Concerto Competition announces three winners

The Annual Cornell Concerto Competition looked a little bit different this year; the contest was broadened to include opportunities for multiple winners to perform not only with the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, but also with the Chamber Orchestra and the Barbara and Richard T. Silver Wind Symphony. Competition organizer and Director of Orchestras Gabriela Gómez Estévez said the new format was "driven by our desire to increase accessibility and provide more opportunities for our gifted players to perform, and it allows us to explore the wealth of repertoire for solo instruments with chamber orchestra and wind band accompaniment, in addition to symphony orchestra."

Students entered the first round of the competition by providing a video recording of their performance. Those entries were narrowed down to eight finalists who performed live in Barnes Hall Dec. 5 before a panel of three judges from Ithaca College: Ho-Yin Kwok (Director of Orchestras and assistant professor of music performance), Diego Vasquez (assistant professor of music performance, clarinet) and Dmitri Novgorodsky (associate professor of music performance, piano).

After a day of performances, three winners were announced:

Flutist Abigail Black '26 will perform the first movement of Lowell Liebermann's Piccolo Concerto with the Cornell Wind Symphony conducted by James Spinazzola on March 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

Violinist Dean Zhang '25 will perform Max Bruch's "Scottish Fantasy" with the Cornell Symphony Orchestra March 2 at 3 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

Trombonist Ethan Wolff '25 will perform Lars-Erik Larsson's Concertino for Trombone with the Cornell Chamber Orchestra March 9 at 3 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

Read the full story on the Department of Music website.