On Sunday, April 16, 2023 at Koerner Hall, Vancouver Academy of Music, the Friends of Chamber Music hosted the 68th annual Young Musicians Competition. Each competing group of three or more musicians played up to ten minutes of music in a free public concert.
Adjudicator Joan Blackman (violinist, Artistic Director of Vetta Chamber Music) awarded prizes and gave her performance notes to all the musicians at the end. Audience members voted for one Junior group (up to 18 years old) and one Senior group (up to 26 years old) to receive an audience prize (donated by a Friends board member), in addition to those awarded by Ms. Blackman.
Thanks to the adjudicator, to the student musicians, their coaches, their parents and families, the staff at the VAM who helped with the venue, the Friends board members (especially Karen Shuster) who volunteered to make the event happen, and to all the people who attended this public concert.
The competition results, decided by adjudicator Joan Blackman as well as the prizes decided by the audience, were as follows:
Junior First Prize and Audience Prize winners:
Astral Quartet: Da-Wei Chan, Xenia Chang, violins; Wei Kuan Wang, viola; Carl Teng, cello playing Antonin Dvorak’s String Quartet in F major, Opus 96 “American”, 1st movement, Un poco andante-Allegro ma non troppo
Junior Second Prize winners (tie):
UPDog Trio: Sunny Sun, violin; Gabrielle Haslett, cello; Tony Zhou, piano playing Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Opus 8, Andante moderato
Ukiyo Quartet: Neve Freed, Timothy Li, violins; Wei-Kuan Wang, viola; Da-Yong Chan, cello playing W.A. Mozart’s String Quartet in D major, K575, 1st movement, Allegretto
Other Junior finalists:
Montgomery Quartet: Samantha Ku, Gabriel Quiring, violins; Sophie Wong, viola; Hana McRobbie, cello playing Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No 1 in E flat major, Opus 12, 1st movement, Adagio non troppo
Rumore Quartet: Freddy Chen, Owen Yuen, violins; Elan Chow, viola; Hourod Rakhshanfar, cello playing Bedrich Smetana’s String Quartet in E minor, 1st movement, Allegro viva appasionata
Saints Trio: Toby Mar, trumpet; Harry Gong, French horn; Howard Jin, trombone playing Eric Ewazen’s Philharmonic Fanfare and Henry Purcell (arranged by Vedeski) Gavotte from Harpsichord Suite
Senior First Prize winners:
Deo Gloria Trio: Patrick Creighton, violin; Jennifer Lim, cello; John Ahn, piano playing Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No 1 in D minor, Opus 49, 1st movement, Molto allegro ed agitato
Senior Second Prize winners (tie):
Aramis Quartet: Allen Lee, Max Liu, violins; Veronica Lee, viola; Laya Hong, cello playing Carl Nielsen’s String Quartet No 1 in G minor, 3rd & 4th movements, scherzo, Allegro molto, finale, Allegro inquieto – Senior Audience Prize Winner
Nottoway Trio: Sebastian Hyland, violin; Travis Wong, cello; Valerie Tsang, piano playing Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No 2 in C minor, Opus 66, 1st movement, Allegro energico e con fuoco
Seniors Third Prize winners:
Montmorency Trio: Isabelle Wark-Pantoja, flute; Daniel Aaron Hayden, clarinet; Alex Vollant, piano playing Claude Debussy’s (arrangement for wind trio) Prelude a l’Apres-Midi d’un Faune
Thanks to all who attended this fabulously successful event, and we look forward to the 2024 Friends of Chamber Music Young Musicians Competition!
