Schools

Scarsdale, Edgemont Students Among Winners of Hudson Valley Music Club Awards

The following is a release from the 2014 Hudson Valley Music Club Student Awards Competition: 

Six highly talented and accomplished high school musicians from Westchester County were selected as winners of the 2014 Hudson Valley Music Club Student Awards Competition. They will be featured in the Hudson Valley Music Club Student Awards Concert on Monday, April 28th at 1 pm at the Dobbs Ferry Woman's Club, 54 Clinton Ave, Dobbs Ferry, NY. Admission to the concert is $15 per person which will also include the reception following the concert to honor the award winners. The program will include works by S. Prokofiev, F. Liszt, J.S. Bach, L. Janacek, W.A. Mozart, H. Wieniawski, D. Popper, and R. Strauss

Winning students are as follows:

Cellist, Sofia Checa is a sophomore at Dobbs Ferry High School and performs in her high school orchestra under Adrianne Fuller. She has studied cello with Lila Ainsworth for the past 6 years. Sofia is currently principal cellist of the New York Youth Chamber Orchestra and a member of the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra which perform their concert series at Carnegie Hall. She has also served as principal cellist of the Greater Westchester Elementary and Junior Strings and Westchester All-County Elementary and Intermediate Orchestras. In March of 2013, Sofia was invited to perform the Saint Saens Concerto in A minor at the American String Teachers National Conference pre-college master class in Providence, Rhode Island. Last summer she was selected as principal cellist of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at the Interlochen Arts Academy and also received a full merit scholarship to perform in their string quartet program. In addition, she was a finalist in the Interlochen Concerto Competition. She has been accepted into both the Tanglewood Young Artists program and the Meadowmount School of Music for the coming summer of 2014.

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Pianist, Fangwei Jin is a sophomore at Edgemont High School in Scarsdale and currently studies piano at the Hoff-Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale with Helene Jeanney. He formerly studied piano with Rie Matsumoto. In 2013, Fangwei was selected to play in the New York All-State Piano Showcase and placed third in the Symphony of Westchester's Concerto Competition. He has played in the master classes of David Dubal and members of the New York Philharmonic with his chamber groups at the Hoff-Barthelson Music School.

Pianist, Sophie Lee is a freshman at Yorktown High School and studies piano at the Hoff-Barthelson Music School with Tanya Bannister. In 2014, she received first place in the Rondo Young Artist Festival and also received second place in the Yonkers Philharmonic Concerto Competition. She has performed in the master classes of David Dubal, Kenneth Cooper and Mei-Ting Sun at the Hoff-Barthelson Music School. She has been a violinist in the Greater Westchester Elementary and Junior String Orchestras and in her high school orchestra under Nancy Torrente.

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Violin Duo, Naoko Nakajima and Alan Yao are both sophomores at Scarsdale High School and perform with the High School Orchestra under Amedee Williams. Naoko was accepted into the Juilliard School Pre-College division in 2010 and begin her violin studies there with Masao Kawasaki. In 2011, she won first prize at the LISMA Foundation International Music Competition and in 2012 won first prize at the 15th New York Music Competition. Alan Yao was accepted into the Julliard Pre-College program at age 11. He won first prize in the American Protégé competition and made his solo debut in Weill Hall of Carnegie Hall. In 2014 Alan won the first prize in the Yonkers Philharmonic Concerto Competition. He was selected by the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society to perform in Alice Tully Hall in 2013 and 2014.

French horn player, Mira Vanchiswar is a junior at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua and performs with her high school band under Ray Lucia. She began her studies of the horn at the age of 10 with Peter Reit and currently is a horn student of Javier Gandara at the Julliard Pre-College Division. She has attended Kinhaven Music School in the summers since 2009 and while there studies horn with Carolyn Wahl. Mira has been first horn for the Greater Westchester Youth Orchestra since 2011. In 2013 she was first horn for the Westchester Area All-State Band and also was selected as a member of the New York State School Music Association Conference All-State Symphony Orchestra. 


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