Student Awards and Recognition
Fine Arts Center percussion student Justin Lamb (Eastside High School 2011) will perform as a mallet percussionist with the Carolina Crown Drum Corps over the coming summer. His membership in Crown came about as the result of an intense, competitive audition, preceded by extraordinarily dedicated practicing and preparation.
According to the Carolina Crown Drum Corps website, "(The corps) is the largest performing ensemble offered by the Carolina Crown Organization and is based out of Fort Mill, S.C. Students from all over the world come to audition on an annual basis to become part of this national touring group of 150 members. The general makeup of the group is young people between the ages of 17 and 22 who aspire to become music educators, performing artists and the leaders of tomorrow. While touring the United States, the group performs while participating in competitions held in conjunction with Drum Corps International."
Justin occupies an extraordinary place in this line-up of musicians: he is the only high school student participating as a member of Carolina Crown's mallet percussion section. The corps has already begun preliminary rehearsals on weekends this calendar year and will begin regular, intensive rehearsals starting in May. Justin has been given permission to finish his junior year early and will depart for rehearsals in Fort Mill following his participation as timpanist in the Young Artist Orchestra's May 11 "Shoulder-to-Shoulder" concert at Dorothy Gunter Theater. Starting in June, Crown will undertake a 40-city concert tour with stops in Mesa, Ariz.; Sacramento, Calif.; Ogden, Utah; Casper, Wyo., Denver, Colo., and many other locations.
FAC percussion student David Wilson (Wade Hampton High School 2012) won the recent Music Club of Greenville Scholarship. Performing two selections on the marimba (the prelude from Bach's "Cello Suite in G Major" and Matthias Schmitt's "Ghanaia") David was awarded a prize of $1000 that he will use toward college expenses next year. Having applied as a music technology major, David is currently considering scholarship offers from the Berkeley School of Music in Boston, Belmont College in Nashville, and the University of Michigan.
Violinist Reagan Bachour won the South Carolina Music Educators Association's highest honor, the Memorial Scholarship. The $1000 award is given to the outstanding high school senior music student in the state. Reagan also won a $500 award in the Music Club of Greenville scholarship competition.
Senior cellist Jonathan Simmons won a $1000 scholarship from the Music Club of Greenville.
Violinist Katherine Woo appeared as soloist with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra in a performance of music from the film "Schindler's List." Katherine also won a $500 award in the Crescent Music Club's scholarship competition. Katherine has been accepted as a participant in the Heifetz International Music Institute this summer.
Junior violinist Paul Aguilar won an $800 scholarship from the Crescent Music Club and has been accepted to return to study at the Meadowmount School of Music this summer.
Pianist Jeon Yu-Jung won first place in the Crescent Music Club grade 10-11 Piano Division and the Piano Duet division. Yu-Jung also won first place at the state level in the National Federation of Music Clubs competition.
Maria Parrini won first prize in the Senior Piano division from the Greenville Music Teachers Association. Equally talented as a cellist, Maria appeared with Pan Harmonia at the Altamont Theatre in Asheville, N.C., in a performance of "Piano Trio in D Minor" by Felix Mendelssohn.
Guest Artists
In April, the Grammy Award-winning Parker String Quartet performed a concert for the Fine Arts Center students and then led a chamber master class. The quartet was in South Carolina for an extended residency at the USC School of Music. The Parker Quartet's visit to the Fine Arts Center was presented courtesy of Dr. Bob Jesselson and the University of South Carolina. The members of the Parker Quartet are violinists Daniel Chong and David McCarroll, violist Jessica Bodner and cellist Kee-Hyun Kim. Many students from the Strings Chamber Music classes attended the Parker Quartet's concert in Columbia, S.C. on April 19.
Asheville-based ensemble Pan Harmonia will perform a free public concert in the Fine Arts Center's Sutherlin Recital Hall on Thursday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. This Holocaust remembrance concert will feature the engaging and energetic "Trio Concertino" by Erwin Schulhoff, Sephardic songs, and an Elegiac Sketch by T. G. Febonio. The performers are Kate Steinbeck, flutist; Amy Brucksch, guitar; Ian Bracchitta, double bass; and FAC faculty member John Ravnan, viola. More information about Pan Harmonia activities can be found on the group's website at http://pan-harmonia.org.
Violin soloist Rachel Lee will give a master class for the Strings Chamber Music students on May 3. The master class is presented by the Greenville Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Lee will be performing Tchaikovsky's "Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major" with the symphony at the Peace Center on May 4 and 5.
