A great opportunity for young musicians.
Young Artists Festival Adjudication and Concerto Competition held on January 25, 2025 at Norwalk City Hall
This year, the Norwalk Symphony Young Artist Festival added the Junior and Senior competition levels to the Festival I & II Level Adjudication opportunity for students who have studied 2+ years and are the ages of five to eighteen. These events, designed to be an encouraging opportunity for students to test themselves in a manner that is traditionally available to music students studying everywhere, enable the students to perform for our judges and get professional feedback to support their future learning and playing.
The 13th Annual Concerto Competition offers a more rigorous opportunity for young musicians under 18 years of age to test their musicianship with peers from the Fairfield County region of Southwestern Connecticut.
Festival II Students
Festival Level II events are designed to be an encouraging opportunity for students to test themselves in a manner that is traditionally available to music students studying everywhere. Learning how to perform and compete are important elements of the performing arts, and we hope that this event serves our young musicians in this manner.
Junior and Senior Competition Students
Congratulations to all the students who participated in these events. The Junior Competition saw Julie McNamara (violin) as the winner, with Isabella Mariani (violin) and Leonard Xing (piano) as runners up. In the Senior Competition, Mikoto Araki-Siegenfeld (piano) was our winner.
Young Artists Concerto Competition
Congratulations to Lina Elwood, pianist, as our Concerto Competition winner for 2025! She performed the Concerto No. 2 in C minor, op. 18 by Sergie Rachmaninoff. Our two honorable mentions went to Mia Jung-Pitkin (violin) for Concerto No. 2 in D minor, op. 22, I-Allegro moderato, and Lucas Tejada (cello) for Concerto in E minor, op. 85 (IV - Allegro - Moderato - Allegro, ma non-troppo - Poco piu lento - Adagio by Edward Elgar.
Lina will perform her winning piece with the full Norwalk Symphony Orchestra on our March 23, 2025 “Music for All Ages” concert.
Past Winners:
2023-2024 - Gina Lin - Concerto in D major, op. 35, I − Moderato nobile by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
2022-2023 - Beatrice Low, Violin - Wieniawski Concerto No. 2 in D minor, op. 22, 1st Movement: Allegro moderato
2021-2022 - Caleb Sharp, Cello - Elgar Concerto in E Minor, op. 85, 1st movement – Adagio
2020-2021 - Sadie Goodman, Flute - Hüe Fantaisie pour flûte
2019-2020 - Avery Duer, Piano - Rachmaninoff Concerto #2, 1st Movement
2018-2019 - Hudson Ragins, Piano - Beethoven Piano Concerto #1 in C Major, 3rd Movement
2017-2018 - Mark Xu, Violin - Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, 1st movement
2016-2017 - Kate Wegener, Oboe - Mozart Oboe Concerto, 1st Movement
2015-2016 - Cameron Chase, Violin - Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto #5
2014-2015 - Jingye Yang, Flute - Chaminade Concertino
2013-2014 - Madison Howard, Cello - Lalo Cello Concerto in D Minor, 1st Movement
2012-2013 - Gita Abhiraman, Piano - Saint-Saens Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Andante sostenuto