The three winners of the Ithaca College School of Music Concerto Competition will perform with the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Grogan, on Saturday, February 28. The free concert will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.
Junior flutist Leslie Kubica will perform Frank Martin's Ballade for flute and orchestra, graduate percussionist Cayenna Ponchione will be featured in Robert Kurka's concerto for marimba, and senior pianist Jonathan Rose will perform a movement from Ravel's G major concerto. In addition, the symphony orchestra will play Antonin Dvorak's Carnival Overture and Aaron Copland's "Four Dance Episodes" from Rodeo.
Held annually, the concerto competition is open to Ithaca College students enrolled in private lessons with a School of Music faculty member during the semester of the competition. This year, 19 students made it through the preliminary auditions and proceeded to the finals, where they performed from memory for a seven-member faculty committee.
Leslie Kubica, a student of Wendy Mehne and Claudia Anderson, has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes and the Corning Youth Orchestra. She is currently principal flutist with the Ithaca College Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. She has studied traditional Irish music in Ireland and is a member of several musical groups that perform jazz, Brazilian, bluegrass, hip-hop, and other styles of music.
Cayenna Ponchione, a student of Gordon Stout, is currently completing a master's degree in percussion performance, having recently earned a master's in orchestral conducting. She has performed as soloist in her native Alaska with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra. Her composition The Creation won the 2003 Percussive Arts Society Ensemble Composition Contest.
Jonathan Rose, a student of Read Gainsford, is a senior piano major with an outside field in theater. He has been the conductor or assistant conductor for several Ithaca College musicals and is the assistant conductor for the Ithaca College Theatre production of Mozart's Cosė fan tutte.
The Ithaca College School of Music offers some 300 free concerts each academic year. More information on these performances is available by calling (607) 274-3356 or visiting the concert calendar at www.ithaca.edu/concerts.
Contributed by Erik Kibelsbeck
