Adelaide Wingate is a real life Elle Woods. A lover of all things glittery, rainbow, or otherwise beautiful, she balances being a member of the Chamber Orchestra and the Provo Ultimate Frisbee team with a 4.0 GPA the way she can balance a textbook on her head up a flight of stairs, like a princess.
A senior this year, Wingate is Orchestra President, a Concerto winner, and a violinist of 10 years. She was also recently named Timpview’s 2025 World Languages Sterling Scholar.
Wingate began playing violin at 7 years old. “I honestly don’t even remember choosing,” she says. “I think my mom basically told me I was playing violin and I just went with it.” She thinks she would have been ecstatic no matter what the instrument, but is so glad she gets to play violin now. She is the third generation of an entire family playing string instruments, music is not only important to her, but to the culture of her entire family. “Every one of my 8 siblings plays a string instrument, some piano, and sings, so our house is always a cacophony of crazy practicing and noise,” Wingate says.
She draws musical inspiration from her grandpa. His mother decided to have their whole family play string instruments even though they didn’t have a lot of money to afford it. He always worked really hard because it was a gift to him to even be able to have a cello and lessons. “He is an incredible cellist now,” Wingate says. “And a great example of working hard to practice.”
The example of her grandfather has inspired Wingate to keep working even when it gets hard. She’s had ups and downs the way any musician would, but she always wanted to be a good violinist. Her goal was to make it to the Chamber Orchestra one day, and, obviously, she’s achieved that goal and then some.
This Wednesday, October 8th, she will perform her Concerto, “Hejre Kari” by Jeno Hubay. This piece is absolutely beautiful. It’s powerful and dramatic and fun. Wingate plays it amazingly and it really shows off her skill. When asked why she chose this particular piece, Wingate responded, “The moment I heard it, I fell in love with how bright it was. Even though I debated on many other concertos, I kept coming back to this one and knew it was the one I needed to play.”
Despite her impressive musical career here at Timpview, Wingate doesn’t have any specific plans to play music at a collegiate or professional level, but she does plan to keep practicing her instrument for personal enjoyment. She plans to go to college to study math and science, hoping to become an economist and work in research while taking more music lessons and learning more instruments in her spare time to keep enjoying music.
Wingate lives her life with a positive attitude, she believes having a good attitude towards everything is what makes life great. When asked what advice she’d give younger musicians, she said, “Keep practicing! Find songs, musicians, and goals that inspire you to keep working. You may not like it now, but there is nothing more exciting than perfecting a song that you love and looking back to see how far your skills have come.”
Adelaide Wingate is a talented musician, an academic weapon, and a ray of sunshine on earth. She says her ultimate goal in life is to brighten the world around her through religion, academic research, and smiles. It’s safe to say she’s already doing that and it’s only going to get better from here.
