Living Up to His Name

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had Johann Sebastian Bach. The nineteenth century had Johannes Brahms. And the twenty-first century has Johannes Anton Assigal Eberhart, a musician and conductor in the making. 

Senior Johannes Eberhart started his violin studies in the fourth grade, in Point Vicente Elementary’s string program. Although he does not come from a family of musicians, Eberhart was exposed to a variety of music throughout his early childhood because his parents enjoyed listening to it. 

“I’m not sure if you’ve heard of ‘Baby Einstein,’ but I remember hearing ‘Fur Elise’ and stuff on a toy piano when I was little,” Eberhart said. “That was the beginning of it all.”

Since then, Eberhart has participated in a chamber group at the Colburn School of Music and has performed in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen.

Additionally, Eberhart has taken virtually every music course PV High has to offer, picking up many instruments along the way. While he plays violin for orchestra, he also plays viola for string quartets and both upright bass and piano for jazz band.

“When you put your feet into multiple shoes, it broadens your horizons and makes you a more sensitive and effective conductor in terms of what you want to communicate to people,” Eberhart said. 

Although Eberhart has accomplished a lot within the music department, such as co-founding PV High’s very own Cloyden String Quartet, he regards his proudest achievement to be his latest feat: conducting the pit orchestra in the spring musical “Something Rotten!”

“It was something that took a lot of work, research and preparation,” Eberhart said. “I was surrounded by a lot of talented and hardworking friends and students. The product was really great—I know a lot of people liked it. It was one of the most flawless pit experiences I’ve been part of.”

Eberhart’s preparation began a full year ago. He first listened to the soundtrack religiously and tried to “gauge what the instrumentation was” based on that. 

“I tried to acquaint myself with the story and the music,” he said. “But when I eventually found the [music scores] online, I started thinking more specifically about personnel, like which people would fit [the instrumentation I wanted].”

In the future, Eberhart hopes to continue being involved in musical theater as a regular pit musician.

“[Theater music] is a nice combination of popular music as well as a classical style of playing,” Eberhart said. 

“I think I work pretty well in that medium.”

In addition to playing violin in an ensemble setting, Eberhart hopes to one day lead an orchestra of his own. 

“In terms of what I plan to do career-wise, the goal is conducting at the highest level feasible,” Eberhart said. “Since I am majoring in music education, the goal is probably to teach at the university level, as either a university conductor or a music theory professor.” 

The broad range of music opportunities at UCLA allows Eberhart to entertain all these aspirations during college.

“I know that’s a lot of plans, but that’s the nice thing about music,” Eberhart said. “There are a lot of different possibilities out there. Whatever I end up doing, I hope there’s a lot of playing, conducting and teaching altogether.” 

Before leaving PVHS, Eberhart wants to encourage the rest of the performing arts students to keep up their work.

“The life and craft of an artist is very important within society,” Eberhart stated. 

“We’re the ones who continue culture and that aspect of the human experience. We provide a sort of relief, an outlet for a lot of people. The work is hard, unending and unrelenting, but it is very, very worth it.”