2YAC2021HD_Final Forte 2021 Transcript

- The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.  

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- They share a common bond: talented young musicians, brimming with intensity and passion, eager to take the stage in pursuit of their dreams. On behalf of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, music director John DeMain welcomes the four finalists to Overture Hall: Qing Ng, Carrie Wang, Sophia Jiang, and Dexter Mott. It's Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte. 

- Funding for The Final Forte is provided by: Diane Ballweg, W. Jerome Frautschi, Julie and Larry Midtbo, Fred and Mary Mohs, Stephen Morton, James Dahlberg and Elsebet Lund, Kato Perlman, A. Paul Jones Charitable Trust, Sentry Insurance Foundation, Nick and Judith Topitzes, Cyrena and Lee Pondrom, Dr. A Beyer-Mears, Focus Fund for the Arts, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin. 

- Hello and welcome to The Final Forte, the culmination of the 2021 Bolz Young Artist Competition. I'm Lori Skelton, host of Wisconsin Public Radio's Afternoon Classics.

- And I'm Angela Fitzgerald, host of PBS Wisconsin's Wisconsin Life. 2021 marks the 15th consecutive year of this historic collaboration between the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Public Radio, and PBS Wisconsin; a partnership founded to recognize and celebrate the amazing talents and achievements of Wisconsin's brightest young performers.

- This year's finalists emerged from a group of students who competed in two preliminary rounds in January. They are violinist Qing Ng of Madison, violinist Carrie Wang of Brookfield, pianist Sophia Jiang of Madison, and violinist Dexter Mott of Madison.

- These four finalists competed in a live concert setting in Overture Hall on March 3. As the COVID pandemic prevented the Orchestra's participation in the concert, the competitors performed their concerto selections with piano accompaniment.

- The audience was limited to the finalists' immediate family members, seated following accepted social distancing guidelines.

- Serving as hosts for the event were Maestro John DeMain, Music Director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and Kathryn Schwarzmann, the Orchestra's Director of Education and Community Engagement.

- John DeMain: Thank you, Lori and Angela. We are thrilled to be here in Overture Hall for this year's Bolz Young Artist Competition final round, featuring four top performers chosen through two highly competitive rounds of video auditions.

- Kathryn Schwarzmann: Our finalists will perform live with piano accompaniment this year for a panel of three judges. Results will be announced at the end of tonight's competition.

- Before we get started, we would like to introduce our three competition judges. Bernard Zinck is Professor of Violin and Chamber Music and Director of the Sorkin Chamber Music Institute at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.

- Kathryn Schwarzmann: Benjamin Whitcomb is Professor of Cello and Music Theory at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater, and cellist in the Ancora String Quartet.

- John DeMain: Myung Hee Chung is Professor of Piano at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater.

- Kathryn Schwarzmann: Our first performer tonight is Qing Ng, accompanied by her brother, Jing Ng. 

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- My name is Qing Ng, and I am a sophomore at Memorial High School.  I started taking violin lessons when I was eight years old. Originally, my brother started playing piano, and I started on singing, but I really wanted to play an instrument as well. So I ended up taking up the violin.
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My brother will be my accompanist. We've always been a great team. We connect with each other musically, and I feel really comfortable when I play with him.  I currently study with Davis King. I've always been a tense player on stage, and he really taught me to just be more free with my playing.
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And he makes learning a really positive experience for me. I've been in WYSO for six years. You get to collaborate and make music, and you learn a lot from the instructors, the teachers, the conductors. It's a really great environment.  

I like to spend time painting in my free time. My mom, who is also a talented artist herself, she taught me a lot about the techniques on how to paint well and how to make your art really pop. I used to prefer drawing, but now I'm leaning a little bit towards painting because of the beautiful colors and the techniques used in oil painting. I think that art is actually very challenging.  It's all very, like, specific, just like with music.
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There's just a certain amount of excitement and feeling when I'm performing, when I'm connecting with people in the audience, that really make me want to keep doing this.
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Classical music is something that has a lot of history, and I feel like that's something that should be passed on. And I think that's really important. § §

- Kathryn Schwarzmann: Qing will perform the "Third Movement of the Bruch Violin Concerto."

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[cheers and applause]

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- John DeMain: Our second finalist is Carrie Wang, accompanied by Steven Ayers. 

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- I'm Carrie Wang, and I'm a junior at Brookfield East High School.
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I started violin when I was four years old, and I also started piano when I was five years old, and I played both pretty seriously until I was about 12. And then, unfortunately, I just didn't have enough time to like, be keeping both up and have them both be at a high level. 

I live with my mom and dad and grandpa, actually. No one in my family actually plays an instrument, but my grandpa really likes listening to music. Instrumental music, classical music. He has a bunch of records that he likes to play. He has, like, a gramophone, too. And sometimes we'll listen to them, which is really nice. 

I am part of the MIC Academy, Music Institute of Chicago Academy, and that program is kind of like a comprehensive program. I also take music theory, and there's a chamber program that I'm also a part of.

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I'm studying with Ms. Sang Mee Lee.

- Sang Mee Lee: Leave yourself a little bit of juice.

- Carrie: She's amazing. And she's really just inspired me pretty much since I started studying with her, which was when I was nine, to just be a better musician.

