Marcelina Suchocka, a 17-year-old percussionist from Chicago, has been selected as the grand-prize winner of Big Break, new online contest for young American musicians presented by the From The Top radio show and Carnegie Hall. Suchocka—a student at Chicago’s Whitney M. Young Magnet High School and a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Percussion Scholarship Program—was selected by public vote from a pool of hundreds of classical musicians who had uploaded videos for the contest between October 18 and November 18. On April 9, Suchocka will perform at a Carnegie Hall Family Concert in Zankel Hall in New York; on April 10 she will tape an episode for NPR’s From The Top radio broadcast. In spring 2011, three runners-up in the Big Break contest will also appear on Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and on From The Top broadcasts: 16-year-old pianist Gideon Broshy (New York, NY), 16-year-old cellist Brannon Cho (Short Hills, NJ), and 14-year-old harpist Helen Gerhold (Lansdale, PA).
Posted December 20, 2010
