More than music: Kamiakin High valedictorian succeeds on stage, in classroom

One of the reasons Ethan Vo’s parents signed him up for piano lessons more than a decade ago was to instill a little confidence.

“It was more about getting over a possible fear of public performance,” said the 18-year-old Kamiakin High School senior.

Little did Ethan’s parents know those lessons would lead to their son becoming an accomplished pianist who recently earned high scores at this spring’s state solo and ensemble competition. He’s also become a capable saxophone player and served as a drum major for his Kennewick high school his senior year.

All that’s on top of the valedictorian’s academic prowess, demonstrated by a 4.0 grade-point average, recognition as an AP National Scholar and year-long internship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he’s worked on research on lithium-ion batteries.

“We sometimes ask him if he ever sleeps,” said Judy Buttles, Ethan’s private piano teacher for the past 12 years.

Kamiakin’s Class of 2016 boasts four other valedictorians graduating June 4: Tyler Lloyd, Kaitlyn Mostoller, Noah Nilson and Sierra Wilde. Salutatorian is Cameron Smith.

Ethan doesn’t plan to pursue music as a career when he attends the University of Washington this fall. He wants to take courses in the sciences, perhaps as a step toward a medical career. But music will continue to be a part of his life, he said.

“Music teaches us more than music; it teaches a lot of life skills,” he said.

Hard-working, cheerful student

Ethan said he was about 4 years old when he became interested in playing piano after seeing one in his cousin’s home. His parents signed him up with Buttles and one of the 18-year-old’s earliest musical memories is “playing Hot Cross Buns at my teacher’s house with my knuckles and only on the black keys.”

Ethan rehearsed at first on an electric keyboard until his family acquired an upright piano. They traded the upright his freshman year for a grand piano.

“I don’t believe he’s ever missed a piano lesson in that time,” Buttles recalled. “I don’t believe I’ve ever had a harder working student or a more cheerful student.”

Once Ethan started at Desert Hills Middle School, he said he wanted to try out music at school, but piano wasn’t an option. So he settled on the saxophone.

“I kind of chose it randomly,” he said. “I feel like there may have been an advertisement with a sax player,” adding that the Desert Hills band also lacked sax players at the time.

He grew to appreciate his new instrument and continued into marching band when he arrived at Kamiakin High. But piano remained his preference. At the state competition in Ellensburg in late April, he earned a superior score and two excellent scores from the three-judge panel. A superior score is the highest score possible.

“It’s a better tool to share what I want to share,” Ethan said, adding that he loves the works of romantic composers such as Edvard Hagerup Grieg and the later compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven.

An exceptional degree of passion

Ethan has committed equal attention and effort to his academic studies. Those who know him said he’s always been a top student. Buttles recalled a story of him teaching his calculus class one day when the teacher was out. Ethan was a freshman at the time and most of his classmates were juniors and seniors.

His recognition as an AP National Scholar means he received an average score of at least 4 on a 5-point scale on all the Advanced Placement exams he has taken and he’s taken at least eight of those tests.

Ethan has worked with senior research scientist Arun Devaraj for more than a year in his lab at PNNL. The 18-year-old has contributed to a study looking at the degradation of the battery cathodes, specifically by looking at 3D modeling and will be included in an upcoming publication of the findings.

“He is a very self-motivated student who has demonstrated a very exceptional degree of passion for science and essentially whatever he does,” Devaraj said.

“I still get nervous”

Ethan said he’s undecided about what he’ll specifically study at UW — chemistry, biology or physics. Perhaps biochemical engineering, he said.

“It’s a way of explaining how the world works on any scale, from the nano scale to the stars,” he said of his interest in science.

But his high school band teacher also has planted the seed in his head that he should take conducting lessons and Ethan said he’s intrigued.

For now, though, he’s focused on graduation, where he’ll give a short speech as valedictorian. As for his parents’ goal of inoculating him against stage fright?

“No, I still get nervous,” Ethan said, smiling.

This story was originally published June 2, 2016 at 4:02 PM with the headline "More than music: Kamiakin High valedictorian succeeds on stage, in classroom."