This past weekend, our ten year old (barely) fourth-grader, Franklin Waldron, won First Place in the Minneapolis Music Teachers Forum (MMTF) Mozart Concerto Competition!! As the winner, Franklin will perform with The Kenwood Symphony Orchestra. He will have two performances of the first movement of the Mozart's Concerto in B-flat Major, K. 456. Franklin will be collaborating with the brilliant Russian conductor, Maestro Yuri Ivan. The concerts will be Saturday, March 25, 2017, in Minneapolis at Mindekirken, 7:30 pm, and Sunday, March 26, in the Masonic Home , Bloomington, at Ives Auditorium. Franklin is only the third young artist from our studio to have won this competition. He joins a rare category that includes Kenny Broberg (Winner, 2006) and Nita Qiu (Winner, 2014).
In addition to this joyous news, our magical Orion Kim (not yet eleven) was named Honorable Mention in the same competition, performing the first movement of Mozart's Concerto in A Major, K. 414. Both young men performed brilliantly and were accompanied by our great collaborative artist, Kerri LeJeune. Franklin and Orion show every indication of developing their great gifts in a major way. We look to their artistic leadership in the near future.
This coming weekend, I will be traveling with Nita Qiu and her mom, Dongmei, to Chicago. On Monday, Nita will be recording a twenty minute solo program as she has progressed to the next round of the e-Junior International Piano Competition. She is preparing magnificently for this all-important event and I am so excited to be with her as she records a very brilliant and scintillating program of Beethoven, Chopin, and Ginastera.
Also, next Monday Saejin Yoo will be performing the first movement of Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor with her school orchestra in Woodbury. Over the next month, Saejin and Collin Jinks will be traveling all around the country in a relentless series of music school auditions.
The weekend of February 18-20, our great Kenny Broberg will be performing in the live audition screening round of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Forth Worth, Texas. Kenny is one of 140 contestants world wide vying for an invitation to the Cliburn in June. Kenny's forty minute screening round will consist of repertoire from his CHS/Schmitt Music recital performed here several weeks ago.
Lot's going on!! We will keep you posted!
Yours in Music -
Joseph & Jo Anne
