Six Outstanding Student Soloists to Vie for Top Prize in Jacoby Competition

February 22, 2013
Woman
University of Wyoming graduate student Mei Lian will play the first movement of Camille Saint-Saens’ “Piano Concerto No. 2” during the Dorothy Jacoby Student Soloist Competition Friday, March 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts concert hall.

Six will perform. Only one will be chosen as the University of Wyoming’s finest student musician during the Dorothy Jacoby Student Soloist Competition Friday, March 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts concert hall.

The Jacoby Competition, sponsored by the UW Symphony Orchestra, is named after Dorothy Jacoby, a founding member of the Symphony Association and a longtime supporter of classical music in Laramie. Her sons, Pater and Michael Jacoby, made a generous contribution in honor of their late mother. That gift, along with contributions from many of Dorothy Jacoby’s friends, created the endowment for the $2,500 prize that is awarded at the performance.

“This year, we have an incredibly varied program: one (soloist) each from the string, woodwind, brass and percussion families; and a singer and a pianist,” says Michael Griffith, UW’s director of orchestral activities. “These UW students come from three continents and include three from Wyoming (one Laramie native), and from as far away as Armenia and China.”

This year’s soloists, who will perform with the Symphony Orchestra, are:

--Evan Bradley, a senior from Gillette, will perform the “Marimba Concerto” by Daniel Bukvich.

--Ara Harutyunyan, a performer’s certificate student from Yerevan, Armenia, will perform the first movement of Brahms’ “Violin Concerto.” Harutyunyan is the UW Symphony Orchestra’s Charles Moore MD Concertmaster Fellow.

--Mei Lian, a graduate student from Shanghai, China, will play the first movement of Camille Saint-Saens’ “Piano Concerto No. 2.”

--Alison Rickard, a soprano and a senior from Laramie, will sing Dvorak’s “Song to the Moon” from his opera “Rusalka.”

--Elizabeth Szott, a senior from Cheyenne, will play the first two movements of the “Euphonium Concerto” by Vladimir Cosma.

--Tak Chiu Wong, a graduate student from Hong Kong, will perform the first movement of Lars-Erik Larsson’s “Saxophone Concerto.”

A panel of judges will choose the winner of the Jacoby prize, which has been awarded since 1998. During the judges’ deliberation, the orchestra will perform a rendition of Edgar’s “Nimrod” from the” Enigma Variations.” Becky Frawley, a senior from Phoenix, Ariz., will conduct.

Tickets cost $10 for the general public, $7 for senior citizens and $6 for students. To order tickets, call (307) 766-6666. Tickets also are available at www.uwyo.edu/finearts or stop at the Fine Arts or the Wyoming Union box offices.

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