Celebrate Future With Tucson Orchestra

The participating performers were chosen by Lindabeth Binkley, principal oboe, Shawn Campbell, horn and Tucson Symphony Orchestra Education and Community Partnerships Director, Carla Ecker, associate principal violin, Anna Gendler, violin, Alexander Lipay, principal flute, and George Hanson, TSO Music Director and Conductor.

The Young Artists Competition is unique because it is the only competition in the region where the winner may have a chance to perform with a full, symphonic, professional orchestra. The Young Composers Project provides a living laboratory for elementary through high school aged students to learn to compose music for orchestra. It is a rarity nationally because it is designed for elementary and secondary aged students, for its comprehensive program content, and because the professional orchestra will perform student compositions written during its year-long Young Composers Project. In addition to the two Young Composers Project works, “Storm of Shadows” by Adam Conyne and “Espejos del Sur” by Nicholas Mariscal, the Celebrate the Future program will feature music by Camille Saint-Saens, Mozart, Edward Elgar, Bela Bartok and conclude with Symphony No. 8 by Antonin Dvorak.

The Celebrate the Future participants are:

* Alice Cai, piano, is a Senior at Catalina Foothills High School considering premed and a music minor when she attends college in the fall. She began playing piano at age 5 and began studying with her current teacher, Dr. June Chow-Tyne, in 1997. She has soloed twice with Civic Orchestra of Tucson and has earned many awards from the TMTA Merit Scholarship Auditions and also the James R. Anthony Honors Recitals. To pursue her love of music for classical and numerous other genres, Alice started a music club called Vocalise at her school to showcase the vocal and instrumental talent of her peers.

* Adam Conyne, composer, is a seventh grader at Esperero Canyon Middle School. He plays violin, trumpet, steel drum, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and more. Adam enjoys using computer software to compose, arrange, mix and record all types of music. He experiments with multiple combinations of live and recorded music. 2007-08 is his third year in the Young Composers Project. In his first year he composed a string quintet, FUGUE, which was chosen to be performed as part of TSO’s Music in the Schools program. Adam’s composition, Storm of Shadows, written in 2007/08, is his first full orchestral piece.

* Jingjing Fan, piano, was born in China in 1994 and is now an eighth grader in the GATE program at Doolen Middle School. She began her piano study in Tucson with Ms. Elssie Chiu at age seven. At eleven, she studied piano with Dr. Simone Machado. She has been a student of Dr. Svetlana Arakelova since June, 2007. In October 2007, Jingjing Fan won the 20th annual TSO Young Artist Competition (Division III) and got the third place in Arizona Youth Piano Competition (Junior Division). Her TSO Celebrate the Future performance marks her concert debut.

* Hope Shepherd, cello, is from Mesa, Arizona. She has been playing the cello for twelve years. She has performed for many prestigious cellists in masterclasses including Bernard Greenhouse, Laurence Lesser, and Joel Krosnick. She currently studies with Thomas Landschoot at Arizona State University.

* Matthew Vera, viola, is a junior at Rincon high school. An accomplished violinist and violist, he is the Concertmaster of the Tucson Philharmonia Youth Orchestra, and plays viola in the top level group of Tucson Junior Strings. Matthew has studied with Judy Strayer, David Rife, Dennis Bourret, and Steven Moeckel. As a freshman in high school, Matthew won first prize in the Tucson Philharmonia Solo Competition and made his solo debut in Centennial Hall with the Tucson Philharmonia Youth Orchestra. In October of 2007, Matthew won first prize in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition, the first violist to do so. This past summer, Matthew attended Interlochen Center for the Arts, where he did extremely well. He was principal violist of the World Youth Symphony; he won the Interlochen Solo Competition and soloed with the orchestra, and received the Maddy award, one of the most prestigious awards given at Interlochen. Recently, he was awarded the Emerson Scholarship, which is a full scholars ip to Interlochen, one of only 52 given in the entire country. Matthew also takes piano from Angeline Ng, a well known local artist.

* Nicholas Mariscal, composer, a sophomore at University High School, is a pianist and cellist. He has participated in the Young Composers Project for five years. He says: “I have been very interested in and completely in love with the music of some of the great Latin American composers of the 20th and 21st centuries: My piece, Espejos del Sur (Reflections of the South), is both an homage to those composers and a reflection of their wonderful music, as well as something that is completely my own.”

Launched in 1987, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition continues to draw many fine young musicians from throughout Arizona, grade school through college age. This year, 44 musicians in three age divisions participated.

Since 1993, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s Young Composers Project has produced more than 140 new works by young composers. Participants meet bi-weekly during the year, work with TSO musicians, attend TSO rehearsals, and meet with guest artists and composers, all culminating in a reading, performance and recording of their newly composed pieces by the Tucson Symphony Chamber Orchestra and String Quintet. -- www.tucsonsymphony.org