Youth competition winners to perform with Clemson University Symphony

Published: October 2, 2012

The Clemson University Symphony Orchestra performs Oct. 10. image by: Clemson University

CLEMSON — In its first concert of the 2012-2013 season, the Clemson University Symphony Orchestra led by Andrew Levin will perform a varied program at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10, at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts.

The concert will feature the first- and second-prize winners of the Clemson University Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Concerto/Aria Competition. 

The evening opens with the Overture to Mozart’s opera “Idomeneo.” While the subject matter of the opera is serious (set on the Island of Crete shortly after the Trojan War), the overture is bright and energetic and will set the tone for the evening's music.

The second piece will be the first movement of a violin concerto “Symphonie espagnole” by Lalo and will feature April Chen, the second-place winner of the concerto competition. Levin describes the piece as “a large-scale dramatic work for violin” that Chen “handles with ease and dramatic flair.”

Chen is a sophomore at Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville and is concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra of the Carolina Youth Symphony, of which she’s been a member more than seven years. She has been playing violin more than 11 years and is a student of Deirdre Hutton at Furman University. 

The first half concludes with the music of French romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns. “La Jeunesse d’hercule” is a tone poem that contrasts Hercules’ noble character with the temptations of the world. The second half begins with another Saint-Saëns work, the last movement of his Violin Concerto No. 3 and will feature Katherine Woo, first-prize winner of the concerto competition.

Woo, 14, started studying the violin at age 7. She is a freshman at Greenville's Riverside High School. A participant in the Fine Art Center’s Chamber music program and concertmaster of the GCYO Young Artist Orchestra since the fall of 2011, Woo is the recipient of numerous awards and performed with the World Mission Youth Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in May 2011. She also is a student of Hutton's.

Levin said Woo “has absolute command of her instrument and the music and will be a pleasure to hear.”

The concert will conclude with the overture to Verdi’s opera “Nabucodonosor,” the opera that made Verdi’s reputation as an international-level composer.

Tickets to the Wednesday night concert are $8 for adults and $5 for students and are available for purchase online at www.clemson.edu/Brooks and through the box office at 864-656-7787 from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

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