Reed siblings featured in Spring Concert

By Jodi Rawson
Reader Contributor

On the weekends the Reeds go out busking. They play long, haunting memorized solos, fast duets and familiar pop songs. With cash in their cases, they are professionals.

Max and Nichol Reed, with their violins. Photo by Dinah Rawson.

During Lost in the ‘50s, Max Reed played at Evans Brothers, and Fiddlin’ Red gave him a standing ovation. 

“Perfect tone,” he said. 

Jesus Quintero featured them in the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” because who doesn’t love a brother and sister violin duet?

Nichol Reed, 19, has been playing violin since age 10 and Max, 15, started playing a couple years later at age 8. They love playing and performing and that might be the best element (I have been a fan for years), but their tone and their repertoire have improved dramatically. Before the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint (MCS) occupied the old City Hall building, the Reeds were taught by MCS co-founder Ruth Klinginsmith.

Nichol was the Distinguished Young Woman from last year because she is beautiful, smart (4.1 GPA), talented and a great communicator (in two languages). Nichol was featured last year at the Festival of Sandpoint, and she received their scholarship, as well as scholarships from Rotary and CAL. She is wisely staying local and getting initial credits through NIC. Gifted in the sciences, she thinks she would like to educate herself in nursing, but music, she says, will always be a part of her life in some way.

Mark Reiner, the Pend Oreille Choral and Orchestra director, is featuring them in a Vivaldi Concerto June 14 and 16 at the First Lutheran Church. They have been dedicated to the community orchestra for years and Reiner appreciates “their whole family, their mom Elenor is so supportive.”

Elenor Reed has an infectious passion and she is a big fan of her kids. They are dual citizens with passionate Spanish conversations. Elenor drives Max to Spokane to work with Dr. Baldwin in the Spokane Youth Symphony weekly. Max is owning his violin, and is starting to train in other types of performing arts-acting and dance.

Catch these awesome performers June 14 at 7 p.m. and June 16 at 3 p.m. at the First Lutheran Church, 526 S. Olive Ave. Otherwise you might hear their violins in the heart of town or wafting out towards the City Beach from the lawn in front at Trinity.

While we have you ...

... if you appreciate that access to the news, opinion, humor, entertainment and cultural reporting in the Sandpoint Reader is freely available in our print newspaper as well as here on our website, we have a favor to ask. The Reader is locally owned and free of the large corporate, big-money influence that affects so much of the media today. We're supported entirely by our valued advertisers and readers. We're committed to continued free access to our paper and our website here with NO PAYWALL - period. But of course, it does cost money to produce the Reader. If you're a reader who appreciates the value of an independent, local news source, we hope you'll consider a voluntary contribution. You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.

You can contribute at either Paypal or Patreon.

Contribute at Patreon Contribute at Paypal

You may also like...

Close [x]

Want to support independent local journalism?

The Sandpoint Reader is our town's local, independent weekly newspaper. "Independent" means that the Reader is locally owned, in a partnership between Publisher Ben Olson and Keokee Co. Publishing, the media company owned by Chris Bessler that also publishes Sandpoint Magazine and Sandpoint Online. Sandpoint Reader LLC is a completely independent business unit; no big newspaper group or corporate conglomerate or billionaire owner dictates our editorial policy. And we want the news, opinion and lifestyle stories we report to be freely available to all interested readers - so unlike many other newspapers and media websites, we have NO PAYWALL on our website. The Reader relies wholly on the support of our valued advertisers, as well as readers who voluntarily contribute. Want to ensure that local, independent journalism survives in our town? You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.