PORT ANGELES — Frédéric Chopin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — the old masters come through youthful hands Saturday.
The Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra will hold its 26th annual Young Artists Competition beginning at 9:30 a.m. at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, and all lovers of live music are invited. Admission is free to the church at 301 E. Lopez Ave.
Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Vivaldi are also on the day’s agenda, as 23 musicians compete for cash prizes, and event chairwoman Bonnie Christianson emphasized that listeners can slip in anytime during the day.
“You can come and go,” Christianson said, adding that she thinks of this as “a really good recital” by a stellar array of players.
But is it all right to clap at the end of each piece?
“Oh, yes. You must applaud,” Christianson said.
Competition schedules
The junior competition, for ninth-graders and younger, will run from 9:30 a.m. until about 11:35 a.m. The senior competition for musicians age 22 and younger will start at 12:15 p.m. and wrap by around 3 p.m., she added.
Adjudicators include Port Angeles Symphony director Adam Stern, along with musicians from his orchestra and from Seattle orchestras.
“This year’s Young Artist Competitions have the biggest field of contestants in the history of the competition,” noted Mark Wendeborn, executive director of the Port Angeles Symphony.
He believes the vigorous response comes from the event’s reputation for providing useful feedback to young players.
“We have tried really hard over the past few years to make the competitions as meaningful as possible to the contestants,” Wendeborn said.
“We didn’t want the competition to be an overly formal, rigid, unfriendly experience like in so many larger cities.”
The point, he added, is to nurture the young people, “so as to encourage them to continue in their study of music.”
Competitors
Competing in the junior contest, which has a $250 prize for the winner, are Port Angeles cellist and pianist Jeremy Choe, 14; violinist Lum Fu, 11; pianist Wei Yan Fu, 13; violist Leah Haworth, 12; double bassist Michael Helwick, 14; pianist Morgan Humphreys, 15; pianist Jay Liang, 15; violinist Leah Marsh, 14; and double bassist Jared Van Blair, 12.
Sequim competitors in the junior contest are pianists Shannon Gordon, 15, and Kate Henninger, 14, and violinist Catherine Powers, 12.
The senior competition, with its $500 prize, brings together pianist Tarah Erickson, 17; violist Elizabeth Helwick, 16; violinist Erin Hennessey, 16; flutist Sierra Horsley, 18; violinists Selbey Jelle, 17, and Chandra Johnson, 21; and pianists Julia Tatum, 16, Cole Urnes, 15, and Curry Winborn, 18, all of Port Angeles.
Port Townsend cellist Aidan McClave, 16, and pianist Annalise Thomas, 16, of Sequim are also competing in the senior contest.
For more details about the Young Artists Competition and other symphony events, visit www.PortAngelesSymphony.org or phone 360-457-5579.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.