Just about the time most teenagers are turning over in bed on a Saturday morning, two Middleburg Academy seniors have long been up and out the door, pursuing their musical passions. For the past five years, John Chen has undertaken a weekly commute to The Juilliard School in New York, while Olivia Kim has headed to Johns Hopkins' Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Indeed, these outstanding pianists and recent graduates give new meaning to the words "extra-curricular activities."

It is an accomplishment in itself to be selected for Juilliard and Peabody's pre-college divisions. Olivia recalls her audition. "I walked in, and there was a panel of people including [legendary American pianist] Leon Fleisher. I was so nervous!" In addition to the ninety-plus minutes of first-rate private instruction they have received each week, both are grateful for their programs' emphasis on performing regularly before their peers and participating in master classes with internationally renowned pianists.

Still, the privilege of these Saturday studies has come with the responsibilities of hours-long daily practice plus the demands of Middleburg Academy's college-preparatory program. Nineteen year-old Olivia, an international student from Korea, admits to occasionally falling asleep in the evenings, head on the keyboard. There is also travel for competitions and performances. Olivia has played in Austria and Italy, and, locally, she has earned First Place, twice, in the Maryland Teachers' Association Competition at the University of Maryland.

John has taken top prizes in the National Symphony Orchestra's Young Soloist Competition and the World Piano Competition, among others. He has already performed in some of the world's most celebrated concert venues including five times at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, The Kennedy Center, New York's Lincoln Center, Cleveland's Severance Hall, and Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts. The 17-year old, who was born in China and moved to the United States when he was five, has been designated as both a Young Scholar and College Scholarship recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.

Talent, interest and perseverance led to their admittance to these world-class conservatories yet like all new graduates, they are now thinking about the road ahead.

John is proud of his recent acceptance into Juilliard's College program, but has decided instead on a new setting: Texas Christian University. TCU's School of Music is familiar to many through its long association with the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Olivia, still weighing her options, feels the pull towards the music programs at Stony Brook and Catholic Universities.

John's mother, Litong Yang, says they know pianists who drop academics and study only music. Yet she cannot imagine forgoing the broader education that John has received at Middleburg Academy, and prior to that, at Loudoun Country Day School.

Olivia, John, and their families are grateful for the extraordinary support they've received through their high school teachers. Mrs. Yang struggles to convey the magnitude of her family's appreciation for making this difficult balancing act possible. Finding the English alternatives inadequate, she employs a Chinese word that, very loosely translated, means "thanks is not thank you enough."