Concerto Competition Winners Announced: Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra
Hochstein School of Music & Dance is proud to announce the winners of the 2013-2014 Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition held November 7, 2013. The winners are Riesa Cassano, oboe, a freshman at Pittsford Mendon High School, Leah McCarthy, violin, a sophomore at Brighton High School, and Raymond Feng, piano, a seventh-grader at Calkins Road Middle School.
Raymond Feng will play the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, movement 1 by Edvard Grieg at the winter concert February 9, 2014. At the Annual Mother’s Day Concert in May of 2014, Riesa Cassano will perform the Oboe Concerto in D Major, Op. 9 by Tomaso Albinoni and Leah McCarthy will perform the Concerto in C Major, movement 1 by Dmitry Kabalevsky
Casey Springstead, in his second year as director of the Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra said, “It is not simply a platitude to say that the judges had a difficult time narrowing the list to just three winners. There were absolutely no mediocre performances, and every one clearly demonstrated excellent preparation, mature expression, and obvious attention to detail.”
The Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra is the top tier of four orchestras at Hochstein and will tour this coming year to Paris and Normandy for the 70th Anniversary of WWII’s D-Day.