The five student winners of the Ithaca College School of Music Concerto Competition will perform as soloists with the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Grogan, on Saturday, February 25. The free concert will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.
Senior saxophonist Heidi Bellinger will perform two movements from Paule Maurice's "Tableaux de Provence," senior pianist Peter Cirka will play the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no. 1 in B flat minor, graduate marimbist Yu-Tzu Huang will be featured in "Prism Rhapsody" by Abe Keiko, sophomore violinist Christopher Jones will perform the first movement of Mendelssohn's violin concerto, and senior vocalist Stephanie Lauricella will sing "Non piu mesta" from Rossini's "La Cenerentola."
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, 13 students made it through the preliminary auditions and proceeded to the finals, where they performed for a seven-member faculty committee.
Heidi Bellinger is a senior performance and music education major and a student of Steven Mauk. She is a member of the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble, Jazz Laboratory, and Cayuga Saxophone Quartet, which has performed at two national saxophone conferences and competed in the semifinal round of the National Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
Peter Cirka will complete a degree in piano performance this year. A student of Read Gainsford and Jennifer Hayghe, Cirka plans to pursue graduate studies in piano performance.
Yu-Tzu Huang, winning for the second year in a row, is a native of Taiwan, where she performed extensively with the Jumping Percussion Group and the Ju Percussion Group. She graduated from the National Taipei University of the Arts in 2004. She is currently a master's student studying with Gordon Stout.
Christopher Jones is a performance and music education double major who began his violin studies at the age of four. The concertmaster of the New Jersey All-State Orchestra, he has performed with the All-Eastern Orchestra and toured China and Eastern Europe with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. He is a student of Susan Waterbury.
Stephanie Lauricella is a performance major and a student of Patrice Pastore who plans further studies in music at graduate school in the fall. She performed the role of Valencienne in the Ithaca College Theatre production of "The Merry Widow."
The Ithaca College School of Music offers some 300 free concerts each academic year. More information on these performances is available by calling (607) 274-3717 or visiting www.ithaca.edu/concerts.
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