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Media Contact:
Cheri Friedman
Executive Director, Jefferson Symphony Association
(303) 278-4237
cfriedman@jeffersonsymphony.com
Jefferson Symphony Announces 2007 Young Artists Competition Winners
GoldenThe Jefferson Symphony proudly announces the winners of its 2007 Young Artists Competition, which took place on January 13 at The King Center, Auraria Campus, Denver. Twelve piano finalists, who had been chosen in October based on their submitted recordings, competed live that day before three professional pianists who served as judges. Winners performed in a free public recital that evening.
Winners of the Jefferson Symphony's 44th Young Artists Competition, held January 13, are (l. to r.)
Min Hwan Kim, Eastman School of Music, third place; Yoonjung Han, Curtis Institute of Music, first place; and
Tina Chong, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, second place.
First-place winner is 22-year-old Yoonjung Han, a senior at the Curtis Institute (Philadelphia), who played Liszts Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major. Born in Seoul, Korea, she came to the United States in 2001 to attend the Juilliard School Pre-college, where she won the Frederich Nordmann Piano Competition full scholarship. Her recent prizes and awards include The Most Promising Young Artist award by the Korean Cultural Minister; Gold Medal at the 2006 Wideman piano competition; 2005 Kosciuszko Chopin Competition first prize; second prize and youngest semi-finalist prize at the 2005 Concorso Pianistico Internazionale Ettore Pozzoli; and 2004 Music Teachers National Association Yamaha Competition first prize (Eastern).
Han, who studies with Eleanor Sokoloff at Curtis, began her piano studies at age 5 and has appeared as soloist with several orchestras, including her debut with the Seoul Philharmonic (at age 13), Buffalo Philharmonic, I Pomeriggi Musicale, Eastern Connecticut Chamber Orchestra, and the Mississippi, Juilliard Pre-college, Pottstown Symphony, Meridian, and Yewon orchestras. She has been broadcast by WQXR, National Public Radio (Young Artists Showcase), TV Pol Music, and CBS and EBS in Korea.
What fabulous musicians! exclaimed Jefferson Symphony Association board chair Peggy Halderman. Yoonjung played the beautiful Liszt piece with such expressive musicality! I cant wait to hear her perform with the full orchestra on March 25th.
Second place winner is Tina Chong, 21, who performed Ravels Piano Concerto in G Major. Chong, of Banff, Alberta, Canada, is a senior at Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Ohio), where she studies with Angela Cheng, formerly of Denver. She has won numerous awards and scholarships, including first place in 2006 at the Aspen Concerto Competition, as well as first place in the 2005 MTNA State Competition. Tina participated in the 2006 Aspen Summer Music Festival, the 2005 and 2006 Banff International Keyboard Festivals, and the 2005 Van Cliburn Institute.
Third place winner Min Hwan Kim, 19, a native of South Korea, studies piano with Natalya Antonova as a freshman at the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY). His numerous musical awards include: Finalist/Special Award, Wideman Piano Competition (2006); Finalist, Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition (2006); First Prize, Edith Knox Performance Competition (Torrance, CA, 2006); Semifinalist, Oberlin International Piano Competition (2005); and First Prize, Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition (New York City, 2005). He played Ravels Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major.
The judges awarded two Honorable Mentions. Esther Park, 22, received her bachelors and masters degrees in music from The Juilliard School. She performed Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto No. 1. Jie Yuan, 21, from Changchun, China, who is pursuing both an Artist Diploma and an undergraduate degree at Texas Christian University, played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in c minor.
The first place winner receives $2,000 cash, a scholarship worth $2,000 to attend a summer Young Artists Seminar at the Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, a $5,000 scholarship provided he or she becomes a college senior or graduate student within eight years of winning the competition, and an appearance as soloist with the Jefferson Symphony. Second place winner receives $1,500 in cash. Third place winner receives $1,000. The cash prizes are funded by the Golden Civic Foundation, the Fine Arts Foundation, and the Wilmot Charitable Fund.
Barbara Jackson, a cellist with the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra, established an endowment seven years ago for the $5,000 winners scholarship. Her purpose was to encourage and support young musicians in their careers and also to attract contestants of outstanding caliber to the competition. She considers her endeavors a success: The formerly regional competition has become national and even international in scope. As a member of the orchestra, I find that these incredibly gifted young musicians inspire me and my colleagues to improve our performance, she said. And the community gets to hear outstanding soloists, so I feel I am paying back my debt to society.
Jefferson Symphony principal percussionist Sandra Fauth, who chairs the Young Artists Committee that organizes the annual event, commented that the amazing quality and level of playing reassures her that the future of classical music is in very capable hands. This was the JSOs 44th Young Artists Competition. Several former prizewinners have established successful musical careers.
The recorded round of the competition was adjudicated last October by area pianists Nancy Kaesler, NCTM (current president of the Colorado State Music Teachers Association), Grace Asquith (vice-president of CSMTA), and Christopher Thompson (doctoral student at CU-Boulder in Collaborative Piano). Distinguished area piano teachers and performers Olga Dashevskaya of Lakewood, Crystal Lee of Boulder, and Alice Rybak, a faculty member at the University of Denvers Lamont School of Music and member of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, judged the final round on January 13. The judges noted the remarkably high quality of all the finalists. Dashevskaya described the first place winners performance as passionate and emotional, and commented that the judges valued these qualities even more than speed and technical virtuosity.
Other finalists were: Qiongyan Jenny Chai, 23, Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY; Michele Lee, 19, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Julia Siciliano, 23, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Nicholas Susi, 19, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS; Piotr Szczepanik, 23, Academy of Music, Cracow, Poland; Jacquelyn Weitz, 23, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX; and Sharon Wu, 16, of Highlands Ranch, CO, a junior in the Littleton High School International Baccalaureate Program.
First-place winner Han will perform with the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra at its March 25th concert in Golden. The 90-member volunteer orchestra, whose winter home is in Bunker Auditorium, Green Center, on the Colorado School of Mines campus in Golden, was founded in 1953. Dr. William Morse conducts. For ticket information, call the JSO office at 303.278.4237 or check the website:
www.jeffersonsymphonyorchestra.org.
The Jefferson Symphony Young Artists Competition alternates yearly between piano and all other orchestral instruments. The 2008 Jefferson Symphony Young Artists Competition will be for non-pianists born after December 31, 1983. Applications will be available in April. Further information about the competition, including biographies of all the 2007 finalists, is available at:
www.jeffersonsymphonyorchestra.org/competition.
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