18-year-old cellist will be youngest person to perform with Symphony Nova Scotia

An 18-year-old cellist in Bedford, N.S., is now the youngest musician to win an apprenticeship with Symphony Nova Scotia.

Priscilla Lee, a third-year bachelor of musicstudent majoring in cello performance at Dalhousie's Fountain School of Performance Art, was offered the apprenticeshipin early April.

Lee finished high school in two years and studied atBrandon University in Manitoba before deciding to go to Dalhousie University in 2017.

She was 15 when she started studying at Dal.

"I was very excited and knowing some of the people at Symphony Nova Scotia, I really do look up to them," Lee said.

"So having the opportunity to play with them and sitting next to them isdefinitely a unique opportunity."

ShimonWalt, a professor at Dalhousie,has been her mentor.

"Priscilla is an amazing talent. She's wonderful. When she started, when I accepted her, I actually had some doubts in my mind if she [was] at university level and how can she catch up," Walt said.

"But she was so enthusiastic and she really wanted to play and she was so looking forward to working on cello ... and she probably made the biggest progress that I've seen in a long time."

The Fountain School typically nominates one third or fourth-year student an academic year to audition for a panel of Symphony Nova Scotia members for the apprenticeship.

This year, Walt andthe school nominated Lee.

"We all felt that she is the one that definitely would benefit from it," he said.

Now, Lee will perform alongside the orchestra in aboutfive or six concertsduring the upcoming season.

She said the season is expected to begin in September, unless COVID-19 restrictions are still in place.

Lee said she grew up in a musical household. When she was 10, she was inspired by her four brothers to startplaying an instrument.

"Two of my brothers had started playing violin and seeing how much fun they had,I really wanted to pick up a stringed instrument but I didn't just want tofollow exactly in my brothers' footsteps," she said.

"So I decided to pick the cello just because it was so much bigger."

Then, she fell in love with the instrument.

"One of the biggest things that I love [about] playing the cello is the fact that it'svery interactive.Even in school, I'm constantly playing with people and I'm working with people," she said.

"So I really, really love the fact that the cello is such a central instrument that I can work with many different instruments and different artists as well."

And hopefully by September, she'll be doing just that.

Lee said she's excited to perform alongside professional musicians but she's also nervous aboutworking so closely with them.

"I will be sitting next to them. Sothe fact that everybody there knows me now is also a little bit of a tight pressure," she said.

"But I do like the people in the symphonythat I've met so far and they're very great people to work with."

Lee said she's looking forward to being exposed to different artists and learning from them.

"I really do expect to learn a lot in the symphony, as well as play a lot of good music," she said.