A Winning Performance
Pianist Ruxi Wang is the champion winner of the Dorothy Allen Turner award from the 2024 Young Artists Competition (YAC). The LaGrange Symphony Orchestra is proud to feature Miss Wang within their March INSPIRE concert March 19th, 2024 in Callaway Auditorium at 7:30 PM, LaGrange, GA. She, along with the LSO, will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, op 25. Don’t miss this brilliant winning performance with guest artist Ruxi Wang!
The Concerto
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) wrote Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor in his early twenties sometime between 1831 and 1832. It is a very mature piece to be written by someone so young, but Mendelssohn began writing music at the age of 10. By the time he was 21, he was already a well seasoned composer. Mendelssohn, an accomplished pianist too, actually played this concerto’s first concert performance. The piece showcased the piano with a newly dramatic independence most likely because technical improvements in the piano at that time offered more dynamics than were previously possible. Also, the instrument’s volume was now able to be heard above a large orchestra. A true improvement! Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor is definitely a special piece and one you won’t want to miss, especially featuring Ruxi Wang!
About YAC
The Young Artists Competition (YAC) encompasses six southeastern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The purpose of this event is to encourage professional levels of musical performance among young artists. To compete for the three prizes, entrants must be 26 years old or younger. YAC is only open to pianists every third year. The event rotates categories within the competition each year between wind instruments, string instruments, and piano. February 2024’s competition was for piano so 2025’s will be for winds, and 2026 for strings.
More about Ruxi Wang
As a native of China, Ruxi Wang was born in 1999. At the age of four, she studied under Dr. Le Kang at Shenzhen University, and Dr. Claire Chiu, at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Guangzhou. She was admitted to the School of Music at South China Normal University to pursue her undergraduate degree in 2016. She started her master’s degree in the United States, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2020, under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz. She has also been studying under Mr. Alon Goldstein. She got a full scholarship and a teaching assistant position at the University of South Carolina in 2022, where she is pursuing the second year Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance under the guidance of Dr. Nicholas Susi.
Her performances have taken her to various venues, including Huizhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Lanzhou in China, Grant Hall, White Hall, University of South Carolina’s Recital Hall in the U.S. Italy, Vienna and Israel. She was invited to participate in the Tel-Hai International Piano Festival in Israel and the Amalfi International Piano Music Festival in Amalfi, Italy. She was also invited to a series of solo and lecture recitals in Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, China in the summer of 2023.
Ruxi has won the Gold Award in the 2009 Yamaha Cup Professional Youth Group, the Silver Award in the 2010 Asia Arts Festival – China Youth Piano Competition, the Silver Award in the 2013 Hong Kong International Youth Professional Group, Third Place in the 2019 Omiš International Piano Competition Liszt Group, finalist in the 2022 University of South Carolina Concerto Competition, and won first place in the Music Teacher’s National Association performance competition at South Carolina in 2023. Now, she has also captured the Dorothy Allen Turner Award for first place in the Young Artists Competition from LaGrange Symphony Orchestra in LaGrange, Georgia.
Also Within the INSPIRE Concert
The LSO’s INSPIRE concert program on March 19th consists of two other significant sections.
First is the Side-by-Side, which is a mentoring concert experience for our LSYO members. They literally sit side-by-side with our professional musicians to gain insight, experience, courage, and professionalism. They share the same music and take the same cues and are expected to perform as seasoned musicians. Nothing compares to real-life experience, especially in a stage environment. The LSYO and LSO together will perform Scott Joplin’s Country Club Rag, arranged by William Zinn, and Alan Lee Silva’s The Code.
Another section is the notable performance of William Dawson‘s work. The LSO will perform Negro Folk Symphony composed by Dawson. Although this symphony was written in the 1930’s it has spent decades in obscurity and is now happily being rediscovered and reappreciated.
Since the premiere of this work in the early 30’s, only a handful of performances were done and for many years it seemed this piece had been totally forgotten. LaGrange Symphony Orchestra is proud to bring you this wonderful American composition that is steeped in African American heritage. Listen for the references to Negro Spirituals on March 19th at 7:30 PM in Callaway Auditorium, LaGrange GA. Read more about William Dawson in THIS POST.
Join Us – TICKETS
Tickets are available online at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35802. We hope you will join us March 19th at 7:30 PM in Callaway Auditorium for this concert filled with talent of all ages and backgrounds, mentorship, role-modeling, energy, diligence, and musical expression. A concert appropriately named INSPIRE.
THANK YOU
2023/2024 LaGrange Symphony Orchestra Sponsors
Emerald and Diamond Levels
Gold and Silver Levels
AIRFORCE
Heating and Air
MARKETPLACE
at LaFayette Square
STATEWIDE
Mortgage
Salon BELLA
The MEDICINE
Cabinet
WATTS
Furniture
CHILDRESS
Dental Service
RENASANT
Bank
HUGHSTON
Clinic
SHERIDAN
Construction
© LaGrange Symphony Orchestra 2023/2024 | All rights reserved | 706.882.0662 | Richard Prior, Music Director & Conductor
[…] After a stage change, the LSO continued the program with Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor featuring Ruxi Wang. Miss Wang is the Dorothy Allen Turner first-place champion of the Young Artists Competition for Piano held in February of this year. This concerto is the piece she used to capture the title. You can read more about pianist Ruxi Wang in this blog post. […]