Paula and Maurice Parness

Young Artists Concerto Competition

 

On an exceedingly beautiful and warm day, the 2008 Parness Young Artists Concerto Competition was held Friday, November 7, at West Los Angeles College, in the Fine Arts Theater. Thirty-one contestants were registered for this year's competition. The judges all commented on the high quality of the contestants, technically and musically. All contestants can take pride in their auditions.

Special thanks to Terry Pincus, orchestra Board Member who helped coordinate the event along with May du Bois, Professor of Music and Humanities at West Los Angeles College; and thanks to the college which hosted the event.

Regards,
Matthew Hetz, President
Culver City Symphony Orchestra
Presented by:
The Westchester Symphony Society, Inc.
www.culvercitysymphony.org

 

WINNERS
2008 Parness Young Artists Competition

 

JUNIOR DIVISION, 14 and under

Mayumi Kanagawa -Wieniawski, Violin Concerto, No. 1, 1st movement

Juan-Salvador Carrasco -Elgar, Cello Concerto, 4th movement

Weston Mizumoto - Liszt, Piano Concerto, No. 2

INTERMEDIATE DIVISION, 15 to 18
No winners selected

 

SENIOR DIVISION, 19 to 25

Aleksey Klyushnik -Hoffmeister, Concerto for Bass

Peter Myers -Shostakovich, Cello Concerto, No. 1

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Yuyu Ikeda - J.S. Bach, Violin Concerto, No. 1

Omar Gaidarov - Faure, Fantasie for Flute

 

Bios:

Mayumi Kanagawa, 14, is a ninth grader at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences. She began to play the violin in Japan when she was four years old. After moving to New York in 2000, she studied iwth Mr. Masao Kawasaki for seven years and was a student at the Juilliard Pre-College for three years. She recieved the Achievement Award for the 2006/7 academic year by the Pre-College division at the Juilliard School. She has won Frist Prize in the Connecticut International Young Artist Violin Competition as well as the Palisades Symphony's Young Artist Award competition, and performed with the St. Thomas Orchestra in Mamaroneck, NY and the Palisades Symphony in the Palisades. During the summer, she has attended the Aspen Music Festival and School as well as the Encore School for Strings. Mayumi moved to Los Angeles during the summer of 2007 and has been studying with Robert Lipsett at the Colburn School since.

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Weston Mizumoto, a native of Orange County, California, had delighted his “fan club” on many occasions during his childhood stints performing at Main Street Disneyland with ragtime pianist Mr. Rod Miller. Then, through inspiration gained while attending the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Texas, Weston began to build his classical repertoire and started to win prizes at numerous piano competitions including 1st at the 2007 California International Young Artist Competition MusicFest, 2nd place in the 2007 Virginia Waring International Concerto Competition, 1st place in the Glendale Piano Competition, and 1st place in the 2007 Emerging Artist Piano Competition, and others. Weston has enjoyed giving many performances including for the patients and staff of the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, and in China as part of a cultural exchange program at the Beijing Central Conservatory concert hall. He was invited to perform at the Paramount Pictures Studios in Hollywood as part of a benefit/celebration event for child cancer survivors in June of 2008. This past Christmas, Weston arranged and performed several pieces for a Christian television network’s (3ABN) holiday special and his performance was globally televised live via satellite.
Weston also enjoys collaborative works including chamber music, performing 4-hand pieces with his sister, accompanying soloist and/or ensembles, and especially performing with orchestras. He has performed with the Rio Hondo Orchestra in 3 separate performances under the baton of Mr. Wayne Reinecke, with the California State University Northridge Symphony directed by conductor John Roscigno, and with the Four Seasons Youth Orchestra conducted by Dr. Roger Hickman. Weston is a 9th grader at the Orange County High School of the Arts and is a member of the National Junior Honor Society. In addition to piano, Weston enjoys competitive Rubik’s speed cubing where his most recent 3x3x3 solve time is 12.5 seconds.
Weston receives musical guidance and inspiration through his instructor and mentor, Dr. Anna Grinberg of Glendale, California.  He has also studied extensively with Mr. Yi Dong and Ms. Tzu-I Yang of Opus119 School of Music in Irvine, and has enjoyed master classes with Mary Ann Cummins, chairman of the Elizabeth Mandell Music Institute of Crossroads School in Santa Monica, and Ms. Li Fe Lan, music professor at the Bejing Central Conservatory of Music.

