This year's winner: Violinist Coco Mi
Monday, January 23, 2017 - New York, NY
Upon finishing a very competitive and engaging final round concert this past Saturday the 21st, we're delighted to announce that sixteen year-old violinist Coco Mi from Princeton, NJ has been selected the winner of our First Annual Young Artists Competition in partnership with Florian Leonhard Fine Violins!
Ms. Mi will receive a $1,000k scholarship and perform as the featured soloist on our May 20, 2017 concert. Additionally, Florian Leonhard will loan her a fine instrument for use in her performance with the WHCO. Ms. Mi attends the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Program where she studies with Elizabeth Faidley and is the recipient of the Carl Owen Memorial Scholarship. She has performed in masterclasses with well-known violinists such as Sarah Chang, Ray Chen, and Jennifer Koh, among others. When not playing the violin, Coco is a junior at Princeton High School in Princeton, NJ. She is also the leader of a community service program “Music Therapy” which focuses on doing musical activities with special needs students at her school.
From left: Samuel Rhodes, Philip Lasser, Anna Rabinova, Chris Whittaker
We also congratulate our runners-up:
2nd Prize: Chelsea Xia, Violin, 14, New York, NY, (receives $500 scholarship)
3rd Prize: Alexandra Woroniecka, Violin, 14, Stony Brook, NY (receives $250 scholarship)
Audience Vote/Honorable Mention: Alexander Rohatyn, Cello, 17, New York, NY
The year the competition was open to violinists, violists, and cellists who either reside or pursue musical studies in the New York metropolitan area. Our finalists were selected through blind pre-screening and semi-final rounds adjudicated by members of the WHCO. The judging panel at the final round included Mr. Samuel Rhodes (The Juilliard String Quartet); Ms. Anna Rabinova (New York Philharmonic); and Dr. Philip Lasser (The Juilliard School/European American Musical Alliance).
We are grateful to our competition sponsor, Florian Leonhard Fine Violins. for their support of our very first young artists competition.
And we thank all of our outstanding finalists who played a beautiful concert on Saturday evening. We wish each of our participants the very best as they continue to passionately pursue their musical studies.
Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra
info@washingtonheightsorchestra.org
Group bow from our finalists and judges. Bravi tutti!