Outstanding student musicians who represent musical excellence at West Virginia University will take the stage with the WVU Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mitchell Arnold, as the Orchestra presents its annual Young Artists Concert on Thursday, March 19.

The program begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre at the Creative Arts Center.

The Young Artists Competition is open to all full-time junior, senior and graduate student music majors. The winners are selected after a competitive audition process.

This year’s Young Artists Competition winners are: pianist Julia Kinderknecht, pianist Tse Wei Chai, hornist Lauren Harris, violinist Keith Michael and saxophonist Tak Chiu Wong.

“Every year at this time I have the pleasure of working with the outstanding winners of our rigorous competition. The talent they represent is exciting,” said Dr. Arnold, who is director of Orchestral Activities in the WVU School of Music. “The students began working on these pieces long ago and, as this year’s winners, they have the opportunity to play with our outstanding award-winning orchestra.”

Arnold said that all of the works that the students will perform demand both sure technique and mature musicianship.

“These pieces, like all the music that the WVU Symphony Orchestra regularly performs, are programmed by the world’s finest soloists and professional orchestras. Morgantown is fortunate that here at WVU we have students who play them so well,” Arnold said.

Two of the students are members of the WVU Symphony Orchestra and will step out from the ranks and perform as featured soloists. Lauren Harris will perform the delightful “Villanelle” for horn and orchestra by Paul Dukas, a composer most famous for his “Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” and violinist Keith Michael will perform the first movement of the stunning “Violin Concerto” by the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

Rounding out the program will be Julia Kinderknecht’s performance of the first movement of Robert Schumann’s mercurial “Piano Concerto in A Minor” and Tse Wei Chai’s performance of the fiery “Piano Concerto No. 1” by Sergei Prokofiev.

Due to problems with the music publisher, Tak Chiu Wong, a doctoral student in saxophone performance who studies with Michael Ibrahim, will not be able to perform on this concert. Instead, he will perform the “Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra” by Andr� Waignein on the WVU Symphony Orchestra’s April 23 concert at the CAC.

For tickets and more information about the WVU Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Concert, contact the WVU Box Office at (304) 293-SHOW.

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CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu

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