PORT ANGELES — Sixteen-year-old Madelyn Kowalski of Marrowstone Island traveled to Port Angeles to fill a church with the sound of her cello.
Then, the final performer in the field of 13 players, Madelyn won the first prize of $750 in the Port Angeles Symphony’s Young Artist Competition on Saturday.
The 29th annual contest, open to musicians under age 22, brought young players from across the North Olympic Peninsula together at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 E. Lopez Ave.
“It was really exciting,” said Madelyn, who this year entered the event for the first time.
She started out on the violin but at age 7 switched to the much bigger instrument because, Madelyn said simply, “I loved the sound of the cello so much.”
With her andante and allegro from Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations,” the young musician wowed the competition judges, as did another Jefferson County resident, 11-year-old Marley Erickson.
Marley, a violinist, took the $500 second prize with her rendition of Camille Saint-Saens’ “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.”
“I think we’ll be paying big bucks to hear you some day in the future,” retired music professor and judge Loran Olsen said after Marley’s performance.
Michael Helwick, a 17-year-old senior at Port Angeles High School and a bassist in the Port Angeles Symphony, won third place and $100 for his offering of the first two movements from Serge Koussevitzky’s Double-Bass Concerto, Opus 3.
In the Junior Young Artist Competition, open to musicians in ninth grade or below, Marley’s brother Adlai Erickson took first place.
The 9-year-old cellist won $250 in cash for his Saint-Saens piece, the Allegro Appassionato, Opus 43a.
Second place in the junior competition, a prize of $125, was awarded to 10-year-old Keon Deng, a pianist who lives in Port Angeles, while third place and $75 went to 14-year-old Lauren Waldron, the contest’s only violist.
The competitions’ prizes are funded by the Port Angeles Garden Club and two anonymous donors.
To find out more about the Port Angeles Symphony’s activities through the year, visit www.PortAngelesSymphony.org.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.