UNCG Student Artist Competition

By carolinianweb on January 20, 2016 • ( 0 )

Quinn Hunter/ The Carolinian

Alexa Brown
Staff Writer

Each year, exceptional student performers are allowed to audition through the Student Artist Competition held by the UNCG School of Music, Theatre and Dance (SMTD) for a chance to appear in concert with the University Symphony Orchestra.

This year, vocalist Elena Flores won Grand Prize. Other winners included pianist Colin McDearman and saxophonist Emily Loboda.

The philosophy of the Student Artist Competition, as described on the SMTD webpage, has two parts.

One part is, “to offer students the opportunity to appear as soloists with orchestra in the performance of full or partial concerti, arias and other short works on regularly scheduled concerts of the University Symphony Orchestra.”

The second part of the philosophy is, “to present outstanding SMTD students to the public in a program in which diversity is desired, but excellence in performance is the basic requirement.”

The UNCG Orchestra program is highly regarded for its performance excellence, adventurous programming and high artistic standards.

Initial auditions for the competition take place in December and are administered by the keyboard, voice, brass, percussion and string departments. Three students from each area (keyboard, woodwind, voice, strings, brass and percussion) are chosen to compete in final round of the competition, administered by the conducting and ensembles areas of the performance department held in the spring.

During the final round, each student is permitted to perform complete works or samples of multiple works for up to fifteen minutes.

There isn’t an entry fee for the Student Artist Competition and it is open to the public.

An impartial committee of faculty members from the SMTD serves as judges of the competition and the conductor of the University Symphony Orchestra serves as an advisor to the committee.

Winners of the competition will be scheduled to perform in concerts with the Symphony Orchestra beginning in April 2016, and will be included in concerts continuing into the 2016-2017 academic year.

On January 14th, friends, family and judges gathered in the UNCG Recital Hall for the final round of the 2016 Student Artists Competition.

There was an air of excitement in the auditorium as fifteen talented students enthusiastically took the stage to exhibit their musical talents featuring an array of instruments such as the piano, violin, trombone, flute, viola, tuba, clarinet and a few very powerful voices. Each of the pieces was wildly complex and filled with fluctuating sounds that told a story and demanded the attention of everyone in the room.

The passion and confidence that the performers had for their craft was evident in the way their bodies moved as they manipulated the strings, buttons and keys of their instruments and made them a lot of fun to watch.

It was almost dizzying to watch Jiawei Qu’s fingers fly back and forth across the keys of the piano and the amount of breath control it takes to master an instrument as large and heavy as Max Wang’s tuba. The level of focus required for McKayla Phillips to perform her percussion is unimaginable. At any rate, each performance was very enjoyable and the competition overall served as an awesome musical experienc