Young Artist Competition Awards Winners Scholarships
Young Artist Competition Awards Winners Scholarships
Posted
Terry White-
Young Artist Competition Awards Winners ScholarshipsA homeschooled high school junior cellist, a marimbist from Berne and a double bass player from Warsaw won the top three awards Saturday in the Fifth Annual Young Artist Competition sponsored by the Symphony of the Lakes and the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts.
The all-day competition was held in the Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center.
In all, 17 young musicians performed, nine in the junior division and eight in the senior division.
The top award, and a $500 Thomas N. Stirling Scholarship, was won by Emma Scofield, a homeschooled junior who performed Edward Elgar’s Concerto in E minor.
Second place, and a $250 Stirling Scholarship, was won by Ben Amstutz, a high school marimba player from Berne, who played Rosauro’s “Despedida.”
And third place, including a $150 Stirling Scholarship, was won by Warsaw’s Graydon Brath, who performed Bottesini’s Concerto #2 in B minor on the double bass.
The competition, in its fifth year, was conceived and directed for the first four years by Thomas N. Stirling, who was musical director for the Wagon Wheel Theatre and conductor of the Symphony of the Lakes. Stirling died suddenly in December, and contributions in his memory comprise the funds for the scholarships awarded to the winners.
The competition featured performers on the violin, oboe, piano, alto saxophone, cello, trumpet, flute, marimba, viola and bass.
Judges for the competition were Dr. Joyce Dubach, orchestra director in the Wawasee Community School Corp.; Dr. Matthew Hill, chair of the music department at Goshen College; and Dawn Engler, flute player, music educator and chamber musician from the Warsaw/Winona Lake area.
The competition, held each spring in late February or March, is designed to encourage young musicians and to showcase talents of rising musicians at the junior and senior high school level. Admission is always free, and area music fans are encouraged to attend. In the past, some of the winners have also performed their competition numbers with the Symphony of the Lakes. Saturday’s competition was staffed by players from the symphony and by members of the Symphony of the Lakes Committee.
