What an evening! The juried competition, staged on Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 6:30 pm at the Koerner Recital Hall inside the Vancouver Academy of Music, though not open to the general public due to the pandemic, was still pretty full with an enthusiastic crowd of friends and family who came out to support the talented young musicians as they competed for more than $8,000 in prizes at the 67rd Annual Young Musicians Competition finals.
In past years Audience Prizes had been generously donated by Dr. Malcolm Hayes, a member of the volunteer board of directors of Friends of Chamber Music, but due to pandemic logistical problems it was decided to forego these Prizes and Dr. Hayes, looking for a new way to contribute, took the stage as our MC.
Each group qualifying for the finals played chamber music for approximately ten minutes: music by Ravel, Greig, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schumann and Brahms. All of the performances were outstanding, and we’d like to thank our guest adjudicator, Robert Silverman, pianist, university educator and classical music aficionado for his wise insights and decisions about prizes.
Mr. Silverman, after giving constructive comments to all the members of all the ensembles, awarded the following prizes:
Junior Category (Age not exceeding 18 years)
First Prize
Ravel String Quartet in F major, 1st movement, Allegro moderato
Sequoia Quartet
- Kai Chow, violin
- Brooklyn Wood, violin
- Davin Mar, viola
- David Han, cello
Second Prize (Shared)
Greig String Quartet in G minor, 1st movement, Un poco andante, Allegro molto ed agitato
Cedar Quartet
- Norah Mix, violin
- Mio Nakajo, violin
- Johnny Huang, viola
- Julian Lee De Vita, cello
Mendelssohn Piano Trio #1 in D minor, 1st movement, molto allegro ed agitato
Kootenay Trio
- Hannah Elworthy, violin
- Phoebe Lan, cello
- Ivy Fan, piano
Third Prize
Brahms Piano Trio #3 in C minor, 1st movement, allegro energico
Nottoway Trio
- Sebastian Hyland, violin
- Trevis Wong, cello
- Valerie Tsang, piano
Honourable mention:
Brahms Piano Trio #1 in B major, 1st movement, allegro con brio
Trio Pyora
- Sean Yang, violin
- Da-Yong Chan, cello
- Hannah Zhou, piano
Special Prize
Mozart Piano Trio in B flat major, 1st movement, allegro
Pi Trio
- Adam Ngui, violin
- Quizi Nini Lu, cello
- Allen Ding, piano
- Senior Category (Age not exceeding 26 years)
Senior Category (Age not exceeding 26 years)
First Prize
Schumann piano trio in D minor, 4th movement, Mit feuer
Trio Lachance
- Catie Akune, violin
- Bruno Quezada, cello
- Daniel Tong, piano
Second Prize
Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor, 4st movement, Poco sostenuto, Allegro non troppo
- Adrian Kwan, violin
- Annis Lee, violin
- Maia Evelyn Forsyth, viola
- Aireleen Zhu, cello
- Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, piano
Honourable mention:
Desenclos Quatuor pour Saxophone 1st movement, Andante
- Sylvan Wilkinson, soprano saxophone
- Madison Wang, alto saxophone
- Bethanie Tran, tenor saxophone
- Xavier Marican, baritone saxophone
Every group that qualified to participate in the competition final concert received a financial award, and all participants in the competition will receive tickets to an upcoming Friends series concert.
A good time was had by all, and we hope that those who were not there this year will be able to join us next year for the 68th Annual Young Musicians Chamber Music Competition. Applications for next year should become available in the fall.
