Basie Center Education Update: NJSYO Competition, February Recitals + more!
(March 1, 2020) Winter at the Academy of the Arts continues, with two of our Conservatory students making a huge splash at the New Jersey Symphony Youth Orchestra’s 3rd annual Concerto Competition, February recitals, participation in the Tri-District Music Festival and more!
New Jersey Symphony Youth Orchestra’s 3rd annual Concerto Competition
Congratulations to Conservatory students Madeline (Maddie) Fields and Rayan Jawa for winning top prizes at this year’s NJSYO 3rd Annual Concerto Competition on Wednesday, February 19th! Maddie won First Place by performing Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major K. 218. and will go onto perform this piece as the featured soloist at the 2020 spring concert on May 31. At the request of the competition judges, Rayan Jawa was awarded honorable mention for his outstanding performance of Hoffmeister Viola Concerto in D major. Maddie studies violin under the direction of Grace Lim, and flute with Lucian Rinando. Both Maddie and Jawa are advanced music students, participating in the Conservatory’s String Quartet Program, led by Mikhail Kuchuk. Special thanks to Andrew Kosinski for accompanying the students at the competition
Basie Conservatory February Recital
On Saturday, February 22nd, the Monmouth Conservatory hosted its monthly recital open to all its students interested in performing. With several wonderful performances, the highlight was from our Guitar Ensemble from the studio of Patrick Appello and our Intermediate String Ensemble from the studio of Laura Petillo performing classic hits from the Beatles like, “Black Bird” and “Yesterday”. Great job to everyone who performed!
Tri-District Music Festival
On Wednesday, February 19th, Rumson-Fair Haven High School hosted its annual Tri-District Music Festival. Many of our Basie students performed at the event, while Conservatory instructor Laura Petillo accompanied Hayden Marciszewski’s original work titled “Dedication in D Minor” composed for the violin and piano. For more than 17 years, the Tri-District Music Festival has hosted music programs from Knollwood Public School in Fair Haven, Forrestdale Middle School in Rumson and Rumson Fair Haven Regional High School. The string orchestra, jazz ensemble and choirs from all three districts concluded this very successful event by performing “America the Beautiful”.