2014 Solo Competition!

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1 AMERICAN STRING TEACHERS ASSOCIATION Massachusetts ASTA presents Violin Viola Cello Bass Harp Guitar 2014 Solo Competition Saturday, March 15, 2014 The Boston Conservatory 8 The Fenway, Boston, MA JOHNSON STRING INSTRUMENT Final Round Recital FREE & Open to the Public. 6:30 PM Suelly Hall Awards Reception to Follow in the Opera Studio

2 Greetings, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 1st biennial MA-ASTA Solo Competition. We celebrate our contestants dedication and commitment, and thank them for sharing their artistry and love of music. The mission of the American String Teachers Association is to enrich lives through the joy of teaching and playing string instruments. The Massachusetts chapter strives to foster a dynamic and interactive community of performers and educators. By participating in today s event, you play an active part in making that goal a reality. MA-ASTA offers many diverse programs. In addition to today s competition, we run annual composition and chamber music competitions, a grant program, a mentorship program, studio teacher forums, and ASTA-CAP (certificate of advancement program). We honor two of our members annually with the Studio Teacher and Orchestra Director or the Year awards, and provide support for students who are accepted into the National High School Honors Orchestra. The national organization s vast array of services include an annual conference, instrument insurance, a scholarly journal, discounts on publications and resources, professional development opportunities, and access to a vibrant network of colleagues. ASTA is a powerful voice advocating for the arts in education. Thank you for being here and supporting our young musicians. Sincerely, Sharan Leventhal Sharan Leventhal President, MA-ASTA

3 American String Teachers Association (ASTA) & the Massachusetts chapter of ASTA (MA-ASTA) presents 2014SoloCompetition Saturday, March 15th, 2014 The Boston Conservatory Sponsored by: Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Conservatory CodaBow International Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Johnson String Instrument Shar Music Products Indian Hill Music Spectrum Music Poster, Cover & Program Booklet designed by Scott Thomas Lesser

4 Welcome o he Solo Competi ion Congratulations to all the string players participating today. I m excited to finally hear all of the great music that has been prepared and polished. To our competitors: please thank your family, teachers & friends for all the support you have received that has been helpful on your musical journey thus far. You ought to be proud of your own hard work and accomplishments. Best of luck to you all and I hope you find this experience valuable. This solo competition has been months in the making. There have been many who have volunteered their time and energy to bring this new competition to fruition. Today would not have happened without the strong support of our wonderful sponsors. Please take notice of their advertisements and strongly consider thanking them for their support and patronize their businesses. All the cash & merchandise awards valued at $3,350 total were provided through their generous sponsorship, and the competition itself could not survive without their donations. For all those in attendance tonight for the Final Round Recital, you can vote for the Audience Favorite Prize by attending the Awards Reception across the hall. Thanks for supporting these young musicians For a full announcement of winners of the competition, as well as further information on our state chapter of ASTA and our competition sponsors, please visit the MA-ASTA website following the competition at: Be sure to check out the upcoming 2015 ASTA National Solo Competition information See inside back cover and visit the ASTA website: I would like to personally mention and thank those who have been invaluable to the success of this event. First of all, my wife and daughters, my mentors Sharan Leventhal & Andrew Mark, and all the members of the MA-ASTA Board including Nora Karakousoglou, Jessica Billings-White & Richard Hagar. Also our distinguished judges, James O Dell and The Boston Conservatory, and the Conservatory student volunteers who are making today a more enjoyable experience for everyone. Have a great experience Sco ThomasLesser Scott Thomas Lesser

