The Richardson Symphony Orchestra Announces the Winners of the 2010 Lennox International Young Artists Competition and the concert performance by the first place winners.
Winners in the piano division are:
• Third Place – Yuebing Lin of Fort Worth, Texas
• Second Place – George Fu of Frederick, MD and a student at Harvard University and the Curtis Institute of Music.
• First Place – Sahun Hong of Seoul, Korea currently residing in Ft. Worth, TX and a student at Texas Christian University
Winners of the string division are:
• Third Place – Violist Leah Ferguson of Wilmette, Illinois
• Second Place – Cellist Emma Bobbs of Pepper Pike, OH and a student at the
Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, TX
• First Place – Violinist Holly Jenkins of House Springs, MO and a student at
the Oberlin Conservatory, Oberlin, OH.
The first place winners, pianist Sahun Hong and violinist Holly Jenkins, will perform with maestro Anshel Brusilow and the Richardson Symphony on March 13th at the Eisemann Center. Mr. Hong will perform the Piano Concerto #3 in c minor, Op. 37 by Ludwig van Beethoven and Ms. Jenkins will perform Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35. Each will also receive a $3,000 prize to be presented by Lennox International Chairman Todd Bluedorn.
(From left to right)
Yuebing Lin, George Fu, Sahun Hong,
Piano Division Judge: Frank Weinstock
String Division Judge: Pamela Frank, Holly Jenkins, Emma Bobbs, Leah Ferguson
Concert Performance by the First Place Winners.
When: Saturday, March 13, 2010
8 p.m.
Where: The Hill Performance Hall at the Eisemann Center in Richardson
The complete program for the evening is:
Felix Mendelssohn: Overture to the Incidental Music to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Op. 21
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto #3 in c minor, Op. 37
- Allegro con brio
- Largo
- Rondo-Allegro
Sahun Hong, piano
INTERMISSION
Felix Mendelssohn: Incidental Music to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
- Nocturne
- Scherzo
- Wedding March
Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35
- Allegro moderato
- Canzonetta: Andante
- Finale-Allegro vivacissimo
Holly Jenkins, violin
Ticket Information: Ticket prices range from $15 to $75 and are available from the Eisemann Center ticket office at 972-744-4650. Tickets may also be purchased on-line via the RSO web site (www.richardsonsymphony.org). Students may purchase tickets for one half price at the door.
About the Lennox International Young Artists Competition:
The Young Artists Competition was founded in 1968 by the late Vera McCarty, who personally funded the competition and the prize money awarded until 1990. Today, the Lennox International Young Artists Competition is one of only a few venues for talented string and piano students age 13 to 19 from throughout the world to gather and compete for cash prizes and the opportunity to perform a full concerto or major work with a symphony orchestra. (Most other young artists competitions, particularly in this area, are designed to attract students only from the local region.) Musicians compete for first, second and third places in each division with corresponding awards of $ 3,000, $ 1,000 and $ 500. First place winners are also awarded the opportunity to play with the orchestra in March following the competition.
The distinguished judges for the 2010 competition, held Saturday, January 9th, were pianist Frank Weinstock, of the College—Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and violinist Pamela Frank of the Curtis Institute of Music as well as RSO music director Anshel Brusilow.
Richardson-based Lennox International, a leading provider of climate control solutions, became the presenting sponsor in 1991. The company continues to provide underwriting support not only for the Competition, but for the March concert featuring the winning piano and string competitors as well.
“Supporting our most talented young musicians helps ensure a brighter future for them and for our music” says Ozzie Buckler, vice president, communications and public relations for Lennox International. “Lennox International is proud and excited to support the talents and passions of these exceptionally talented and hard-working young artists as they bring our greatest music to life for new generations.”
The competition is held annually at the University of Texas at Dallas School of Arts and Humanities which has partnered with the Richardson Symphony to host the event. For several finalists over the years, the legacy goes far beyond the stage. While many of the budding performers have become professional musicians and are on the concert circuit, others are teaching and some are in arts administration roles. (Richardson Symphony executive director George Landis was a Young Artist Competition winner in 1971.) “Regardless of the path chosen, finalists cite the experience of performing with the symphony as so important and encouraging at the beginning of a career in the performing arts,” says Thelma Ball, Richardson Symphony Board member and, along with fellow Board member Shirley Latham, a co-chair of the competition.
About the Artists:
Sahun Hong
First place piano winner Sahun Hong is a senior honor student at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth majoring in Piano Performance under Professor John Owings.
Born in 1994 in Seoul, Korea, Sahun has studied piano since the age of four. Prior to moving to Fort Worth in 2002, he studied with Professor Gary Wolf in Orlando, Florida. He has played in master classes for Veda Kaplinsky, Martin Canin and Nelita True. Before entering TCU, Sahun performed for 28 schools in the Fort Worth ISD through the Van Cliburn Foundation’s “Musical Awakenings” program. Among the many gifts he received, his most treasured is a personally autographed photo of Van Cliburn. He was also invited to perform for the Educational Program of Performing Arts Fort Worth at the Van Cliburn Recital Hall in 2005.
