Local musician Tim Herman, 18, of Center City, is headed to Princeton University on a triangle scholarship this coming fall. The dedicated member of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra has been dazzling audiences throughout the country and Canada since he was 8 years old.
Herman began learning the instrument—usually shaped like a 3 or 4-sided triangle—when he was only six and began performing solo concerts only two years later. By the age of 12 he had played Radio City Music Hall, The Academy of Music, The Kimmel Center and the Mann Center for the Performing Arts all as a soloist.
"At first I kept pushing him to play the violin, I mean, really pushing him, but he had this gift and we didn't know what to make of it at first. We wanted to encourage him the best we could," said the musician's father, Jim Herman.
"Though he is only called upon to ring the triangle, maybe, four or five times over the course of a performance it's unlike anything I've ever heard," said the Youth Orchestra's Maestro Timothy Di Angelo.
It has been nearly fifty years since Princeton University awarded a musical scholarship to a triangle prodigy. In 1962 Verna Diller received a full scholarship from the Ivy League school for her masterful work on the triangular-shaped instrument. She was 12 years old at the time.
"We present 20-30 music scholarships a year, but rarely to a percussion triangle performer," said Princeton's Gail Underwood, Dean of the College of Music, who appeared surprised that Diller was the last recipient.
"When I turned 13 everyone kept telling me that I would have to change instruments or add an instrument, or two, to receive a college scholarship. I love the triangle and I wanted to prove them all wrong," said Herman.
During his four years at Princeton Herman will study under the famed trianglist Arthur Von Gelpin. Gelpin, 67, from Hamburg, Germany, has won every award a percussionist can obtain, including the Arthur Von Gelpin Award in 2007.
Herman will tour Europe this summer playing in Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona and The Hague. The young performer hopes to be playing the National Anthem in London for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
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