Blair Shepperd grew up listening to Pink Martini’s breakthrough album, “Hang on Little Tomato,” and would never have guessed that one day she would play alongside the band. But over winter break, Shepperd found herself next to the popular musicians on stage.
To her surprise and delight, Shepperd and her fellow orchestra members of the prestigious Portland Youth Philharmonic performed with Pink Martini and the Von Trapp grandchildren at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on New Year’s Eve.
“There are no words to describe it,” Shepperd recalls of the experience. “It was unbelievable.”
Freshman year Shepperd had played in the band for Grant’s production of “The Sound of Music,” and she says performing with the real family descendants of the famous musical’s characters was surreal. “They were just so lovely,” she says.
A friend aptly describes Shepperd, currently a Grant junior, as musicly oriented. She inherited her passion for music at a very young age. “It was like a subconscious thing for me to pick up on music. It surrounded me, it was just the natural thing for me to do,” Shepperd says today.
Shepperd’s parents set her on the path of music. Her father, Harold Shepperd, is currently a music teacher for several elementary schools in Sherwood. Throughout his career, Harold Shepperd was involved in musical theater and choir, committed to learning as many instruments as possible. Shepperd’s mother, Susan Shepperd, majored in voice at Portland State University. Together, they instilled in Shepperd a love of music.
Shepperd’s older brother, Colin, played the trombone as a child. For Shepperd, it all started with a flute.
Five-year-old Shepperd wandered into her basement one day and discovered one of her father’s old, broken flutes. The next minute Shepperd’s parents found her floating around the house tootling her own cheerful tune.
Shepperd had also taken an interest in the family’s piano that sat in their living room. She started playing with the keys as soon as she was tall enough to reach, eager to make music. When Shepperd was signed up for formal lessons with the flute and piano soon after, her future began to unfold.
Growing up, Shepperd expressed her competitive nature through soccer and participating with a Scottish Highland dancing team. She thrived in both, advancing to the national level for dance in seventh grade while attending Beaumont Middle School.
But as Shepperd got older, she struggled with her time-consuming commitments. In the end, she chose to quit dancing so she could focus on her musical studies.
“It was much more gratifying,” Shepperd says. “I was so much more anxious before dance competitions. It’s much better to compete while making something beautiful like music instead of just competing to win.”
Nicholas Budge, the Grant band teacher, notes how talented she is. “She stands out from others because she has a goal. She’s very outgoing,” Budge says.
Shepperd has been involved in a multitude of musical classes at Grant, including jazz and wind ensemble. Today, she can play the bassoon, flute, saxophone, clarinet, piano, ukulele and guitar. “I just did it for fun. I wanted to learn them because I could,” Shepperd says.
However, the bassoon is the instrument closest to her heart. Shepperd started lessons in sixth grade under the tutelage of then Grant student Midori Samson. Though Samson was only 4’9”, Shepperd remembers her as “intimidating. And very good at the bassoon.” With her usual determined drive, Shepperd mastered the fundamentals of the bassoon with Samson’s help.
After Samson left for college, leaving Shepperd with a high quality bassoon, Shepperd continued her lessons with a new instructor. But then her teacher passed away unexpectedly.
It was then, after the death of her teacher, that Shepperd decided to focus on the bassoon. It seemed appropriate under the circumstances as a parting favor for her deceased teacher and friend.
Today, Shepperd is a bassoonist for the Portland Youth Philharmonic, America’s first and oldest youth orchestra. The group of musically talented teenagers holds high standards for its members, and Shepperd fits right in.
In her free time, Shepperd teaches music to middle school kids, giving them lessons she remembers taking not so very long ago.
Shepperd is looking to continue her music after high school, considering colleges like the Manhattan School of Music and Julliard. “It’s tricky looking for colleges, because the school might be amazing, but if they don’t have a decent bassoon teacher then it is pointless,” she says.
But with Shepperd’s fierce determination and passion for her music, there’s no doubt she will find a way to continue playing for years to come.
