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The Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra presents “Youth Makes Music IV”
Hendersonville, NC, April 8, 2009– The Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra will perform, Youth Makes Music IV, on Saturday, May 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the new Blue Ridge Conference Hall on the campus of BRCC.
This special concert features Luke Blackburn, bassoonist, winner of the 2009 Young Artist Competition, and members of the Hendersonville Youth Symphony Orchestra performing side-by-side with their adult counterparts.
Tickets for the performance are $25, students $5 and are available from the following outlets in Hendersonville: Visitors Center, Opportunity House, Mountain Lore Book Store, Hand in Hand Gallery, and the Laurel Park Wine Market, as well as by calling the Symphony office at 828-697-5884.
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Hendersonville Symphony's Young Artist Competition Winners, 2009
The Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Young Artist Competition, held on Jan. 25 at the Patton Auditorium at BRCC. This contest is in its fourteenth year and is open to high school students in several surrounding counties. The purpose is to showcase our young musicians, giving them a chance to perform for judges and to win the chance to perform with the Hendersonville Symphony. Cash awards are given to three of the students each year. One student is chosen to play with the Symphony.
Experienced judges provide comments to all contestants, encouraging and suggesting ways towards musical growth. There are many positive educational elements in this competition including memory work, stage presence, judgment skills, practice skills and the ability to interact musically with others.
The Hendersonville Symphony's Education Committee works diligently to develop young instrumentalists from our area, to the end that, as adults, they will be good musicians and/or music lovers with a deeper appreciation of what music can add to life.
This year's first place winner, Luke Blackburn, is a sixteen year old bassoonist from Brevard. His musical career began at eight years old with piano and singing. He has won many piano and vocal competitions including the All State Piano Competition in 2006. Other studies include the saxophone, flute and trumpet, the latter of which afforded him a scholarship to University of Wisconsin 's summer music camp.
His bassoon studies began in eighth grade when he began lessons with Dr.Will Peebles of Western Carolina University . Luke plays bassoon in the Brevard High School Concert Band, Brevard Community Band, Brevard College Band, and the Hendersonville Youth Symphony Orchestra.. He plays trumpet in the Brevard High Marching Band and Jazz Band. Additionally, he teaches piano and writes orchestral scores. His plans for college are to major in Music Education or Performance.
Eric Weigel, the second place winner is a pianist who began his music studies at the age of five playing violin. At twelve he began playing piano and for the past six years has been studying with Dr. John Cobb of Fairview . In 2006 Eric played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 with the Asheville Chamber orchestra. In 2007 he placed first in the advanced division of the Asheville Area Piano Forum's annual competition. In 2008, he placed third in the Hendersonville Symphony's Young Artist Competition. Eric is active in the music community in Asheville and recently performed as guest soloist for the Asheville Symphony Guild's “Musical Feast.” He is currently a senior at Asheville School ... In addition to music, his interests include swimming, kayaking, photography and backpacking.
Daniel Pinelli is the third place winner. A sixteen year old violinist from Asheville , Daniel was first introduced to the violin by his mother, Monique. He currently studies with Corine Brouwer, concertmaster of the Winston-Salem Symphony and a former student of Elaine Ritchie. Daniel is co-concertmaster of the Hendersonville Youth Symphony Orchestra. In addition to playing the violin, he is an active member of the WNC Student Peace Alliance and is co-owner of a local film company.
The three judges for this competition have far reaching and various experience.Susan Kincaid, now of Hendersonville, has served as Executive Director of Chicago's Sherwood Conservatory of Music, has performed widely as piano soloist, accompanist, and chamber player. She currently is accompanist for the Asheville Lyric Opera and is Vocal Dept. accompanist at Warren Wilson College .
Sonja Coppenbarger, principal bassoon of the Hendersonville Symphony, has played extensively in the Greenville area and is on the faculty at North Greenville University . She also teaches at Anderson College and Governor's School for the Arts.
Dean Angeles is Professor Emeritus at Loyola University where he conducted the Loyola University Chamber and Symphony Orchestras and headed the string program. He is a widely known clinician and conductor and has taken groups of students all over the US and Europe . He is still active in these endeavors, as will as being a consultant for the Clark County String Program in Las Vegas , Nevada .
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2007 Young Artist Competition Winners Announced
Each year the Hendersonville Symphony sponsors the Young Artist Competition, for ninth through twelfth graders who are residents of Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, Polk, Swain, Transylvania or Yancey counties. This year, auditions were held on Sunday, January 28 in the Patton Auditorium of Blue Ridge Community College.
