Young Artists Competition
The Board of Directors of the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra announces the winners of the 26th annual Young Artists Competition, held during the month of February. Although the final event has been held live in the past, in the ongoing presence of the pandemic, the symphony continued with a virtual competition. The competition this year was open to participants from Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee who were under age 26 and played a wind instrument.
This competition began in 1996 to encourage professional standards of performance among young musicians. The founder of the Young Artists Competition was the late Dr. Barbara Kaplan who served as an active member of the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors from 1992 to 2005.
Lindsey Welp
The Dorothy Allen Turner Award for first place and $1,500 cash went to alto saxophonist Lindsey Welp, who performed Concerto for Alto Sax and Orchestra by Henri Tomasi. Ms. Welp is in the first year of her Doctoral in Music Arts, Saxophone Performance, at The University of Georgia. She holds a Master of Music, Saxophone Performance from Bowling Green State University as well as a Bachelor of Music, Saxophone Performance and French, from DePauw University. Ms. Welp has participated in Academic Programs Abroad, studying saxophone and French in Paris. She has served as an adjunct instructor and graduate student teaching assistant at both Terra State Community College and Bowling Green State University.
Ms. Welp is the 2021 and 2020 winner of the MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) Young Performing Artist State Competition, 2021 third prize winner in the Elise Hall Competition for Emerging Saxophonists, 2020 winner of the Bowling Green State University Competition in Music Performance, and 2019 winner of DePauw’s University Concerto Competition as well as the Van Denman Thompson Award for excellence in scholarship, musicianship, and activities. Ms. Welp will perform as the featured soloist with the LaGrange Symphony in a regular season concert once full orchestra concerts resume.
Lucy Rubin
The Max Kaplan Award for second place and a $1,000 cash award was won by flutist Lucy Rubin, a junior at the University of Georgia who studies with Professor Angela Jones-Reus. Ms. Rubin is pursuing a Bachelor of Music with majors in Music Performance and Music Theory. She is the 2021 Young Artists Competition Instrumentalist Division for the Rome Symphony Orchestra as well as a finalist of the 2021 Samuel Fordis Concerto Competition. She has won or placed in multiple competitions in Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. Ms. Rubin was a 2021 intern at the Flute Center of New York and will study in Italy during the summer of 2022. Ms. Rubin performed Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, movement I by Carl Reinecke.
Cindy Liu
Winner of the NOTE Award for third place and a $500 cash award was flutist Cindy Liu of Germantown, Tennessee, a junior at Houston High School who has studied with Ms. Myung E. Kim for seven years. Ms. Liu plays flute in the Germantown Youth Symphony and is a 2022 National YoungArts Award Winner. She represented Tennessee for the 2018 MTNA division audition with flute and was selected as a member of All West Tennessee Band for 7 years. She was the first-place winner of the 2018 Beethoven Club Young Artist Competition with flute and won first place in the 2018 TMTA (Tennessee Music Teachers Association) woodwind competition. Ms. Liu completed the 2021 Tennessee Governor’s School with Flute. Ms. Liu performed Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 8, by Otar Gordeli.
Judges of the 2022 Young Artists Competition were Maestro Richard Prior, award winning composer and conductor who is the Music Director and Conductor of the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra; Christopher Mothersole, instructor of clarinet at The University of West Georgia, who holds a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and a Masters of Performance from the Royal College of Music in London, and Amy Ensel Wright, band director and woodwind specialist at The Paideia School in Atlanta, who holds a Bachelor of Music from The Crane School of Music at the State University of New York and a Master in Music Performance from the University of Louisville. All entrants were judged on musicianship, technical ability, and poise.
