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Downers Grove Rotary Club Awards Music Scholarship

Released on: (May 22, 2009)

Rahul Gopalkrishna Kamath is the 2009 recipient of Charles Dickerman Memorial Music Scholarship.

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At age nine, Rahul Gopalkrishna Kamath was awestruck when he heard his cousin perform on the viola at a music competition. That day, he recalls, “I promised myself that I too would become a musician.”

Rahul has kept that promise.

The Downers South senior has excelled in playing the viola in high-school, county and state-wide orchestras, and in his rock band “Once in Forever.” While he intends to pursue a career as an oral surgeon, he plans to continue studying and performing the viola and making music a major part of his life.

Kamath is the 2009 winner of the Charles Dickerman Music Scholarship presented annually by the Downers Grove Rotary Club. The $2000 prize is in memory of a founding member of the club, a nuclear physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, and a lifelong musician.

Enrolled in the honors curriculum of the South High Symphonic Orchestra, Rahul is President of the orchestra. For four years he was a member of the Youth Symphony of DuPage County, and for three years performed with the All-State Orchestra of the Illinois Music Educators Association.

As a violist in a metal rock band, he was able to expand his creative bounds and blend the traditionally classical instrument into the rock genre.

Klamath says his diverse efforts have “allowed me to blossom into a musician — one who makes music and not just a player of notes.”

Rotary International is a 104-year-old humanitarian service organization with 1.2 million members in more than 200 countries. The Downers Grove club was founded in 1961.