MSO International Concerto Competition and more by Steve Parks

The trio of finalists in the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra’s annual Elizabeth Loker International Concerto Competition have been chosen to play in concert with the full orchestra to be judged for first, second and third places. The concert will be held at Chesapeake College’s Todd Hall for the Performing Arts on the Wye Mills campus at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 23.

“I am deeply excited to work with these extraordinary young musicians,” said Michael Repper, music director of the MSO who will be conducting them along with the orchestra for the finalist concert. “The energy and talent they bring to the stage will be a powerful reminder of the next generation of classical musicians.”The finalists competing for top honors are bassoonist Christopher Chung of New York City, who will perform Villa-Lobos’ Ciranda das Sete Notas; pianist Jonah Kwek of Singapore, performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23, and Britton-Rene Alyssa Collins, also of New York, playing Concerto for Marimba, her instrument, by Sergei Golovko.

Although there are cash prizes in the competition, the real top prize goes to each of the finalists, no matter their order of finish: Each one gets to play as a soloist accompanied by a full and fully professional symphony orchestra. Many of the applicants, from 27 states and at least nine countries, have never experienced that opportunity before. In most competitions, the finalists compete accompanied only by a pianist. But the cash prizes are worth competing for as well: $5,000 for first place, $2,500 for second, $1,000 for third and $500 for audience-choice favorite.

As for the contestants, Christopher Chung is a Juilliard School student who has performed with such distinguished ensembles as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra. As a bassoonist, he is known for his collaboration with Sonarsix, a woodwind quintet, and contributions to the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices, which promotes performances by composers whose careers and lives were cut short by Hitler’s Nazi regime

Jonah Kwek is a graduate of Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory now studying for a master of music at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. Already he has become a frequent soloist or contributing pianist on worldwide gigs. He also won the MNTA (Music Teachers National Association) Stecher and Horowitz Award for two-piano competition with a keyboard partner.

Britton-Rene Alyssa Collins, a percussion virtuoso on marimba – similar to a xylophone – earned a prestigious Princeton University Hodder Fellowship and has performed at Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall among other top global venues. She says part of her mission as a musician is to promote percussion as a means of celebrating black culture and identity.

The MSO competition is named for the former Washington Post executive who helped bring the newspaper into the digital age. In retirement, Elizabeth Loker moved to Royal Oak and became a symphony board member and supporter before her death of cancer at 67 in 2015.

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You don’t have to wait until March to hear some of the Mid-Atlantic Sumphony’s finest musicians. As part of its Ensemble Series of chamber concerts, Kimberly McCollum, violinist and concertmaster of the MSO, leads a string quartet that includes first or second-chair musicians  including violinist Celaya Kirchner, violist Yuri Tomenko and cellist Katie McCarthy. Together they will play Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 3 in F major and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6 in F minor at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8 at Epworth United Methodist Church in Reboboth Beach and at 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9 at the Academy Art Museum in Easton.

Ensemble Series String Quartet, 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, Epworth United Methodist Church, Rehoboth Beach; 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, Academy Art Museum, Easton.
Elizabeth Loker International Concerto Competition, 3 p.m. Sunday, March 23, Todd Hall for Performing Arts, Wye Mills. midatlanticsymphony,orgSteve Parks is a retired New York arts critic and editor now living in Easton.