2008 Young Musicians Chamber Music Competition

On Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 7:00 pm, Friends of Chamber Music hosted the 54th annual Young Musicians Chamber Music Competition in the Koerner Recital Hall at the Vancouver Academy of Music, 1270 Chestnut Street, Vancouver. We are pleased to foster young musicians’ interest in this wonderful music through this free public concert.  This is also a great way for people to come out and hear chamber music for the first time!  Year after year, the quality of the music-making is very high!

Pianists, string and wind players from Vancouver and around the Lower Mainland played together in groups to compete for cash prizes before an audience of more than 100 people.  Each member of a “Junior” group cannot be over age 18, and each member of a “Senior” group cannot be over age 26. This year’s finals featured a wide variety of ensembles playing music by composers ranging from Haydn and Beethoven to Bartok, Turina, Poulenc and Hindemith.  These ensembles were selected to compete from the earlier elimination play-downs.

This year, the judge for the finals was Evan Mitchell, assistant conductor with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.  He gave insightful constructive comments to all of the musicians as well as awarding the prizes to the winning ensembles. 

The Chan Prize was given to the first prize Senior category ensemble, a violin quartet:

Grazyna Baceivicz – Quartet for 4 Violins

Allegretto

Andante tranquill

Molto allegro

Jonathan Chan, violin

Stephanie Chan, violin

Alex Sachs, violin

Jan Bislin, violin

Second prize in the Senior Category was awarded to a brass trio:

Anthony Plog – Trio for Brass

III. Allegro Moderato

IV. Adagio

V. Allegro vivace

Alexander Cannon, trumpet

Nick Anderson, horn

James Hopson, trombone

The Fred Koerner Prize was awarded to the first prize ensemble in the Junior category, a cello trio:

Ludwig van Beethoven – Trio in C major, Opus 87

Adagio cantabile, Minuetto (allegro molto scherzo)

Carol Tsai, cello

Jennifer Son, cello

Isidora Nojkovic, cello

Second prize in the Junior category was awarded to a trio of clarinet, violin and piano:

Bela Bartok – Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet & Piano, Sz 111

Last movement

Henry Liao, violin

Evan Watkins, clarinet

Michelle Lin, piano

Peter Lang offered the other finalist ensembles an opportunity to perform a paid outreach concert in the community.  The other 2008 finalists were:

Junior:

Joseph Haydn – Piano Trio in C major, Hob XV: 27

Allegro

Frank Lin, violin

Veronica Oh, cello

Valerie Chong, piano

Joaquin Turina – Piano Trio no. 2 in B minor, Opus 76 –

First movement

Kaine Newton, violin

Tunmo Kim, cello

Emma Woo, piano

Senior:

Francis Poulenc – Sextet for Winds and Piano

First movement – trés vite et emporté

Yoobin Whang, flute

Jonathan Blackman, horn

Gina So, piano

Katelin Coleman, bassoon

Rachel Lim, oboe

Michael Mah, clarinet

Paul Hindemith – Kleine Kammermusik for 5 Winds, Opus 24 no. 2

First movement

Fourth movement

Fifth movement

Joanna Tse, flute

Emily Hopkins, oboe

Jessica Burkart, clarinet

Neil Jongbloed, horn

Selina Koo, bassoon

The application for next year’s Young Musicians Chamber Music Competition presented by the Friends of Chamber Music will be available soon at the link found on this page.

2007 winners

2006 winners