Tatiana Coletta is a cellist and Waukegan High School freshman who began playing as a first grader. She plays her instrument using a prosthetic on her left arm.
Adrian Anantawan is a world-class violinist who has played with some of the world’s finest orchestras. He began playing at age 9, and holds his bow with an adapter on his right arm because he was born without a right hand.
With the help of Andrew Cooke Magnet Elementary School orchestra teacher Kathleen Dudley, Anantawan became a mentor to Coletta, and Wednesday they came face to face where they talked about playing string instruments without the full use of both arms.
“For us, it is much more difficult,” Anantawan said. “Playing the cello is more of a challenge because you have to do it the opposite way of everyone else,” he added, referring to how her bow moves in the opposite direction of the other musicians in the orchestra.
Anantawan completed his three-day tour of five Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 schools Wednesday at Cooke where he played for students, talked to them about how he learned as a youngster and taught them how failure is really a form of learning.
As Coletta walked from the music room to the gym where Anantawan was about to meet with approximately 100 students, she said one day she would like to be able to talk to young people about overcoming challenges as Anantawan does.
Asked if she wanted to make music her career, Coletta said she was uncertain about her future like many high school freshmen. She hoped to be able to play for people in the community, and also talk to youngsters about overcoming challenges.
When Coletta heard Anantawan, saw him interact with the students and learned he has played with some of the world’s finest orchestras, her aspirations grew.
“Maybe I could do that one day,” she said. “This is really, really cool to see him play.”
When Anantawan was a teenager, he too had a mentor with a disability — Itzhak Perlman. Perlman got polio when he was 4 and has used crutches since then.
“I auditioned for a program with him, and he accepted me,” Anantawan said. “He is my idol. He grew up with a disability.”
Dudley said she first reached out to Anantawan last year with an email to see if he could help Coletta get a better prosthetic. He responded in less than a day, and it was not long before he connected Coletta and her family with a company expert in the kind of help she needed.
As Dudley and Anantawan continued to communicate, she was able to arrange for him to come to Waukegan to play for music students and talk to them about succeeding despite being born with a disability.
Starting his session with the Cooke students, he played some Beethoven and Mozart, asking the youngsters what emotions the music evoked. He also told them the umbilical cord connecting him to his mother in her womb wrapped around his right arm preventing the hand from fully forming.
The session was about more than music. He told them how at 6 he wanted a pair of basketball shoes, and his mother told him he would have to learn to tie them. It was very hard for him. His mother was very persistent, and she made him understand the meaning of fail.
“Fail is spelled F-A-I-L,” Anantawan said. “My mother said it means, ‘first attempt in learning.'”
When his parents first suggested playing an instrument, he tried the trumpet but did not like the way it sounded. He father suggested singing since he would not need to use his hands. He said he was not a good singer. The he discovered a violin which belonged to his father.
“I could strum it,” he said, as he used his hand to play a simple tune. “My Dad said, ‘It’s not a guitar.’ I learned to play it with a bow.”
Kay’lyn Bates, a Cooke third grader, said Anantawan taught her she could do anything.
“You just have to keep trying,” she said.
Luke Burleson, a Cooke second grade student who is learning to play the violin, said now he knows what all the notes sound like. He has yet to learn them all.
Born in Ottawa, Canada, and now a Boston resident, Anantawan, 39, earned degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale and Harvard universities. He was a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras, played at the White House and the Olympic Games.
Anantawan worked with students at Waukegan High School and Miguel Juarez Middle School Monday, Jack Benny and John Lewis middle schools Tuesday and Cook Wednesday.