The Hendersonville Symphony is proud to announce this year's winners:
First place went to Drew Prichard, a tuba player who studies at the South Carolina Governor's School. Drew will play with the Hendersonville Symphony on April 14 and receive a $500 award. Second place was pianist Michael Dowling of Brevard. Michael will receive a $300 award. Josianne Bailey won third place and will receive $200. She is a flutist.
These young people are to be congratulated for their high level of performance. We are grateful for the support of SunTrust Bank, which provides the funding for this competition.
For information about the 2008 competition, please contact the Hendersonville Symphony Office at 828-697-5884 or Cheryl Hagymassy at 828-696-3953.
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Maestro Ludwig von BEARthoven |
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| Photos show, from left to right: Bill Humleker, HSO President loading the bear for a trip to the studio. The partially completed bear is shown with artist Beth Donahue. The nearly completed bear is waiting for his debut. |
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The Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra's entry in the 2006 "Bearfootin' in Downtown Hendersonville" is rapidly nearing completion in the hands of artist Beth Donahue.
His name is Maestro Ludwig von BEARthoven and as you can see, he has already come a long way from his arrival in January. That day, when board president Bill Humleker picked him up for transport to Donahue's studio, he was an extremely pale white. He showed no musical talent at all, much less a genius for composing and conducting.
As you can see, he has grown thick unruly locks, an 19th century costume, also very musical, as well as a conductor's baton and music stand.
The 2006 bears will be presented to the community on April 29th. We're still waiting for word of our Maestro's extact display location.
We'll post that exciting news here as soon as available. |
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| A dream achieved: The Symphony
Louise Bailey
ALONG THE RIDGES
When the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra begins tuning up for its Christmas concert Friday, many of us will be thinking of Chan Harbour and wishing he were there to see what has grown out of his dream of providing for the people of Hendersonville the music he felt they deserve. He came for retirement, but when he found our community markedly involved in literature and art and music, he declared, "Now we need to round out our artistic lives with a symphony orchestra." He was determined to get one started, and in one way it was no sudden decision on his part, for ever since he was a 9-year-old lad he had longed to play in a symphony orchestra.
But not in just that. Although he was a gifted instrumentalist, his ambition spent some years wavering between a symphony and a circus band, depending on which he was listening to at the moment. Then many years later he found Hendersonville and a surprising number of outstanding musicians already in residence. Among them was Joseph Falvo, who had worked with John Phillip Sousa and never failed to get the audience on its feet when he played The Stars and Stripes Forever on his piccolo. Falvo had played flute with a number of orchestras, and in Orson Welles' Invasion from Mars, and had taken part in shows starring Eddie Cantor, Fred Allen, Lucille Ball, Dinah Shore and on Popeye cartoons.
Achieving a goal
Hendersonville 's new symphony orchestra began under the direction of James Stokes, and "with musicians who never lost faith in achieving our goal," according to Chan Harbour . Comments after that first performance were highly complimentary, such as "....a great thing for Hendersonville and I want to see it continue;" "It's the greatest thing that has happened in Hendersonville in a long time...," "It fills a long vacant gap in the music life of Hendersonville and I want to see it become a part of our culture in this community."
People doubted if another town of Hendersonville's size in the entire United States could boast of such a fine orchestra by which the "numbers were beautifully performed." People were amazed that so much talent existed in a small town, and more was coming in as industries and retirement brought people from all over the country.
Chan Harbour was fully aware of the Brevard Music Center , which held performances only in summer. He kept thinking. Why not have concerts the year-round?
When Chan was 9 years old his father, who played a French horn, gave him a clarinet. Three years later Chan was playing both clarinet and trombone. He earned a place in his high school orchestra and went on to play in his college orchestra and later in an orchestra in Ohio . Disappointed over not qualifying for a place in a symphony, he turned to composing music, some of his numbers being Queen of Hearts, Weeping Willow Trees and Alone with Memory, the latter being a particular favorite of piano teachers working with students in their early stages of piano training. While Chan's compositions are no longer well-known today, they hold a permanent place in the music world, some of them having been published in foreign countries.
Chan Harbour liked to point out that it took 17 years of hard work for The Philadelphia Orchestra, now one of the world's greatest, to reach its zenith, while the first performance of the Hendersonville group was a "progress appearance to show what had been done in seven months." And the performers played for the love of music, not for pay.
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