Musical Chairs: CofC History Chair Brings Music to Life

^{Photo by Kelly Grace}

With an unbridled passion for music, Phyllis Jestice, Department of History chair and professor, is a devoted member of the College of Charleston Orchestra. Her love for the orchestra and its students led her to sponsor two students with the greatest financial need through the Orchestra Fund to travel to perform at Boston Symphony Hall in March 2026. Because of her love of music and her desire to make sure the program remains robust, she has also left a bequest to the Department of Music in her estate.

Ever since she started playing violin in fourth grade, Jestice knew she’d found her calling. She has had the same violin since 10th grade: Alianora, named after a 14th-century noble woman, was made in Germany’s Black Forest around 1800. The violin – which Jestice cleaned with meticulous care when she received it – offers a rich tone that she loves to this day.

At university, Jestice planned to become a secondary school music teacher. Hand surgery led her to pivot to history, with a focus on medieval European history. Still, even after the surgery, she continued to play violin.

“It took me a long time to get past the pain threshold when playing, but I did because I had scholarships and had to play,” says Jestice. “I just manipulated my wrist and hand differently than other players.”

Music at CofC

When Jestice joined the College of Charleston Department of History in 2012, she visited the music department and joined the College of Charleston Orchestra, which at the time had fewer than 20 players. She also began one-on-one lessons with Tomas Jakubek, adjunct professor of violin.

“I have slowly and carefully worked with Tomas to be able to bend my wrist,” says Jestice. “Now I am stretching and twisting as I work my way down the neck of the violin. I am almost to the end of the finger board.”

With a more agile hand, Jestice finds even greater joy in playing with the orchestra, which has now expanded to an ensemble of 80 members.

“Playing is a symphonic experience,” she explains. “The whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. Seated where I am is like attending a symphony times one thousand.”

Musical Chairs

Interacting with students as a peer and not a professor and watching as they evolve as musicians brings Jestice great joy, particularly when students bloom under the coaching of Yuriy Bekker, conductor of the CofC Orchestra and violin instructor.

“Yuriy has the students play some complex pieces, which means they have to rehearse longer, but they do,” says Jestice. “It’s beautiful to watch them respond and come up to a new level in their playing.”

While Jestice acknowledges that her playing has also improved since joining the orchestra, she has chosen to remain third chair of the second violins.

“I’m not needed in the first violins,” she explains. “I serve as an anchor where I am, and students can key off me.”

Jestice knows all too well the challenges of learning all facets of a violin, so she takes the time to discover the challenges her fellow violinists face. She has shared tricks to making a violin tone better and bought students quality strings that offer a richer, more complex sound.

Bekker appreciates all Jestice does for the orchestra.

“Not only does she exemplify how music can remain a meaningful part of one’s life journey regardless of career path, she is also a constant source of inspiration and ideas” says Bekker. “I have been fortunate to have Phyllis as a friend and colleague.

“She is a wonderful player, and I know she makes a positive impact on the students around her,” he adds, adding that Jestice donated to the Orchestra Fund to cover two students’ travel expenses when the orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall in 2025. “Phyllis also has been an angel investor in our students.”

On the Road

Jestice knows the value of traveling to perform. She remembers going to a multi-state competition in high school and all the students pulling together and taking the competition seriously. She wants the orchestra students to feel that camaraderie and team spirit.

“Making music together is the ultimate team sport,” says Jestice, who also sings in the Charleston Symphony Chorus and the Grace Cathedral Choir. “We are so reliant on each other; it’s a dynamic that requires everyone to be on. That is why I want all our students to have the opportunity to go to Boston; it will be a transformative experience that they will carry with them the rest of their lives.

“Music is a way to understand life,” adds Jestice, who hopes through her bequest to the Department of Music that more people will develop a passion for its intrinsic value. “It distills and refracts life. Life is awfully empty without music.”