  I tend to get very severe performance nerves. But I do enjoy performing, especially when I get into the stage of a piece where I can really just let go and not have to worry so much about every little detail.

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Part of what inspires me is just always reaching for more and trying to see, like, what I can do differently, what I can do better, and just experiment with different things. And overall, just to never stop chasing for a better performance.

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- John DeMain: Carrie will perform the first movement of the "Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5."

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[cheers and applause]

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- Our third competitor tonight is Sophia Jiang, accompanied by her sister, Jessica Jiang.

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- My name is Sophia Jiang, and I'm a freshman at James Madison Memorial High School.
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I started piano when I was about four years old. I just loved watching the little hammers, like, tinker the strings. I thought it was just the coolest thing ever. I have a very musical family. Both me and my sister play the piano and the violin. I kind of became passionate after watching her play on the stage.
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I did play with the Madison Symphony once as the winner of the Fall Youth Concerto competition, and that was one of the greatest moments of my life. I loved being on the big stage with a lot of young people in the audience. It pulled my heartstrings a lot. 

I study with Mr. Bill Lutes. He is such a wonderful person and a wonderful teacher. He's always telling me the stories of the composers and the history of the music. And it really helps me better understand the piece that I'm playing. 

I also participate in WYSO. I started as a student in Sinfonietta. So I was lucky enough to be the concertmaster for one of the concerts. And I also was fortunate enough to be able to play this beautiful solo. 

I'm a freshman, and we have been doing virtual school all year. We're kind of pulling through it. Clubs are also virtual. I am a part of the school newspaper. I also like to participate in my school's volunteer program. I just love volunteering. It's such a fun thing to do and it really opens your eyes up to the world.  During these difficult times, my sister and I are very, very excited to be able to share music with everybody watching at home. It's such an honor to be able to do that.
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- Sophia will be performing the first and third movements of the "Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major."

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[cheers and applause]

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- John DeMain: Our final competitor is Dexter Mott, accompanied by Vincent Fuh.

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- My name is Dexter Mott. I'm a senior at La Follette High School, and I play the violin.

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My older brother, who's one year older than me, he started when he was three, I started when I was three, and my sister also started when she was three. Both of my siblings quit music, but I really wanted to just keep going with it. And what helped me do that was when I started taking lessons with Eugene Purdue.

- Ba-da, blah, make sure to lead all the way...

- Dexter: When I started lessons with Eugene, I started entering competitions.

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And that sort of inspired me to take it a little bit more seriously and make it my own thing. A lot of musicians view building technique and building musicality as two separate things, but Eugene likes to reinforce the relationship that they have with each other. 'Cause when you play musically, it actually reinforces your technique, and vice versa.

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I've been doing the Bolz competition for about four years now. I even made it to the semifinals one year. So this is the first year I've made it into the actual final round.  I didn't want to graduate high school without getting somewhere with it. So it's definitely really, really, really cool!

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I just love playing music with friends. It really strengthens the bond that you have with people when you're able to share music with them. Last summer, as we were getting into the pandemic, my chamber group did our own little live broadcast of a Mendelssohn string quartet. And we just livestreamed it on YouTube. That was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done.

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Music is something that I'm good at. And it's always been something that I enjoy doing with other people.  Playing music and rehearsing and improving and thinking critically about the way that you're playing and the way others are playing and communicating with them, it's just a really, really, really fulfilling experience.

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- Dexter will be performing the first movement of the "Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3."

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[cheers and applause]

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- Kathryn Schwarzmann: We have our decision from the judges. Before we announce the results, it is important to point out that we consider each of our four finalists a winner in this highly competitive final round of the Bolz Young Artist Competition.

- John DeMain: First, our two honorable mention recipients. Each will be awarded a scholarship of $1,000. 

- Kathryn Schwarzmann: The first of our two honorable mentions goes to Qing Ng.  
[cheers and applause]

- John DeMain: The second of our two honorable mentions goes to Carrie Wang.  
[cheers and applause]

- Kathryn Schwarzmann: Second place will receive the Steenbock Youth Music Award and a $2,000 scholarship. Our winner will receive the Marian Bolz Prize for Distinguished Musical Achievement and also a $2,0000 scholarship.

- John DeMain: Second place goes to Dexter Mott.  
[cheers and applause]

- John DeMain: Which means our first-place winner of the 2021 Bolz Young Artist Competition is Sophia Jiang. 
[cheers and applause]

- John DeMain: Congratulations to all four of our amazing finalists!

- Kathryn Schwarzmann: And with that, we send it back to you, Lori and Angela! 
[cheers and applause]

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- Angela Fitzgerald: Thank you, Maestro John DeMain and Kathryn Schwarzmann. And congratulations to all four of this year's finalists!

- Lori Skelton: On behalf of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Public Radio and PBS Wisconsin, we thank you for joining us.  I'm Lori Skelton.

- And I'm Angela Fitzgerald. Have a great evening! 

- Funding for Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte is provided by: Diane Ballweg, W. Jerome Frautschi, Julie and Larry Midtbo, Fred and Mary Mohs, Stephen Morton, James Dahlberg and Elsebet Lund, Kato Perlman, A. Paul Jones Charitable Trust, Sentry Insurance Foundation, Nick and Judith Topitzes, Cyrena and Lee Pondrom, Dr. A Beyer-Mears, Focus Fund for the Arts, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.