By MADDY VITALE
Isabella Miller, 11, of Corbin City, was just five years old when she began taking piano lessons.
“She always played for as long as I can remember,” said Tammy Miller, Isabella’s mother. “She put her fingers on the keys, listened to the music and began to play.”
And that love of music could be heard, in fact, loud and clear, when she took her seat at an upright piano at the corner of Eighth Street and Asbury Avenue on Sunday and played the song “Scientist” from the rock band Coldplay during an outdoor concert featuring young students.
“I like playing,” Isabella, a sixth-grader, said after her performance. “I like the way my fingers move across the keys.”
Isabella was one of a dozen students of Seaville-based piano teacher Shawn Quigley. Students from middle school, high school and college joined Quigley for the free concert.
The mild, sunny second day of spring also meant plenty of bicyclists, shoppers and strollers in the downtown. Many of them slowed down or stopped to listen to the performances.
“It helps set the tone for the community and it is great for the kids,” Quigley said of the outdoor concert. “It is a win-win all the way around.”
Noel Wirth, of Ocean City, and an employee at the Ocean City Historical Museum, listened, clapped and remarked on the young talents.
“What a beautiful day and such great music by these young performers,” Wirth said. “What a day.”
Other students performed the Coldplay hits “Yellow,” “Clocks” and “Paradise.” There was a special treat when Quigley and three of his students, sisters Farley, 15, and Kasey, 13, O’Brien, of Linwood, and their friend, Katie Compton, 18, of Mays Landing, performed on dual pianos to the hit “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey.
Teagan O’Brien, Farley and Kasey’s 11-year-old sister, performed a solo to “Clocks” and never appeared to look at the sheet music.
Quigley joked with Teagan when, at first, she didn’t bring the music up to the piano, that she didn’t need it anyway.
Parents Kevin and Liz O’Brien watched as their daughters performed.
The couple said they had Quigley to thank, in part, for how well their daughters play the piano.
“Shawn is extremely talented and does an awesome job with the kids,” Kevin O’Brien noted. “And the wonderful turnout today is proof-positive of that.”
Quigley dedicated the concert to his late friend, John Murphy, who lived in Ocean City. The two became friends when Murphy began helping Quigley move pianos years ago.
“He was a great friend. Everyone who knew him liked him,” Quigley said. “He actually was the very first person to tell me about Coldplay and how it would be great music to play for my students. Today’s concert is in memory of John.”
