GILL — One Northfield Mount Hermon School student from Ashfield is living the dream of many musicians by accepting an invitation to perform with the Boston Pops.
After practicing guitar nearly every day for a number of years, high school junior Isabelle DeHerdt, 17, will perform on June 7 in concert.
She is one of four grand prizewinners of this year’s Fidelity Investments Young Artists Competition, a state-wide competition for high school students who want to win a chance to perform with the Boston Pops. DeHerdt will join Maestro Keith Lockhart for the 8 p.m. event in Boston’s Symphony Hall.
“It feels awesome, but it feels scary because I have never performed on a stage this big before,” said DeHerdt, an Ashfield resident who has studied music, including violin and piano, since age 5.
The singer-songwriter-guitarist is a member of the NMH Concert Choir and Select Women’s Ensemble.
She takes private voice lessons from Karen Hager and studies classical guitar and composition with Joseph Marcello.
For eight years, Isabella attended the Institute for the Musical Arts Rock and Roll Camp for Girls under the direction of June Millington.
Around age 8, DeHerdt got her first guitar. At age 11, she started the band Kalliope Jones. This all-female rock trio has produced two CDs and performed at Wolf Trap, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Club Passim, and The Center for Arts in Natick, among other venues.
She draws inspiration from The Beatles and Bob Dylan.
DeHerdt will perform her original composition, “We Are the Light,” with the Boston Pops during the first half of the program. Show business legend Mandy Patinkin performs with the Pops in the second half.
DeHerdt is just about to start the college application process and expects that she will find a way to weave music into her future career. She looking into applying to Berkley College of Music, Brown University, Wesleyan College and Smith College.
“I’m still figuring out how I want music to be a part of my life, but I know I want it to be a big part,” she said.