Classical Minnesota Public Radio Announces Featured Round Winners for "Minnesota Varsity"

Feb 5, 2014

Classical MPR has announced the Featured Artists and Composers for this year's "Minnesota Varsity" --a program to showcase the region's outstanding young classical musicians and composers. To participate in Minnesota Varsity, musicians, ages 14-18, from around the state were asked to submit a recording of themselves performing. Student composers (also ages 14-18) were invited to submit an original score for traditional piano trio: violin, cello, and piano. For a second year, American Composers Forum (ACF) is a partner with MPR in the Composition category.

Classical MPR staff received more than 80 submissions from across the state. From those, 13 were chosen as Featured Artists and 5 were chosen as Featured Composers.

In this phase of the program, the Featured Artists will be matched with a professional recording engineer from MPR to produce a high-quality recording. These recordings will then be broadcast throughout the month of March on Classical MPR--on air and online. The Featured Composers will be invited to a Mentorship Day with charter ACF member and composer Carol Barnett as mentor, to have their works performed by a piano trio from the University of Minnesota School of Music, Can Canbolat, violin, Rosalind Leavell, cello, and Francesca Tortorello, piano. The students also will receive assistance in polishing their compositions and presenting them to an audience.

Minnesota Varsity 2014 Featured Artists:

• Sarrah Bushara, oboe, Eden Prairie
• Crystal Cheng, piano, Maple Grove
• Caroline Donaldson, harp, Eden Prairie
• Nora Doyle, cello, Minneapolis
• Brock Drevlow, double bass, Thief River Falls
• Arjun Ganguly, viola, St. Cloud
• Jenna Gullickson, flute, St. Paul
• Moriah Huerta, voice, Burnsville
• Jacob Ingbar, voice, Minneapolis
• Sarah Juhn, violin, Rochester
• Marisa Lin, piano, Rochester
• Evren Ozel, piano, Minneapolis
• Matthew Racine, trumpet, Apple Valley

Minnesota Varsity 2014 Featured Composers:

• Ava Huebner, St. Cloud
• Spencer Hammersten, Circle Pines
• Austin Kraft, Savage
• Riona Ryan, North Mankato
• John Walker, Burnsville

The Showcase Round Showcase Artists: Beginning March 24, the general public will be able to choose one of the Showcase Artists from the 13 Featured Artists by participating in the online Audience Vote at classicalmpr.org. Then, at the end of March, a panel of celebrity judges will choose four performers to be Showcase Artists. All five Showcase Artists will be asked to perform at MPR's Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul on May 4, 2014 for a live theater and radio broadcast--where the audience members will get to vote live for their favorite performer.

Showcase Composers: Two Showcase Composers will be selected by the piano trio and the American Composers Forum. The Showcase Composers' works will be premiered at the Fitzgerald Theater as part of the live Showcase concert broadcast.

Minnesota Varsity Showcase Concert Sunday, May 4, 5 p.m. at MPR's The Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul

The 2014 Minnesota Varsity Showcase will include performances by the five finalists During the event, audience members and radio listeners (via the Web) will have the chance to participate in the "Encore Vote," with the winner performing the encore at the concert. A piano trio will perform the premiere of the Showcase Composers' pieces.

Tickets: Admission is free and open to the public but a ticket is required. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Fitzgerald Theater Box Office at 651-290-1200.