Rising stars in Kitsap symphony community to showcase talents

Alan Futterman
·2 min read
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The winners and runners-up from the Bremerton Symphony Young Artists Competition are already accomplished performers who will present a wealth of exciting professional repertoire. For classical music lovers, this concert is one of the great cultural bargains of Kitsap County.

Highlights include baritone extraordinaire, Jack Burrows, singing "Selections from Songs of Travel" by Ralph Vaughan Williams and arias by Mozart and Donizetti.

Cyrus Yan, one of our junior winners, will perform the Allegretto from Beethoven’s "Piano Sonata Op.31, no. 2" (The Tempest).

There have been three absolute greatest child prodigy composers in history. We all know about Mozart, the 20th century gave us Korngold, the composer of Robin Hood, and the 19th century gave us Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn was the luckiest, in that he was born into a wealthy family that adored music. At the age of 12, his parents hired a chamber orchestra for young Felix to conduct and try out his early symphonies. Later, he founded the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Clarence Yan will perform Mendelssohn’s "Lost Illusions Op.67, No. 2."

The ultimate romantic pianist was certainly Frédéric Chopin. We will enjoy his soulful and exquisite "Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38," played by last year’s winner, Damaris Harvey.

The 19th century saw the rise of travelling virtuosi and the great rivalry between them. Nicolo Paganini wrote beastly difficult violin works, and a somewhat younger pianist, Franz Liszt, came along and essentially said, “Anything you can do, I can do better.” He proceeded to compose beastly difficult piano works. Ms. Harvey will also tackle the "Transcendental Etude No. 2" by Franz Liszt.

Violinist Arlea Forbes-Prater will bring us one of the most beautiful and beloved pieces in all the romantic literature, the Max Bruch "Violin Concerto in G Minor."

Alan Futterman is the director of the Bremerton WestSound Symphony.

Bremerton Symphony Young Artists competition showcase

Where: North Point Church, 1779 NE Hostmark St., Poulsbo, WA 98370

When: 3 p.m. Sunday, May 7

Tickets: $10

Information: 360-377-1722, www.bremertonwestsoundsymphony.org

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Rising stars in Kitsap symphony community to showcase talents May 7