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At 15, Mesa violinist gaining national recognition
BY DANA TRUMBULL Tribune Contributor
Jonathan Okseniuk of Mesa is a veteran violinist at age 15: He started playing when he was 3. (Special to the Tribune) A Mesa teen will be performing solos with at least two major U.S. orchestras and on a national classical radio broadcast after winning $10,000 in a contest.
Jonathan Okseniuk, 15, won first place and $10,000 in the junior division of the annual Sphinx Organization Competition for his performance of Mozart’s Fourth Violin Concerto.
Along with the orchestra appearances in Buffalo and Miami, the Arete Prep student will perform on an online program run by Over The Top, a Boston non-profit organization that celebrates the stories, talents and character of young classically-trained musicians.
Jonathan is no stranger to the competition run by Sphinx, a nonprofit whose programs are aimed at developing and supporting diversity and inclusion in classical music and that reaches more than 100,000 students and artists as well as live and broadcast audiences of more than two million annually.
In 2021, Jonathan won second place performance for his performance in the Sphinx Competition, winning $5,000.
Jonathan has studied with Jing Zeng, First Violinist for the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, since he was 3, but fell in love with the art well before that, according to his mother, Desiree Okseniuk.
She said he was about 19 months old when she and her husband Ed noticed him watching Dutch violinist Andre’ Rieu on television, mesmerized by the music.
“His whole world changed,” she recalled. “It was obvious. It was like the light switch flipped on. Back then, we didn’t really have YouTube and all that, so we bought two DVDs. One just happened to be Itzhak Perlman and Jascha Heifetz, and that’s all he wanted to watch.”
While other toddlers were watching Spongebob Squarepants, Jonathan was watching Rieu, Perlman and Heifetz.
“We were looking for a teacher before he turned 2,” said Desiree.
One of the teachers she contacted suggested that they buy a foam violin to start with. They did, “but it came with this big wooden stick for a bow. I always thought he would poke his eye out, but he loved that foam violin,” his mom laughed.
When Jonathan was 2 1/2, Desiree took him to an educational outreach program put on by the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra.
It was intended for children ages 5-12,
seeVIOLINIST page 18
Mesa poet publishes his fourth book
TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF
In an age of tweets and Snapchats, poetry may seem as antiquated as a Remington typewriter, especially for anyone under 40. Yet, at 22, Austin Davis of Mesa finds poetry a personally rewarding endeavor that helps him to connect with himself and the world around him. A senior in creative writing at Arizona State University, he just published his fourth book of poetry,
It’s not the only way he connects with the world. Davis runs AZ Hugs for Homeless, a program started by Arizona Jews for Justice whose mission is “to spread dignity, respect, understanding, friendship, solidarity, empathy and love to those living on the streets."
Every week for the last year and a half, in collaboration with ASU Project Humanities and many other amazing people around Arizona, Davis and his team deMesa resident Austin Davis is an Arizona State University student and a poet who has just published his fourth book. (Special to the Tribune) liver care packs, food, water, tents and special request items to the unsheltered and Guy Davis, he credits his family with not only with helping him discover and pursue his passions but also with his own health struggles.
“Being a poet is one of my two passions in life,” he said, listing his other as “being a friend to those experiencing homelessness.”
“Above all else, I want to help enact positive change in the world through art and activism,” Davis said. “My goal for the future is to keep running AZ Hugs, tour for my new book, and try to spread love and care to as many people as possible through my art and outreach.” Davis published his first book of poetry as a high school senior and also has been involved in other artistic pursuits as well – including a chapbook in 2020 and a jazz-poetry album with musician Joe Allie about homelessness called “Street Sor-
but Jonathan’s rapt attention and involvement – and his foam violin – caught the notice of Zeng, who herself began playing at age 4. She agreed to train him.
Ed’s father had already bought his grandson his first real violin.
Twelve years later, Jonathan’s love for music continues to bloom. He has collected numerous awards and earned the opportunity to perform with several prominent orchestras. Recently, he placed first in a concerto competition and was scheduled to play with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall earlier this year but the performance was canceled due to COVID concerns. It was to be a sideby-side performance with the Phoenix Youth Symphony, with whom he regularly performs.
