Posted by Sharon Schendel on Jan 29, 2018
Andrew Zhao, Garrie Rhodes, Erica Hwang, and William Bonitz
 
Our January 25, 2018 meeting was filled with beautiful music performed by young musicians.  Erica Hwang and Andrew Zhao, both seniors at Torrey Pines High School, joined William Bonitz, a junior at La Jolla Country Day High School, to compete at the local level of the District 5340 Music Competition. William began the concert with “Introduction and Rondo” by Leroy Ostransky for the alto saxophone and followed that with “Valse Lente” by Oscar Merikanto for piano.  Erica played the first movement from Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto in D Major. Andrew Zhao made great use of the Baldwin grand that lives on the St. Peter’s Parish Hall stage by playing Chopin’s Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1. Visit our Facebook page to see video clips from all three performances.
 
Members Garrie Rhodes and Miles Fleming, together with Niels Lund, president of Rotary Club Solana Beach Eco, acted as judges to evaluate musical technique, interpretation and stage presence. The quality of all the performances was excellent, and the judges named Erica Hwang as our representative at the regional concert, to be held February 14 in the Chula Vista High School library. If she is successful there, she will compete in March in the District finals, where the top performer will receive a $2,500 scholarship.
 
Erica thanked the members for their attention, and expressed gratitude for all her audiences, which remind her that classical music continues to be valued. She said that this is the first time she played this piece without piano or orchestral accompaniment, and she enjoyed the freedom she had playing solo. Both she and Andrew will be auditioning for music programs at the university level.  We thank Garrie Rhodes for her hard work organizing the concert.