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NEW YORK, New York — Watching endless MTV music videos as a youth has apparently paid off big for SAHS grad Brendan Kane. Since last fall, the 33-year-old double bass virtuoso has been a staff musician with one of the world's most skilled and best-known orchestras — the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, known commonly as The Met. Joining North America's largest classical music organization was a dream come true that will be hard to top, Kane said in an interview last month. The former Pony beat out about 100 other highly skilled contenders to snag the coveted six-figure position. “You fantasize about what you want to do, then you have stuff that's way beyond, that you don't even consider an option,” he explained. “The Met job was kind of like
that for me. With a job like this, there's really not anywhere else to go … I could easily see myself (staying) the next 30 years.” Though he really did spend a lot of time watching MTV as a kid, the 2000 SAHS grad also studied bass in school while taking bass guitar at Stillwater studio Water Music. He said he later recognized the excellence of the school district's music program, which offered two full orchestras and multiple other student ensembles. “I had no idea how fortunate I was,” he said, “No one (among musicians I know) had anything resembling what I had at SAHS … people cannot believe how much we had there.” He named local influences as former junior high orchestra director Liz Deger, Water Music instructor Scott Westlake and SAHS orchestra director Jim Hainlen. At age 16 he began studying double bass with Brian Liddle of the Minnesota Orchestra,
whom he called “my biggest influence, hands-down.” In spare time, Kane played in other school groups and took local performing gigs. “I kind of went off the deep end and spent all my time in my basement practicing or listening to stuff or out playing,” he said. After high school he studied music at the New England Conservatory in Boston, playing on school breaks in a rock band with childhood friend Frankie Lee. Fellow SAHS grad Lee has since achieved in the country/folk/Americana genre, signing with worldwide record label Loose Music. “To this day I love playing other types of music — I wish I got to do it more, to be honest,” Kane said. “But it's so competitive to get a job as a classical musician, I felt like I had to put every single ounce of energy into that in order to be successful.
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