5 Solo Competition Chair, MA-ASTA

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7 Judges Biographies 2014 MA-ASTA SOLO COMPETITION Steven Lipsitt - Final Round Judge Steven Lipsitt is widely recognized for his ability to combine precision and passion, intelligence and invigoration. His February 2011 debut with Boston Lyric Opera was hailed by Opera News as a fiercely intelligent, entertaining production and by The Wall Street Journal as an incisive performance, while The Boston Phoenix observed: Lipsitt and his players brought it all to vibrant life and The Berkshire News commented: Lipsitt conducted the orchestra as if the music were in his blood. His technically and expressively balanced interpretations have been described by The New York Times as compelling and by The Boston Globe as an impressive demonstration of talent and discipline. Now in his fifteenth season as Music Director of the Boston Classical Orchestra, Steven Lipsitt has brought this professional chamber orchestra to the front ranks of Boston s musical life with freshly designed, vividly realized programs of four centuries of music. He has conducted orchestras in Russia, Greece, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Canada, and the U.S. He has been a guest conductor at Scottish Opera, the Kennedy Center Opera House, Boston Lyric Opera, the Boston Pops, and Boston Ballet, and has served as cover conductor for the symphony orchestras of St. Louis, Toronto, and Boston. He has trained young musicians at Tanglewood, New England Conservatory, Boston University, the Hartt School of Music, and the Boston Conservatory Opera Theatre. Lipsitt won first prize at the inaugural Dimitris Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition, and at the Marienbad Georg Tintner Mastercourse. He holds bachelor s and master s degrees from Yale University, where he won awards for exceptional promise & excellence in conducting, studying conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller, clarinet with Keith Wilson, composition with Jacob Druckman & Martin Bresnick, and improvisation with John Mehegan. Jonathan Miller - Final Round Judge After attending Pablo Casals's master class at the University of California at Berkeley, Jonathan Miller chose to abandon his study of literature there and devote himself completely to the cello, training with Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio. Seeking out masters of different schools and styles, he also studied with Raya Garbousova, Leonard Rose, Harvey Shapiro, and Edgar Lustgarten. In 1964 and 1965 he was a fellowship student at the Tanglewood Music Center. Before joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1971, Mr. Miller held appointments as principal cellist of the Juilliard, Hartford, and San Diego symphony orchestras. He has been soloist with the Hartford Symphony, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra of Boston, and he has performed in chamber music concerts at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood. A winner of the Jeunesses Musicales auditions, he has toured the United States twice with the New York String Sextet, and he has appeared as a member of the Fine Arts Quartet. Mr. Miller is founder and music director of the Boston Artists' Ensemble, which has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Council for the Arts. In 1980, during its first season, the Boston Artists' Ensemble performed twenty live concerts heard on WGBH-FM in Boston and simultaneously broadcast nationwide. Mr. Miller has taught at the New England Conservatory and at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. In June 1990, at the invitation of Mstislav Rostropovich, he appeared as soloist at the American Cello Congress, and he performed music of Janá?ek and Bach at the 1996 American Page "9

8 2014 MA-ASTA SOLO COMPETITION Cello Congress. He has recorded two volumes of Beethoven cello sonatas with pianist Randall Hodgkinson for Centaur records, praised as "exciting" in the New York Times. Mr. Miller is a member of the Gramercy Trio, which received a Copland Foundation Grant for its first CD, "Shadow Bands," on Newport Classics. The Gramercy Trio has performed in New York City three times, each time receiving enthusiastic critical notice in the New York Times. Mr. Miller performs on a famous Matteo Goffriller cello, the "Paganini-Piatti" built in Venice in Randall Hodgkinson - Preliminary Round Judge Randall Hodgkinson, grand prize winner of the International American Music Competition sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation, has performed with orchestras in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Boston, Cleveland and abroad in Italy and Iceland. In addition he has performed numerous recital programs spanning the repertoire from J.S. Bach to Donald Martino. He is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and performs the four-hand and two-piano repertoire with his wife Leslie Amper. Festival appearances include Blue Hill-Maine, Bargemusic, Chestnut Hill Concerts in Madison Connecticut, Seattle Chamber music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest (Portland, OR) and Mainly Mozart in San Diego, CA. A CD of solo piano music on the Ongaku label has recently been released to critical acclaim. Other recordings include a live world premiere of the Gardner Read Piano Concerto for Albany records. During the season, Mr. Hodgkinson made his solo debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra which was repeated in Carnegie Hall. Mr. Hodgkinson is on the faculties of Wellesley College, the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and the Longy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rictor Noren - Preliminary Round Judge With a commitment to furthering music education, and bringing greater sense of enjoyment and fulfillment to concertgoers around the world, Rictor Noren helps deconstruct music for audiences, with an emphasis on gaining further insights into the listener s internal world. Through his lectures and demonstrations, he brings to life those moments in music that directly affect the listener. In addition to his regular lectures series, Mr. Noren writes an ongoing Blog for the magazine Psychology Today ( introducing his readers to a more nuanced approach to music appreciation, and its role into greater human functioning. Rictor Noren teaches violin, viola, chamber music, string fundamentals, and string pedagogy at the Boston Conservatory of Music. He also teaches at Harvard University, MIT, the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division, the Prelude Music Academy, and the New World Symphony. Additionally, he has taught at the National String Workshop, the Longy School of Music, the Crowden School, Rocky Ridge Music Center, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Sapporo, Japan, The Conservatory in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Istanbul University, Turkey. At the Boston Conservatory, Mr. Noren is coordinator of the newly offered Masters in String pedagogy program, and exciting program designed to prepare masters level students for a career in pedagogy. Mr. Noren works with pre-college and college students, and adult learners nationally and internationally to achieve practical and professional outcomes. His collaborative approach emphasizes balance, goal setting, efficient practice techniques, musical development, and a hands-on approach to training. His work supports students overcoming technical barriers, conquering physical pain, and developing a professional identity. Page "10 Page "10