Weston receives musical guidance and inspiration through his instructor and mentor, Dr. Anna Grinberg of Glendale, California.  He has also studied extensively with Mr. Yi Dong and Ms. Tzu-I Yang of Opus119 School of Music in Irvine, and has enjoyed master classes with Mary Ann Cummins, chairman of the Elizabeth Mandell Music Institute of Crossroads School in Santa Monica, and Ms. Li Fe Lan, music professor at the Bejing Central Conservatory of Music.

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Juan-Salvador Carrasco was born in Mexico City in 1994 and has been playing the cello since he was six years old. He currently lives in Santa Monica, California. Juan-Salvador attends the Crossroads School of Arts & Sciences and studies cello at the Colburn School of Performing with Ron Leonard. Prior to that, he studied with Eleonore Schoenfeld, Nancy Yamagata, and Susan Weisner, also at Colburn. In 2008 Juan-Salvador won 1st place in the ASTA California State Solo Competition, the Parness Young Artists Competition, and the Los Angeles Violoncello Society (LAVS) Competition. He is the recipient of various music scholarships: Piatigorsky, Fe Bland Foundation, Ahmanson Foundation, Young Musicians Foundation/Kaufman, and Colburn School of Performing Arts.

     Juan-Salvador performed at the 2008 Rite of Spring Gala at Thayer Hall and repeatedly in the “Sundays Live” series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Bing Auditorium (broadcast live on K-Mozart); he is a frequent guest in the Colburn School's Musical Encounters program, which brings classical music to public schools in Los Angeles. He also performed in a cello quartet with David Finckel of the Emerson String Quartet as part of Music@Menlo Festival. On March 11, 2007 Juan-Salvador had his debut in Mexico City as a soloist playing Saint-Saëns's Concerto for cello and orchestra with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Coyoacán conducted by Richard Markson. The music critic of La Jornada, Mexico's foremost newspaper, asserted in his review: “The 12-year old cellist conquered the audience at the Blas Galindo Auditorium of the National Center for the Arts, where Carrasco received a 5-minute standing ovation.” As a result of this, Juan-Salvador was invited to appear on the nationally televised "Conversando con Cristina Pacheco," an hour-long interview combined with live cello performances.

     Juan-Salvador has performed privately and in master classes for cellists Yo-Yo Ma, Anner Bylsma, David Finckel, and Colin Carr, as well as for conductor Gustavo Dudamel and violinist Itzhak Perlman, among others. A committed chamber musician, Juan-Salvador has been part of the Perlman Music Program in New York and Sarasota, Encore School for Strings in Cleveland, and the School for Strings in New York. He is the cellist of the Colburn's Honors String Quartet and is currently the youngest member of the American Youth Symphony (AYS), conducted by Alexander Treger.

     Juan-Salvador appeared in the acclaimed film “The Other Conquest” and is the featured soloist in the soundtrack of the award-winning film “The Kolaborator.” He plays an 1820 Lockey Hill cello on loan from a private foundation.

 

For information on West Los Angeles College, please use the following link -

West Los Angeles College

 

Award Presentation, January 31, 2009. (l-r) Weston Mizumoto,

Juan-Salvator Carrasco, Mayumi Kangawa, May du Bois-West Los Angeles

College, Matthew Hetz-Orchestra President

Parness Young Artist Concerto Competition

The Westchester Symphony Society, Inc. and The Culver City Symphony Orchestra sponsor the Maurice and Paula Parness Young Artist Concerto Competition for Young Artists. There are three divisions: Junior (ages 14 and under), Intermediate (ages 15-18) and Senior (ages 19-25).

Paula Parness was a long time friend, supporter and former director of the Symphony Society, who established the Maurice Parness Young Artists Concerto Competition in memory of her husband. The board renamed the fund the Paula and Maurice K. Parness Young Artists Concerto Competition in her memory.

This competition allows young musicians to enter a judged competition, and the winners then are invited to perform with the Culver City Symphony Orchestra. For some soloist it is their first time performing with an orchestra.

The Parnesses established the competition to promote the continuation of music in our lives by encouraging the next generations of young artists and presenting them in our concerts. An honorarium which is presented to the winners. To continue with the competition and our concerts devoted to the winners, we need your financial support. Please consider what you can give to help us present these soloists in our concerts. The coupon below will direct your donation toward the Parness Young Artists Concerto Competition.

The competition is held in the Autumn at West Los Angeles College, and has become a model for other competitions in the Southland. Contestants receive invaluable experience by participating in an instrumental competition which stresses technical ability and musicality.

Past winners have gone on to further musical studies, or are now creative musicians working throughout the U.S. and in Europe.Some past winners are listed on the side panel to the left.