- The following program
is a PBS Wisconsin original production.
* ["Mendelssohn's String Symphony No. 12, 3rd Mvmt."] *
- 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.
*
- 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.
*
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.
*
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.
*
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.
*
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."
*
[cheers and applause]
*
- John DeMain: Our second finalist is Carrie Wang,
accompanied by Steven Ayers.
*
- I'm Carrie Wang,
and I'm a junior at Brookfield East High School.
*
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.
*
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.
*
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.
*
- John DeMain: Carrie will perform
the first movement of the "Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5."
*
[cheers and applause]
*
- Our third competitor tonight
is Sophia Jiang, accompanied by her sister,
Jessica Jiang.
*
- My name is Sophia Jiang,
and I'm a freshman at James Madison Memorial High School.
*
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.
*
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.
*
- Sophia will be performing the first and third movements
of the "Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major."
*
[cheers and applause]
*
- John DeMain: Our final competitor is Dexter Mott,
accompanied by Vincent Fuh.
*
- My name is Dexter Mott.
I'm a senior at La Follette High School, and I play the violin.
*
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.
*
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.
*
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!
*
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.
*
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.
*
- Dexter will be performing the first movement
of the "Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3."
*
[cheers and applause]
*
- 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]
*
- 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.