Chattanooga Center for Creative Arts eighth grader MacKenzie Hammond studies music at her school and is the principal second violinist with the CSO Youth Philharmonic.CLAIM TO FAMEMacKenzie Hammond, 15, is a first violinist who plays in the high-school orchestra at Chattanooga’s Center for Creative Arts. She is also the principal second violinist in the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera Youth Philharmonic and has attended the Southeast Chamber Music Institute at Tennessee Tech University.ABOUT HERSchool: Eighth-grader at Center for Creative Arts.Siblings: Sister, Maggie, 6.Pets: A Chihuahua named Lupe.Favorite composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and Antonin Dvorak.Favorite violinists: Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern.Favorite bands: The Beatles, Black Sabbath, The Black Keys and Kings of Leon.TALENT SHOWDo you know a child age 15 or younger with a precocious talent in academics, athletics or the arts? The Times Free Press is searching for children to feature in “Talent Show,” which appears in the Life section on Tuesdays. To nominate a child as a possible subject of a future feature article, e-mail staff writer Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or call him at 423-757-6205.
Just when MacKenzie Hammond began to think of playing music as something she couldn’t live without, it started to slip through her fingers.
Now 15, MacKenzie began studying violin two and a half years ago while living in Knoxville. At almost the same time, she began experiencing severe pain in her right ear.
The family thought the earaches were the result of sinus infections, but a later examination revealed a cholesteatoma, a tumor eating away the bones of her inner ear.
A series of surgeries removed the tumor before it could spread and paralyze her facial muscles but not before MacKenzie lost almost all the hearing in her right ear.