2010 Young Artists Competition

This year’s Young Artist Competition, sponsored by the Fredericksburg Festival of the Arts, awarded the instrumental first place award to flautist, Jessica Stewart, a junior at Stafford High School.  For the first time since the Competition began in 2004, a first-place vocalist award was given and won by soprano Hope Strayer, a home-schooled high school senior. The Competition’s second place was won by cellist, Nathan Black, a senior at Chancellor High School and pianist Andrew Liang, an eight-grade student at Gayle Middle School won third place.

Twenty-seven musical students of classical instrument and voice entered the Competition in December and Auditions were held on January 14 and 15.  A team of six judges selected nine performers for the Final’s Concert on January 23^rd held at Chancellor Baptist Church.

The Fredericksburg Festival of the Arts has begun a partnership with the Rappahannock Pops Orchestra to support classically-trained student musicians in the area.  Last year’s Competition winner, Ryan Feng, will be performing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the Rappahannock Pops at their next concert on Saturday, March 6^th at 8 PM at Grace Church.

Kirk Wilke, conductor of the RPO, served as lead judge for this year’s Competition.  All judges contribute their time to the competition and are highly-regarded musicians in the area.  The vocal judges were Jane Tavenier and Mandy Carr while the instrumental judges were Chris Abeel, strings, Damien Bollino, winds, and Martha Fickett, piano.

Winners were judged on various aspects of their musicianship, technical ability, and presentation displayed at the auditions and at the Finals concert performance.  This year’s Competition was the first time written critiques of each performance were prepared by the judges and provided to the students.

Both the instrumental and vocal first place winners were invited to perform a solo with the Rappahannock Pops Orchestra next fall and each received a check for $500.  Second and third place winners were given $500 and $200 savings bonds, respectively.  All winners will also be performing at the FFA Chamber Festival concerts in June.

Contestants must be 18 and younger and come from Fredericksburg and the surrounding counties of Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George, Caroline, Culpeper, Orange, and Westmoreland.

Chancellor Baptist Church and music director McKenneth King have graciously hosted the YAC since its first year, providing an ideal venue along with staging assistance, practice rooms, accompaniment, and post-concert reception support.  For six consecutive years, Cornelia Bryant has graciously underwritten the expenses of the Competition and Doug Henderson has provided the highly-valued piano tuning.

2010 YAC facts:

• First Place Vocalist:  Hope Strayer, soprano.  She was invited to solo with the Rappahannock Pops Orchestra and received a $500 check.

• First Place Instrumentalist: Jessica Stewart, flautist.  She was invited to solo with the Rappahannock Pops Orchestra and received a $500 check.

• Second Place: Nathan Black, cellist, received a $500 savings bond.

• Third Place: Andrew Liang, pianist, received a $200 savings bond.

•  27 contestants entered the preliminary auditions (January 14-15) including 11 Pianists,  9 vocalist, and 7 Instrumentalists (1 cello, 2 violin, 2 flute, 1 bassoon. 1 French horn).

•  9 contestants were selected for the Finals Concert held on 23 January at Chancellor Baptist Church.  In addition to the Competition winners, finalists included Bethany Thompson, violin; Paulius Sinkora, piano;  Cherie Wehle, soprano; Analisa Wall, soprano; Christopher Yang, piano.

 Previous Competition winners were: 

2009:  First Place – Ryan Feng, pianist;   Second Place – John Callahan, pianist;   Third Place – Christian Aldridge, violinist 

2008:  First Place – Chuhern Hwang, pianist;   Second Place – Ryan Feng, pianist;   Third Place – Christian Aldridge

2007:  First Place - AnnaMarie Ignarro, clarinetist;   Second Place – Dan Knowlton, marimbaist;   Third Place – Chuhern Hwang, pianist

2006:  First Place – Kana Zink, pianist;  Second Place – Zachary Sanders, violinist; Third Place – Michael Konieczny, pianist.

2005:  First Place – Ahmed-Mehdi Najm, flutist;   Second Place – Thomas Carr, pianist;   Third Place – Devon Newburn, pianist

2004:  First Place – Michael Konieczny, pianist;   Second Place – Andrew McEvoy, guitarist;  Third Place – Thomas Carr, pianist

News Release (4/28/2009):  22nd Annual Chamber Music Festival Scheduled for June 2-6, 2009