When Reynold Yang first picked up a clarinet at 7 he thought it would be nothing more than a pastime.
But eight years on, the Pinehurst College student has lined up the opportunity of a lifetime and has been accepted into London’s prestigious Royal College of Music.
“I just fell in love with the clarinet,” Yang told Focus. “It sounded really nice and it also looked amazing.
“I thought it would be my hobby, but it was my mum who kept me going.”
Yang first set his sights on the college last year while training with some of the top master musicians in Europe.
His application, however, needed to meet university criteria, leaving the year 11 student just five months to complete his academic prerequisite.
“It was very clear what he needed to be able to achieve, what requirements he needed so we worked back from that to put together an academic programme that would enable him to get to where he wanted to go,” Pinehurst College deputy principal Chris Wiggin said.
“I had a schedule of when to do what, so after my practice, I would schedule my study, for example, an hour I will do this, and the next hour I would do that,” Yang explained.