April 29, 2008 10:42 pm
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By Melissa Dunson
mdunson@joplinglobe.com
ORONOGO, Mo. — More than the immediate applause and clamor of the crowd, it was a whispered comment from behind that told Tami Murphy people were moved Sunday by her 17-year-old son’s violin concert.
“After the encore, I heard someone behind me say, ‘That was just too short,’” Murphy said. “You don’t hear that after a lot of classical concerts.”
Murphy said her son Tobiah was shocked and humbled by the turnout and the response he received during his concert to raise funds for his continued musical training.
An estimated 175 people — friends, family and strangers — attended the concert at Missouri Southern State University. Tobiah Murphy performed to raise the $2,200 he needed to finish paying for his tuition to the Meadowmount School of Music, a seven-week summer school in Westport, N.Y. Its alumni list includes cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman.
“He thought that he might be fortunate enough to get maybe $1,000,” Tami Murphy said. “He was amazed at what people gave.”
The Murphys, of Oronogo, didn’t sell tickets but just put baskets near the exits. When they counted the money, Tami Murphy said, there was $2,600. Tobiah Murphy insisted that 10 percent of that go as a tithe to the family’s church, Word of Truth Fellowship in Joplin. Even after that, and paying his accompanying pianist, Tobiah still had $2,182 — a mere $18 short of his goal.
A phone call Tuesday brought in an additional $100, donated for a Community Hospice volunteer banquet where Tobiah Murphy played a couple of weeks ago. The additional funds will go toward his transportation to New York.
“It’s so much more than we were expecting,” Tami Murphy said Tuesday, her voice choking with emotion. “It was just neat to see the community rally around somebody doing something good.”
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Tobiah Murphy started playing the violin when he was 5. At age 14, he won the Ozark Festival Orchestra’s young artist competition. Last year, he won the North Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra concerto competition and performed a solo. He is co-concert master of that orchestra and performed with it last month at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Murphy also has attended competitive summer music programs for the past three years. He won first place in the National Federation of Music Clubs’ Missouri state competition in 2006.
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