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Scholarship prize money totaling $11,000 will be awarded to the winners of the first annual Student Concerto Competition sponsored by the Utah Wind Symphony and Legacy Music Alliance (LMA). The competition seeks to identify the state's best woodwind, brass and percussion students in three divisions – college, high school and junior high school – and give the top three finishers an opportunity to perform with the Utah Wind Symphony at the March 29 concert at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake.
Applications can be found at http://www.utahwindsymphony.org and must be postmarked, with a DVD video recording, no later than Jan. 3, 2012, with a non-refundable fee of $75. The fee is waived for LMA members.
Scott Hagen, Utah Wind Symphony music director, said in a release that the concerto competition "seeks to enrich music education in Utah. The scholarship money being offered in this competition is comparable to what would be found at a national level, so this is a very attractive opportunity for Utah musicians."
The three top performing students in the collegiate and high school divisions will each receive $1,500 scholarships and the two top performing students in the junior high division will receive $1,000 scholarships. Students may submit their DVD recording video from a list of musical works featuring composers such as Stravinsky (above), Debussy, Handel, and Mozart, as well as modern arrangers including Curnow, Frackenpohl and Creston. Students wishing to submit an arrangement not on the approved repertoire list must contact the Utah Wind Symphony for approval. Works for 13 different wind and brass instruments have been placed on the approved list. Applicants will be notified Jan, 21 if they are selected as a finalist in the live audition portion of the competition, which will be held Jan. 28 at the Summerhays Recital Hall in Salt Lake City. Winners will be announced January 30/ Legacy Music Alliance is the first major corporate sponsor of the Utah Wind Symphony and is not only underwriting the Student Concerto Competition, but the 2011-2012 Utah Wind Symphony concert season. Legacy Music Alliance was organized in 2009 as a non-profit association to bolster music education in the Intermountain West and increase Utah's stature as a center for exceptional music instruction and training. Legacy Music Alliance is headed by CEO Gaylen Rust, a successful Utah businessman, and Dr. Craig Jessop, chairman of the Executive Advisory Board and currently dean of the Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University. Dr. Jessop was the former Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.