In the past, Jonathan has played and performed on the piano as well, and even was a guest conductor at age 4, though he has relinquished these pursuits to focus on honing his skills on the violin. He prac-
POET from page 17
rows,” which was released on all streaming services in 2021.
His latest book, “Lotus & The Apocalpypse,” is “a poetry novella that tells the story of the last day on Earth, as a character named Lotus tries to figure out what the point of life is through meditations on love, loss, guilt, addiction and mental illness.”
“I have OCD, Tourette’s Syndrome, and depression,” Davis explained, “and I wrote this book for the most part during the first year of the pandemic, when I was struggling heavily with my mental health.
“Writing this book was my way of getting all the bad thoughts out of my head and onto a medium that I could look at, learn from and separate myself from. I think poetry and art can be such a beautiful form of therapy. Both creating art and interacting and experiencing other people’s art can be a form of comfort and love between space and time.”
He also had a goal of helping “those in Jonathan Okseniuk won $10,000 performing in this competition earlier this year staged by the Sphinx Organization. (YouTube)
tices about four hours a day and dreams of playing Carnegie Hall.
“My favorite piece to play is always the one I’m working on,” he explained, “because you can always discover new things while you’re practicing a piece. It’s totally different… When you listen to it, you only uncover the top or the outermost details. When you practice the piece, you actually uncover more of the deeper details that lie within the music. That’s what’s really special about playing music.
our community who read it feel less alone in whatever they’re going through.”
“’Lotus’ is all about connection, and during this time of great uncertainty and fear, I think we need to take care of each other in whatever ways we can. It’s been a rough couple of years for everyone and I hope ‘Lotus’ can help people see that there are other people out there who have felt how they feel, and it can get better.”
‘Lotus’ is a series of interconnected poems and “each poem leads into the next and tells this story.”
“In this book I’m completely honest about my struggles, shortcomings as a human, fears and hopes for the future,” he said. :I hope that whoever reads this book will be honest with themselves as well, and think about the ways in which we can each grow. To me, ‘Lotus’ is all about growth and progression. It’s okay to not be perfect. No one is. But let’s work each day to do the best we can to be there for the people we love, our community, and ourselves.” Davis has been writing stories
Lotus’ is a series since he was “a very young kid” of interconnected and began writpoems and “each ing poetry around age 12 “to try poem leads into the to better under next and tells stand myself and the world around this story. me.” “As a 12 and 13-year-old, I was dealing with OCD and I didn’t really know why I was having all these scary thoughts. Writing helped me turn something terrifying into a powerful form of peace.”
THE MESA TRIBUNE | MARCH 6, 2022 “Everything matters, even your fingertips – how much pressure you put on the fingerboard and your bow… All that stuff matters, but especially what you feel as a person; as a human being.”
It doesn’t bother Jonathan to play in front of audiences. In fact, Desiree confided that among the pandemic’s unfortunate impacts is the absence of live performances.
Virtual performances lack the synergy between the performers and audiences, she said.
“I get lost in the music,” said Jonathan. “But it’s also fun to perform with other musicians, because that’s where the most communication comes from. You just really feel that emotion.”
As for where Jonathan gets his talent and interest, his mother said, “I don’t get it.” She said neither she nor her husband are musicians.
“But it’s a gift,” she added, “and it’s our responsibility to nurture it and see where it goes.”
The Sphinx Competition Finals concert can be viewed at youtube.com/ watch?v=Y5u5C41HPrA. ■
He draws some of his inspiration from Phoenix poet Laureate Rosemarie Dombrowski.
“Rosemarie is one of the kindest people I’ve ever had the blessing of knowing, her poetry is incredible, and she is a true champion of the arts and using poetry as a way to bring people together,” he explained.
And he loves to perform, which he said is “how I like to best connect with readers.”
“There’s something so intimate and beautiful about sitting together in a shared space and sharing art, talking and laughing,” he said.
People will have a chance to see him perform and get a taste of his new book when he does a reading at 3 p.m. March 10 at Mesa Public Library. The event is free and mainly aimed at teens, though anyone is welcome to attend.
“Lotus & The Apocalypse” will be available in stores and online, including amazon.com. ■
