CWSO Youth Concerto Competition winners announced
Metro Wire Staff
The Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra has announced the winners of the annual Betty Frost Jenkins Young Artist Concerto Competition.
This year’s winner is Olivia Yang, an 11th grader at Stevens Point Area Senior High. Yang performed the first movement of Cello Concerto in G Minor by Kabalevsky.
She began her studies in cello at the age of two using a Styrofoam box cello with yarn strings. Since then, after graduating to a cello that could actually make sounds, her credits as a cellist include serving in the Central Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra Program, winning second place in their 2018 concerto competition, and first place in the 2019 competition.
Yang was also selected to perform in the honors recitals at the 2018 and 2019 American Suzuki Institutes. Since her father is an accomplished pianist and her mother is the principal clarinetist with the CWSO, she regularly performs with her family to provide music at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s Birds In Art Exhibit.
Yang received an honorable mention prize in the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra’s 2019 Betty Frost Jenkins Young Artist Concerto Competition. She has studied cello with Lawrence Leviton, Tim Mutschlecner, Peter Thomas, Jean Dexter, and Carey Cheney.
This year’s honorable mention winner is Tatiana Van Tiem, an 11th grader at St. Francis Solano Homeschool Academy. She performed the first movement of the Violin Concerto in C-Major, op. 48, by Kabalevsky.
Coming from a very musical family, Van Tiem began formal studies at age 4, developing into a fine violinist and violist. As an orchestral player, Tatiana has held the positions of Concertmaster and Principal Viola in her school orchestras, the Central Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra Program, and the Symphony Orchestra at New England Music Camp in Maine, where she received the Junior Honor Musician Award.
This spring Van Tiem distinguished herself as an Honorable Mention at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Stars of Tomorrow Competition. She currently studies with Graham Emberton.
Talented high school musicians from Northern and Central Wisconsin performed a memorized movement from a concerto of their choice for the CWSO competition. The competition was held virtually with students providing videos of their performance.
The competition is in honor of a long-time CWSO board member, musician, volunteer, and supporter, Betty Frost Jenkins, who established a fund to award a cash prize/scholarship to the winner.
The CWSO is affiliated with the College of Fine Arts and Communication at UW-Stevens Point and is supported in part by the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. The CWSO office is located inside the Smith Scarabocchio Art Museum at 800 Main St. in Stevens Point.
For more information go to cwso.org or call 715.345.7726.
