a list of things that she plans to accomplish by the end of the year. About all are music goals, things like getting all the way through a couple of etude books and working on all her scales.

Some things already accomplished: She made her orchestral solo debut at age 10, performing Mozart's "Flute Concerto in D" with the Overland Park Symphony in Kansas. She has been principal flute and piccolo of the North Dakota All State Orchestra and the Junior High All State Band - and sometimes plays with the symphony if they need a third flute or a substitute. She has won several outstanding performer awards at regional and state music festivals.

She was the magic flute in the recent production of the opera "The Magic Flute." She has performed in master classes with Jeanne Baxtresser, former principal flute of the New York Philharmonic. Recently, she was named state champion in serious prose in the state speech competition.

Future plans include getting a job - as a flute player. And also being an attorney. She plans a double major.

But first, the Saturday concert.

The concert is the last of its 30th season. Original board members have been invited to attend and be recognized.

The concert focuses on music from the romantic period, thus the name of it, "Romantic Symphony." Besides Porter's piece, the symphony will perform "Les Preludes" by composer Franz List, and "Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36"by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

For ticket information, call 258-8345.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)