Berkeley Institute student Phillip Shawn Herman is to represent Bermuda next week at the Carifta Games in Jamaica.The 17-year-old looks forward to running the 5,000-metre race at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in Montego Bay.“I love track and field but my first love is music,” he said.The alto saxophone player was one of five students at the Berkeley Institute selected to perform before the Earl and Countess of Wessex during last month’s Royal visit.“I come from a large musical background,” Phillip said. “My uncle is Wendell “Shine” Hayward he’s my favourite musician here in Bermuda and his shop is right across from my house in Pembroke.“My other uncle, Gary Hayward, played trumpet, and my mother, Sharon, used to sing. I’ve always been around music.“My father, Phillip Herman, comes from St Lucia, so I feel a strong Caribbean connection through my blood.“And my father told me that when my mother was pregnant with me, they put some headphones over her stomach and could feel me moving when they played music.“I started out on the trumpet but found out it wasn’t for me, and my uncle Wendell got me to switch. He told me to try the saxophone, and I’ve been playing it for seven years now.”Phillip took the boys’ performing arts category for last month’s Outstanding Teen Awards.The annual awards are given out by the Teen Services youth charity to honour high-achieving senior school students from around Bermuda.He has twice performed as part of ‘Our Night of Spirituals’, an annual event put on by the Island’s AME churches.Phillip was also selected to play at the annual Premier’s Concert put on by the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs.He performs for private events as well.His favourite pieces are “gospel, usually, but mixed with hip-hop, good music to get everybody up and active”.The teenager is to graduate from the Berkeley Institute this June. He will then spend the next year on tour with the international performing and educational group, Up With People.Phillip said: “I don’t even know where in the world I’m going to be on my 18th birthday. Up With People is a way of combining community service with the music that I love, so I can express myself musically at the same time as helping others. I can’t wait for it.”A non-profit group, Up With People is best known for musical performances with large casts of international students.This year’s two-semester tour has a cast of nearly 100 students. Together they will travel through the US and Europe and on to the tour’s finish in Mexico.He then plans to study music and musical education hopefully, at Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier University.“My dream is to play professionally one day, maybe backing up a great artist like John Legend or Ne-Yo or Jamie Foxx,” he said.“But it is equally my dream to come back here and get into teaching music, either at school or privately.”For the moment, the easiest way to hear Phillip’s music is at the Shekinah Worship Centre, at 98 North Shore Road in Hamilton Parish.The band plays at tomorrow’s 11am and 6.30pm services.Pointing to the saxophone badge on his school uniform, he said: “Music makes me stand out. I was asked to perform in front of the prefect induction ceremony [at Berkeley Institute], and I performed last month for the Earl and Countess.“It’s amazing to be asked to express myself through an instrument.“My friends have even said to me that I’ve become happier, that my personality’s gotten better through music. If I’m upset or irritated, I can just put it all into the instrument.”Useful web links: www.swim-international.com, www.upwithpeople.org.