The four student winners of the Ithaca College School of Music Concerto Competition will perform as soloists with the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jeffery Meyer, on Saturday, March 1. The free concert will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.
Graduate student Adam Butalewicz will perform the concerto for clarinet and string orchestra by Aaron Copland; junior James Covington will perform portions of the Trumpet Concerto by Dana Wilson; senior Andrew Lawrence will play Karel Husa's "Elegie et Rondeau" for saxophone and orchestra; and junior Mary Raschella will perform a movement from the Samuel Barber concerto for violin. The concert will open with Joan Tower's "Fanfare No. 1 for the Uncommon Woman" and conclude with the third symphony by Saint-Saëns, the "Organ Symphony."
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, 15 students made it through the preliminary auditions and proceeded to the finals, where they performed for a seven-member faculty committee.
Adam Butalewicz studies with Michael Galván. From 2005 to 2007, he was the principal clarinetist of the semi-professional Northern Neck Orchestra in Kilmarnick, Virginia. In 2006 he performed with the Symphony Opera Academy of the Pacific in Powell-River, Canada, and in December of 2008 his trio Ambrotos will travel to Turkey to perform in Istanbul and Izmir. Adam received his bachelor's degree in clarinet performance from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Andrew Lawrence is a performance and education major in the studio of Steven Mauk. He is currently playing baritone saxophone with the New Horizon Saxophone Quartet. He has also performed at the Navy Saxophone Symposium and North American Saxophone Alliance's annual regional conference, and in master classes with the West Point Saxophone Quartet and Eugene Rousseau. He plans to continue his studies in London in the fall.
James Covington is a music education major in the studio of Frank G. Campos. Covington won the Berklee Jazz Festival Judge's Choice Award twice and the Drum Corps Associates Individual and Ensemble contest for trumpet. He had never taken private lessons before coming to Ithaca College but owes much of his knowledge to a few of his drum corps instructors with whom he has worked over the years.
Mary Raschella began studying violin at the age of eight. In high school she was a member of the Syracuse Symphony Youth Orchestra. She was selected for Conference All-State and the New York State School of Orchestral Studies in 2003 and 2004. Raschella is majoring in music education and is a student of Susan Waterbury.
