RSS 2.0 FeedJanuary 18, 2012, Local Arts News
Topeka Symphony announces Youth Talent Audition winners
The 59th annual Youth Talent Auditions, sponsored by the Topeka Symphony and Capitol Federal, were held December 17 in White Concert Hall at Washburn University. High school musicians from northeast Kansas competed for the opportunity to perform with the Topeka Symphony Orchestra and for scholarship awards.
The 59th annual Youth Talent Auditions, sponsored by the Topeka Symphony and Capitol Federal, were held December 17 in White Concert Hall at Washburn University. High school musicians from northeast Kansas competed for the opportunity to perform with the Topeka Symphony Orchestra and for scholarship awards. Capitol Federal will present the awards to the winners at the Topeka Symphony Orchestra concert on January 14.
This year’s auditions saw three winners selected from the strings division, the woodwind and percussion division, and keyboard division. To be eligible to participate in the auditions, students must be in the 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade and be recommended by their music teacher as being capable of performing with the Topeka Symphony Orchestra if declared a winner.
The Overall Winner of the 2011-2012 Youth Talent Competition is Joseph Teeter, cello.
Joe Teeter is a sophomore at Topeka High School. He is the son of Peg McCarthy and Scott Teeter. He began studying the cello at age four with Suzuki instructor Carolyn Sandquist. At age seven he began studying seriously with former Washburn cello professor Steven Elisha. He now is a student of Kansas City Symphony musician Lawrence Figg. Joe has much experience with orchestras, playing with the Topeka Symphony Debut and Youth Philharmonic Orchestras as well as the Kansas City Youth Philharmonic, Academy, and Symphony Orchestras. He was principal of the Topeka Youth Symphony in 2010 and principal of the Kansas City Youth Philharmonic and Academy orchestras from 2008 to 2010. This year he was the youngest ever cellist to be accepted into the Topeka Symphony as a full time member. He also is an active member of Washburn University’s cello ensemble.
Teeter has studied in the summer at the Ottawa Summer Camp, Soundfest Summer Intensive in Falmouth, MA; Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, Co; the Kansas City String Quartet Program and the Blanche Bryden Sunflower Music Festival Institute in Topeka. Last year, Joe won the Kansas City Youth Symphony’s concerto competition and performed Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme wit the Academy Orchestra in Yardley Hall at Johnson County Community College.
In his spare time, Joe Teeter enjoys dancing at Topeka Ballet, playing in several chamber ensembles and teaching cello lessons.
Erin Hansen, harp, is the winner of the Wind and Percussion Instrument Division and Overall Runner-up of the 2011-2012 Youth Talent Competition. Erin is the daughter of Joseph and Denita Hansen and lives in Atchison, Kansas. She will perform the Rondeau, Third Movement of the Concerto for Harp and Orchestra in C, Op. 77 by Adrien Francois Boieldieu with the Topeka Symphony Youth Orchestra on March 4, 2012. She is a senior at Shemah Christian Academy Home School in Atchison.
Erin has studied piano since age five and began her study of harp at age seven, both with Sister Joachim Holthaus. She has served as a church pianist at Carol Baptist Church during much of her musical study time. When she was 12 she began serving as harpist in the Benedictine College Community Orchestra, a position she held for five years. This last fall she began performing wit the Emporia State Orchestra as harpist and pianist. Erin has received several levels of awards including a National Second Prize in String Category 2010 in the American Association of Christian Schools (AACS) competition. In 2011 she received first place Classical Piano in the Mid-American Association of Christian Schools (MAACS) competition. She has also been featured in the Atchison magazine, “Lady A” in the 2011 summer issue. She plans to major in Harp Performance at Bob Jones University in the fall of 2012
Isabel Keleti, piano, is the winner of the Keyboard Division. She performed the First Movement of the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16. She is the daughter of Daniel and Ingrid Keleti and lives in Leawood, Kansas where she attends Blue Valley North High School.
Isabel has studied piano for ten years, starting lessons at age seven. She currently studies with David Tauscher. She servers as percussion section leader of the Blue Valley North Marching Band and plays viola and violin in the Blue Valley North Symphonic Orchestra. Every Sunday she plays viola, violin, and/or piano with the orchestra at the Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene.
She attended Heartland Chamber Music Academy at UMKC and the International Institute of Young Musicians. This past year she won first place in the 11-12 grade Plan B Division at the KMTA Piano Competition and second place in the Missouri Western State University Young Artists Piano Competition. Isabel received highest ratings at the KSHSAA regional and state piano competition and at KCMTA’s Fall Festival for the past three years. She was also the district winner of the GFWC piano competition in 2010. In her free time she loves to listen to classical music, play in small ensembles, bake, spend time with friends and travel to new places.
Judges for the auditions were Strings: James Starr, Emporia; Woodwinds: Allan Comstock, Emporia; and Keyboard: Martin Cuellar, Emporia.
The Topeka Symphony is sponsored in part by Washburn University.
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