Ensemble Concert

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School of Music students from three divisions--piano, strings, and orchestral instruments--perform for outside judges. Finalists are Taylor Kent, double bass; Nanyi Qiang, piano; Jessica Polin, flute; Kouki Tanaka, violin; Gabriel Manalac, piano; Chris Lennard, marimba; Masa Ohtake, trombone; Amy Grinsteiner, piano; and Xiaojing Pu, violin.

The judges are Elisa Barston, violinist, Seattle Symphony; Stuart Dempster, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington School of Music; and Michi Hirata North, pianist.

Winners will perform with the UW Symphony at the group's January 28 concert.

TAYLOR KENT
Rebecca Jordan, accompanist
Concerto for Double Bass: David Anderson (b. 1962)
Allegro moderato
Taylor Kent studies with Barry Lieberman.

NANYI QIANG
Dmitriy Kosovskiy, accompanist
Piano Concerto #3 in C Minor, Opus 37: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
I. Allegro con brio
Nanyi Qiang is pursuing a Master of Music. He studies with Craig Sheppard.

JESSICA POLIN
Akiko Iguchi, accompanist
Concerto for Flute and String Orchestra (1949): Andre Jolivet (1905-1974)
Jessica Polin studies with Donna Shin. She plans to complete the degree of Master of Music in flute performance in Spring 2010.

KOUKI TANAKA
Irina Akhrin, accompanist
Violin Concerto in D Major, Opus 35: Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)
III. Allegro assai vivace
Kouki Tanaka is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in violin performance. He studies with Ronald Patterson.

GABRIEL MANALAC
Alexandra Tsirkel, accompanist
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 10: Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Gabriel Manalac is pursuing a Master in Music in piano performance. He studies with Robin McCabe.

CHRIS LENNARD
Akiko Iguchi, accompanist
Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra: James Basta
1st movement
3rd movement
Chris Lennard is a student of Thomas Collier and Michael Crusoe. He plans to complete his Bachelor's degree in both Music Education and Percussion Performance in Spring 2010.

MASA OHTAKE
Amanda Harris, accompanist
Concerto for Trombone: Launy Grondahl (1886-1960)
Moderato assai ma molto maestoso
Masa Ohtake is a student of Ko-ichiro Yamamoto. He plans to complete his Bachelor degree in Music Education in Spring 2012.

AMY GRINSTEINER
Matthew Goodrich, accompanist
Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18: Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
I. Moderato
Amy Grinsteiner is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts. She studies with Robin McCabe.

XIAOJING PU
Kyung Sun Shin, accompanist
Violin Concerto in D, Opus 35: Pyotr Llyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Allegro moderato
Xiaojing Pu is pursuing a degree in violin performance. She studies with Ronald Patterson.

THE JUDGES
Elisa Barston
Currently with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Elisa Barston previously served as the Associate Concertmaster of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and was a first violin section member of the Cleveland Orchestra. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Music cum laude. At Indiana University, where she earned a Master of Music degree, Ms. Barston was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certifi¬cate, the Jascha Heifetz Scholarship, and the Starling Foundation Grant. She has garnered top prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, First Prize at the Julius Stulberg Auditions, Grand Prize at the International Kingsville Young Performers' Competition, and First Prize in the Seventeen-General Motors National Music Competition. As a soloist, Ms. Barston has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, with the major symphony orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Seattle, and Taipei, among numerous others.

Stuart Dempster
Stuart Dempster came to the University of Washington in 1969. In 1971-72 he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois, and in 1973 he was a senior Fulbright scholar to Australia (Tarr 2001). In 1979 the University of California Press published his book, The Modern Trombone: A Definition of Its Idioms. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship award in 1981. He has commissioned and performed works by Luciano Berio, Donald Erb, Robert Erickson, Andrew Imbrie, Ernst Krenek, and Robert Suderburg. He has collaborated with former classmate Pauline Oliveros and Panaiotis including co-founding the Deep Listening Band. He commissioned Theater Piece for Trombone Player (1966) from Oliveros and choreographer Elizabeth Harris. He is credited with introducing the didjeridu to North America.

Michi Hirata North
A native of Tokyo, Japan, Michi Hirata North made her professional debut at age eight and gained a reputation as an outstanding young pianist in Japan. She traveled to the United States to present a series of concerts and for further study at The Juilliard School with the renowned Russian pianist and teacher Mme. Rosina Lhevinne.

Performances with The Chicago Symphony and the New York Symphony followed, and she was awarded a special Rockefeller Foundation Grant in recognition of her musical achievements. She has served on the faculty of Western Washington University and the University of Maine. In 1996 she toured the Peoples Republic of China. She has also presented concerts in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Ireland and Canada as well as the United States.

In recent years she developed and currently heads a special piano program in Taiwan for young students. As such she travels to Taiwan several times each year where she teaches and performs.