9 2014 Awards Listing $3,350 Total Value $1,000 Final Round Cash Prizes courtesy of Boston Symphony Orchestra. $250 Gift Certificate for Audience Favorite courtesy of Johnson String Instrument. $300 Best Musical Interpretation in the Preliminary Round, courtesy of Rictor Noren. $100 Best Contemporary Performance in Junior & Senior Divisions in the Preliminary Round ($200 total), courtesy of Sharan Leventhal. $100 Best Performance of The Sound by Mischa Salkind-Pearl, winning entry of 2013 MA-ASTA Composition Competition, courtesy of MA-ASTA. CodaBow Diamond SX ($595-$715 value) with customized ASTA/CodaBow Frog (see picture below), courtesy of CodaBow International. Presto Ovation Violin Bow ($289 value) (see picture on page 14) courtesy of Shar Music Products. 2Concert Ticket Voucher Pairs ($200 each) courtesy of Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. 1 Concert Ticket Voucher Pair ($70 value) courtesy of Orchestra of Indian Hill. $25 Gift Certificate courtesy of Spectrum Music. Prizes to be awarded at the judges discretion. + = Page "11

10 About the 2014 MA-ASTA Solo Competition The Massachusetts Chapter (MA-ASTA) of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) is pleased to announce the first biennial 2014 Solo Competition. This new solo competition is open to young string players (under 25) performing on Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, Harp and Guitar. Previously the MA-ASTA Solo Competition was the preliminary round for the ASTA National Solo Competition. The format has changed at the national level to general video submissions, allowing the ASTA state chapters to create their own independent competitions. MA-ASTA is excited to offer a competition at the state level that will provide a broader experience. New to the competition is a Contemporary category where contestants will perform works by living composers, with a focus on local composers. This emphasis aligns with the new MA ASTA Composition Competition, as the winning composition is featured in the Solo Competition. This year, violinists in the senior division will perform Mischa Salkind-Pearl's The Sound, the winner of the 2013 MA-ASTA Composition Competition. Other categories include Baroque, Etude and Contestant's Choice, providing a wider variety of repertoire for those who choose to also participate in the ASTA National Solo Competition in alternate years. The competition and Final Round Recital (open to the public) will take place at 6:30 PM on Saturday, March 15th at The Boston Conservatory in Boston, MA, followed by the Awards Reception. Competitors will compete for $3,350 in total value of cash and merchandise prizes provided by generous sponsors. Page "12

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12 Keun-Young Sun - Accompanist a native of Seoul, Korea, after she received her bachelor s degree in piano performance from Kei- Myung University, Korea, Ms. Sun came to the United States in 1996 to study with Veronica Jochum and Irma Vallecillo at New England Conservatory, where she graduated with two master s degrees in both solo piano performance and collaborative piano. Ms. Sun has been performing as a collaborative pianist as well as a solo pianist in numerous venues, including the Benedict Music Tent in Aspen, Williams Hall, Jordan Hall & Brown Hall in Boston, and Rudolph Ganz Hall in Chicago. She also finished the recording project from PARMA Recordings with Boston String Quartet (Greg Bower s Piano Trio). As a scholarship recipient, she went to Aspen Music festival in 2005, where she worked with such acclaimed musicians as Anthony Eliot, Rita Sloan, and Peter Oundjian. She also played for numerous master classes including Menahem Pressler, Don-Il Han, Gilber Kalish, Jonathan Feldman, Pamela Frank, Yehuda Hanani, Misao Kawasaki, Edgar Meyer and Muir String Quartet. Ms. Sun received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in collaborative piano at the Boston University in 2010, where she was recipient of the Dean s scholarship and graduate assistantship. She is an official accompanist for the 2014 MA- ASTA Competition 2014 and currently a staff pianist at the Boston Conservatory and U-Mass Lowell. She is also a church musician and a pianist of the Endicott Singers in Beverly. Ms. Sun also maintains a private teaching studio in Boston and Reading, MA. Page "14

13 2014 MA-ASTA SOLO COMPETITION 2015 ASTA National Solo Competition Salt Lake City, Utah 2015 Guidelines and Repertoire Now Available at We are pleased to announce a new format for ASTA's renowned National Solo Competition.The 2015 National Solo Competition will consist of two rounds. The National Preliminary Round will be completed via video audition submission. The deadline for submissions is 11:59pm PDT of November 12, The application fee is $ There are two levels for the online Preliminary Round, the Junior Division and the Senior Division. The Junior Division is open to musicians under the age of 19 as of March 20, 2015 (born on or after March 20, 1996). The Senior Division is open to musicians as of March 20, 2015 (born on or after March 20, 1990 and before March 20, 1996). Musicians must be students of ASTA members or a member themselves. First Place and Second Place winners will be chosen for each instrument in each division in the online Preliminary Round by a distinguished panel of judges. The live Final Round will consist of 6 finalists chosen from among entrants in both the Junior and Senior Divisions. The six Laureate Finalists will participate in an evening event on March 20, 2015 at the ASTA s National Conference in Salt Lake City. The Laureate Finalists will compete for Grand Prize and the Audience Favorite award. Prizes $5,000 Grand Prize award $1,000 Audience Favorite award Six Laureate Finalists will each receive a $1,000 prize and free conference registration Laureate Finalists perform March 20, 2015 in the beautiful Abravanel Hall. Page "15 Page "15

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