Playing for God

Scholarship recipient ‘broadens her faith’ while studying and teaching violin

By Bethany Furkin

Rebecca Pernicano began playing the violin by chance. When she was 6 years old, she saw students playing the instrument in the halls at school and asked her father for her own violin.

Rebecca Pernicano.

“I started it, and I just loved it,” Pernicano said. Although she has tried other instruments, her passion for the violin is still going strong 14 years later. “I favor it more for my head, my heart,” she said.
           
Pernicano, 20, is a student at North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, where she is majoring in violin performance. In addition to practicing three to five hours every day, she also plays in an orchestra and teaches Suzuki violin to young children. This method emphasizes repetition and listening. Her students are close to the age Pernicano was when she saw her first violin, and they share her enthusiasm.
           
“It just thrills them,” she said.

Pernicano hopes to continue teaching as a career while also playing with a symphony orchestra.

Through the Annie Elizabeth Beall fund, Rebecca has received gifts of up to $5,000 a year to help her meet her educational expenses at North Carolina School of the Arts.

Scholarships, like this from Financial Aid for Studies, help make these goals possible. “It just helps me get through school,” Pernicano said. “If I hadn’t gotten any scholarships, I probably wouldn’t have gone.”

The church has given Pernicano more than just monetary gifts. As a member of Harvey Browne Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Ky., Pernicano plays in the church’s orchestra when she’s home from school — an experience she said allows her to play her heart out while feeling God’s presence protecting her.

“Music is kind of like my way of prayer and playing for God,” she said. “I don’t think it affects my faith. I think it only broadens it.”

Bethany Furkin is a senior at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where is majoring in journalism. She is a member of Springdale Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Ky.