UNT Concerto Competition winners perform March 6

Monday, February 25, 2013 - 17:09
Category:

What: Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition Winners concert

When: 8 p.m. March 6 (Wednesday)

Where: Winspear Hall at the Murchison Performing Arts Center, 2100 Interstate 35 Frontage Road, Denton. The concert will also be streamed online at http://UNTmusiclive.com.

Cost: $10 for adults; $8 for seniors, non-UNT students, children, UNT faculty, staff and retirees, and groups of 10 or more; free for UNT students with valid ID. UNT student tickets must be picked up in person at the Murchison Box Office.

Tickets: Purchase tickets online at the Murchison Performing Arts Center or by calling the Murchison Box Office at 940-369-7802.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Seven of the College of Music's finest students who won the University of North Texas annual Concerto Competition in the fall will be featured with the UNT Symphony Orchestra March 6.

"The College of Music's annual concerto competition concert is one of the highlights of our year," said David Itkin, director of orchestral studies at UNT. "In this concert we are able to showcase the talents of our most outstanding student soloists as well as those of the student conductors in the orchestral studies program."

The concert starts at 8 p.m. in Winspear Hall at the Murchison Performing Arts Center, 2100 Interstate 35 Frontage Road, Denton.

"I think the greatest thing about the concerto concert is that it features all of the different areas of the College of Music; the strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, piano, organ and composition areas are all represented in this concert," said doctoral student Jessica Morel, one of two student conductors who will direct the orchestra during the concert. "It is a great opportunity for the audience to get to hear the best of the best from each department in one concert, and for this reason, the concert usually draws a fairly large audience."

That large audience will reach beyond the seats at the Winspear as the concert is streamed live at http://UNTmusiclive.com. The College of Music's live streaming system uses HD equipment to provide high-quality audio and video to viewers worldwide. Remote-controlled equipment allows for the camera to be zoomed in on a particular musician, as well as show the entirety of the orchestra. Viewers will also be able to live chat while watching the concert, enabling them to request close-ups of the musicians or to discuss the performance.

Concerto Competition winner Lerie Dellosa plans to invite colleagues from locations worldwide to watch the concert, including former teachers and friends from her native country of the Philippines, as well as Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, Spain, England, Africa and others. Allowing for such a wide reach in the audience means more people will be able to hear the quality of student work at UNT, Dellosa said.

"The audience will be amazed at the level of performance from the soloists, each instrumentalist in the orchestra and the conductors," said Dellosa. "An all-student concert is very rewarding, and serves as an encouragement to aspire to new levels of performance."

The seven winning students – six instrumentalists and a composer – competed in October for a coveted spot on the UNT Symphony Orchestra program. The pieces will be conducted by Morel and Gregory Grabowski, both of whom are doctoral students in orchestral conducting and students of Itkin.

Tickets are $10 for adults; $8 for seniors, UNT faculty and staff, non-UNT students, children and groups of 10 or more; free for UNT students with valid ID. Purchase tickets online or by calling the Murchison Box Office at 940-369-7802.

The winners are:

Marimba player Jonathan Carr is a junior studying percussion performance. He began his musical career at the age of 4, when he began studying piano, then added percussion to his studies in middle school and has been active with both since. Originally from Burleson, Texas, he has toured the country as a member of the Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps and, currently, as a member of the Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps. He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society, the International Piano Guild, and the Phi Tau chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon. Carr will perform the third movement of Anders Koppel's Concerto No. 1 for Marimba and Orchestra, conducted by Gregory Grabowski.

Organist Lerie Grace Dellosa is a doctoral student in organ performance under Jesse Eschbach, with related studies in fortepiano and harpsichord with Christoph Hammer, and in sacred music under Mark Scott. She was the Organ Teaching Fellow at UNT from 2008-2012, and was awarded the Most Outstanding Graduate Student in Organ Performance in 2012. For the past three semesters, Dellosa has played and performed on significant historic organs in Germany, France, Spain, England, and in the Philippines, her home country. Dellosa is a member of several honor societies: Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Kappa Lambda, Alpha Chi and Golden Key International; and a member of the American Guild of Organists in both the Dallas and Fort Worth chapters. Dellosa will perform the fourth movement of Joseph Jongen's Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra, conducted by Jessica Morel.

