Grace Whitten
Grace Whitten owes her involvement in music to a childhood friend.
“I started music in the sixth grade after a friend in Hampton Middle School persuaded me to join the band. I wasn’t very interested, and no one in my immediate family played an instrument, but I decided to try out the flute and took an immediate liking to it. Then, by chance, I ended up joining theWatauga Valley Fife & Drum Corps. I eventually got to a point where I outgrew the potential of the Hampton Middle School Band, so my family and I moved to Elizabethton to be in the Elizabethton Betsy Band. I started private lessons with my teacher, Martha Egan, and steadily improved myself as a musician,” she says.
Since then, Grace has accumulated a plethora of awards and honors. She was chosen for the East Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association Blue Band and as All State Flutist. She won this year’s Bristol Music Club Scholarship Competition Division II, and received the Bristol Music Club Paramount Chamber Players Award. She is Elizabethton High School’s Betsy Band Flute Soloist and first chair Flutist and Section Leader. She won the Women’s Symphony Committee Scholarship and was accepted into the Oberlin Flute Bootcamp and ARIA International Summer Music Academy.
She also performs with the Symphony of the Mountains Youth Orchestra and will be a featured soloist with the Paramount Chamber Players.
“My flute teacher, Martha Avaleen Egan, is my main inspiration. She is always so kind and calm and has a wonderful heart and soul. Her playing soothes even the most agitated hearts. Alexa Still is another of my inspirations. I was always a huge fan of hers but after studying with her at the Oberlin Flute Boot Camp I grew even more fond of her. Of course, famous flutists such as Emmanuel Pahud, Jeane Baxtresser and Sir James Galway have a huge impact on me.
“What interests me most about music is the variety of musical stylesand genres present in this world. There’s no limit to what you can play whether it’s classical, jazz or contemporary. My approach to music is to make the listener smile. For me, playing music is my therapy but I hope it can also be healing to others as well.
“To me, music is not only my passion, but it’s also what I want to pursue as my career. To me, music is something I simply cannot live without. If I haven’t participated in any musical activities recently, whether it be practicing, studying or simply listening to music, I find myself uncomfortable and itching to get back to music,” she says.
She wants to major in music in college. Her dream is to go to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Oberlin College and Conservatory. Her long-term goal is to play in a musical group such as an orchestra or symphony and to teach music and flute at the college level. Her Plan-B is to join the National Guard as a band member.
Grace is 16 and the daughter of Anne Whitten and Jose Gonzalez. She attends Elizabethton High School. She was born in Miami, Florida, but moved to Tennessee at the age of 3.
“My mother has a British mother and an American father. My father is Peruvian. I live with my grandparents (on my mother’s side), my mother, my brother, my dog, Luna, and my cat, Loco. My dad lives in Lima, Peru. Other than playing music, I love to travel and learn about new cultures. My favorite foods are ceviche and mazamorra morada, both of which are famous Peruvian dishes. I’m hoping that the COVID pandemic improves so that I can travel to Peru and play my flute for my family,” she says.
