In Wednesday’s (8/29) Sacramento Bee (California), Edward Ortiz writes, “When the Mondavi Center and its Young Artists Competition issued its first call for applicants in 2007, a scant 20 applied. Many were local musicians. Five years later that competition has morphed into a national one—with hundreds of applicants and auditions scheduled in Portland, Ore., New York City and Los Angeles. Applicants now number in the hundreds, and the competition partners with the New York-based Concert Artist Guild, Steinway Artists and IMG Artists. The evolution of the competition, which seeks talented classical musicians between ages 10 and 21, owes much to its director and Mondavi pianist-in-residence, Lara Downes, and Mondavi’s director of programming, Jeremy Ganter. … This year’s competition is divided into two divisions: a Young Artists Division for pianists and instrumentalists ages 10-16, and a Founders Division for vocalists ages 17-21. The grand prize winner of the Founders Division gets $6,000. The Young Artists Division winners each get $2,000. Additional prizes include a $5,000 Bouchaine Young Artists Scholarship from the Napa Valley summer Festival del Sole. … A key partnership for Mondavi, Downes said, is its first-time collaboration with the Concert Artists Guild—a 61-year-old organization with a solid international reputation for discovering, nurturing and promoting young musicians. ‘We’re looking into whether we can feed into their competition,’ Downes said.”
Posted August 29, 2012