Violinist Seula Lee, who was born in South Korea and raised in Dallas, Texas, is a senior music performance student under the tutelage of Philip Lewis. She is serving as co-concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra and violinist of the UNT Center for Chamber Music Studies Piano Trio. Recently, Lee won the 2013 Coeur d'Alene National Young Artists Competition and the Sheila & Werner Harms Young Artist Competition. She was also a prize winner in the Vernell Gregg Competition, DMTA Dallas Music Festival in concerto-senior division, Hubbard Solo Competition, Denton Bach Society Competition and the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Richard Giangiulio Artists Award. Lee will perform the first movement of Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D minor, Opus 47, conducted by Jessica Morel.

Composer Daniel Routh is a senior music composition student. Routh said his musical voice is largely shaped by his upbringing in a mountain town outside of Denver, Colo. Originally for a cappella choir, the title of his piece, Rumors from an Aeolian Harp (2012), comes from a poem of the same name by Henry David Thoreau. In the text, Thoreau imagines the sounds of an Aeolian harp, an instrument that is "played" by the wind. In Routh's piece, the ethereal quality of the Aeolian harp provides the unencumbered voice that speaks as the listener imagines what wisdom it might reveal. The Symphony Orchestra will perform Routh's Rumors from an Aeolian Harp, conducted by Jessica Morel.

Trombone player Evan Sankey grew up in Houston, Texas, where he began playing the trombone, at the beginning of his sixth grade year. Sankey is a graduate of UNT with a bachelor's degree in music performance and is in his last semester of his master's degree, studying under Jan Kagarice. Sankey has been a finalist three years running in the Larry Wiehe International Trombone Competition and performed at the International Trombone Festival in Austin in 2010, Nashville, Tenn., in 2011, and Paris, France, in 2012. In addition to his studies, Sankey has taught privately for Lewisville ISD since the summer of 2011. Sankey will perform the first movement of Henri Tomasi's Trombone Concerto, conducted by Gregory Grabowski.

Flutist Kristyn Son is currently working on her doctorate as a Teaching Fellow under the guidance of Dr. Mary Karen Clardy. Her principal teachers also include Anne Diener Zentner, Marina Piccinini, Marya Martin and Bradley Garner. She is the first prize winner of the 2012 American Protégé International Flute Competition and will perform in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in March 2013. Born in Seoul, Korea, Son has performed as soloist with orchestras, including the Landon Symphonette, Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul Academy Symphony Orchestra. Son will perform the third movement of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Concerto in D minor for Flute, Strings, and Continuo, Wq 22, conducted by Jessica Morel.

Pianist Xiao Wang, a doctoral student studying with Pamela Mia Paul and teaching fellow at UNT, was born in China and began her musical studies at age 4. In 2002, she earned third prize in the 65th Steinway Piano Competition in China. In 2005, she was one of six finalists at the Seventh Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition. Wang twice won the McElroy Competition of $2,500 and the Cliburn Competition of $5,000 in the Undergraduate Scholarship Competitions. In 2009, she won the Jan and Beattie Wood Concerto Competition at the Brevard Music Center Festival and won second prize in the Solo Piano Competition of the Brevard Music Center Festival. Wang will perform Maurice Ravel's Concerto in D Major for the Left Hand, conducted by Gregory Grabowski.

About the UNT College of Music

The UNT College of Music is one of the largest and most respected comprehensive music schools in the country. About 1,500 music students attend UNT each year, participating in more than 40 widely varied ensembles and pursuing specialized studies in performance, composition, music education or music scholarship. UNT faculty members and students have made appearances on the world's finest stages and have produced numerous recordings, many receiving Grammy awards and nominations. Distinguished UNT alumni can be found around the globe, in top music ensembles, opera companies, universities and schools.

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