Sahun has won numerous prizes and awards. Most recently, he won First Prize in the Piano Division of the Lennox International Young Artist Competition. In 2009, he won the Texas Music Teachers Association statewide Solo Contest and the Fort Worth Symphony Young Artists Competition. He performed the Beethoven Concerto# 3 with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in September, 2009. He was also featured last fall on the nationally-broadcast National Public Radio show, From the Top. In April, 2009, Sahun won First Prize in the Leschetizky Competition for Gifted Young Pianists in New York, which included a performance with Camerata New York in Merkin Hall. Howard Aibel wrote in New York Concert Review that Sahun “was at home at the keyboard, performing this great Beethoven Piano Concerto # 3 with clarity, confidence and wisdom.” In January, he won First Prize in the Piano Division and overall Grand Prize in the 2009 Juanita Miller Concerto Competition, sponsored by the Texas Association of Symphony Orchestras (TASO) and will perform next season with the Brazos Valley Symphony. He has also been invited to perform with the East Texas Symphony and the Waco Symphony. The April, 2008 issue of Fort Worth Magazine featured Sahun in an article titled 14 Brilliant Minds. Sahun enjoys math, reading, speed cubing, magic tricks, chess, and table tennis.
Holly Jenkins
Eighteen year old violinist Holly Jenkins is the first place winner in the String Division. She is from House Springs Missouri, and attends the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Ohio) where she studies with Milan Vitek.
Holly first appeared as a soloist with the Alton Symphony as their Guild Winner when she was 11 years old. Since then, she has won the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, first place in the Clayton Symphony Concerto Competition, the Belleville Philharmonic Concerto Competition in both 2004 and 2006, and the Alton Symphony Concerto Competition in 2004 and 2006. Other awards include prizes in the St. Louis Chamber Orchestra Young Artist's Competition in 2005 and 2008, and the Lennox Young Artist's Competition. She has performed as a soloist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in both 2007 and 2008, the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, the St. Louis Chamber Orchestra, the Principia College Orchestra, the Belleville Philharmonic, The Clayton Symphony, and the Alton Symphony. In 2008, she attended the Eastern Music Festival where she studied under Jeffrey Multer, and, as winner of the Concerto Competition, soloed with the student festival orchestra.
As a serious chamber musician, she has competed with various chamber groups in the Fischoff National Chamber music competition in 2005, 2007, and 2008 and at the Plowman National Chamber Music Competition in 2006. She has served as concertmaster for several orchestras, including the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. Her master class performances include such illustrious artists as Midori, Gil Shaham, Leonidas Kavakos, Donald Weilerstein, Christian Tetzlaff, Leila Josefowicz, Jennifer Koh, Robert McDuffie, Anne Akiko Meyers, and many others.
Music Director/Conductor’s prodigious talents were recognized when he was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of eleven. From there he went on to the Philadelphia Musical Academy (now the University of the Arts). At age 16, he was the youngest conducting student ever accepted by the late Pierre Monteux. Highlighting his early career was an autumn in Paris, where he was a winner in the Jacque Thibaud-Marguerite Long Violin Competition (1949). In the years after this, he performed as soloist with the major orchestras of the country.
In 1955, he turned his sights toward orchestral experience. He spent a season as Concertmaster and Associate Conductor of the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra, four years as Associate Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra, and seven years as Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In 1970, Brusilow was appointed Executive Director and Conductor of the Dallas Symphony, a position he held until 1973. During his tenure, the orchestra toured the west coast and Central and South America for the first time ever, gaining accolades for both conductor and orchestra. Beginning in 1973, he developed orchestra programs and graduate conducting studies at the University of North Texas and Southern Methodist University. In the fall of 1989, he returned to the University of North Texas as Director of Orchestral Studies. He served in this position until his retirement in 2008 after more than 35 brilliant years. The 2009-2010 Richardson Symphony season is his seventeenth with the orchestra since being appointed Music Director and Conductor of the orchestra at the beginning of the 1993 – 1994 concert season.
Maestro Brusilow has conducted orchestras across the nation as well as in Europe, Mexico, and Korea. In March of 1991 he traveled to New York with the UNT Chamber Orchestra to inaugurate a Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. In May of 1992, he toured Spain for two weeks with the University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra. Recent guest appearances have been with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Zalapa in Veracruz, Mexico, and the AIMS Orchestra in Graz, Austria. He conducted the Filharmonica de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Mexico in February, 2009 to great critical acclaim.
About The Richardson Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1961, the Richardson Symphony Orchestra has grown with the northern part of the DFW Metroplex to become the premiere orchestra of the region. It is the resident symphony of the Charles W.
Eisemann Center for Performing Arts and offers a variety of classical and pops concerts each season programmed to appeal to the varied audiences of the Richardson, Plano/Collin County, Denton County and North Dallas area.
The mission of the Richardson Symphony is to strengthen the appeal of symphonic music and to enrich the lives of the people of the greater Northern Metroplex (Northern Dallas, Collin and Denton counties with a population of over one million) through the presentation of affordable and accessible live, classical and pops symphonic music of the highest artistic quality.
Now in its forty-eighth year, the orchestra is comprised of seventy-five professional musicians from throughout the DFW area under the leadership of Anshel Brusilow, Music Director/Conductor. The Orchestra is supported by a dedicated Board of Directors comprising over 50 corporate and community leaders; 165 Richardson Symphony League members; and other community volunteers, all of whom contribute hundreds of hours each year and play a vital role, through fundraising efforts, in the success of the Richardson Symphony.
In addition to the critically-acclaimed season of six subscriptions series performances (classical and pops), the Richardson Symphony is also widely regarded as a leader in education and community outreach programs. The Lennox International Young Artists Competition for Piano and Strings annually draws talented young performers from around the world. In addition, the orchestra is actively involved in elementary education programs in the Richardson Independent School District and in programs benefiting students at area universities.
Sponsors:
Lennox International is the sponsor for the Young Artists Competition and is the underwriter for the concert. Additional season sponsors are The City of Richardson through the Richardson Arts Commission, the Texas Commission on the Arts and American Airlines. The University of Texas at Dallas graciously provides facilities for the competition.