Music Institute of Chicago Honors Young Composers
The Music Institute of Chicago has announced the winners of its 2011 Generation Next Young Composer's Competition, which encourages and promotes the development of young composers:
• First place ($350): Andrew Guo (Chicago)-Hercules, for flute, viola, bass, and piano• Second place ($150): Jared Hedges (Lindenhurst)-The Wanderers, for soprano, cello, and piano
• Third place ($100): Martynas Matutis (Lisle)-An Argumentative Ensemble, for two violins, cello, and piano
• Honorable mention ($75): David Jin (Buffalo Grove)-From the Steppes of Mongolia, for violin, cello, piccolo and bass clarinet
On March 11, a free concert will showcase the scores of the first, second and third place winners of the Competition. MIC students will perform the winning compositions. Also on the program are works from the MIC Composer's Lab Program, directed by MIC composer-in-residence Mischa Zupko, and performances by young composers from the studio of Chicago-based composer Seth Boustead. New this year, MIC has partnered with 98.7 WFMT to record the performance for future broadcast on the popular radio program INTRODUCTIONS, which celebrates talented pre-college classical musicians.
About the Generation Next winners
Andrew Guo, a 12-year old pianist and composer, began piano lessons at age four and composition lessons at age six. He was the first place winner of the 2005 Music Festival in Honor of Confucius Competition, the 2006 Society of American Musicians Competition, and the 2009 Steinway Young Artists Competition; a winner of the 2007 Walgreen National Concerto competition; and the youngest finalist in the 2010 audition at Curtis Institute of Music.
Jared Hedges is a senior at Lakes Community High School in Lake Villa, Illinois. He studies piano and violin and plays in the Trinity Community Philharmonic Orchestra. In May 2010 his setting of Psalm 131 for solo voice and piano received an honorable mention in the Webster University Community Music School Young Composers Competition. Several of his choral pieces have been performed by the Village Voices of Lincolnshire, Illinois.
Martynas Matutis born in Lithuania, is a senior at Naperville North High School. He has been a member of seven individual choirs and is the regular rehearsal accompanist to his school's mid-level choir. He placed third in the Generation Next Competition in 2009.
David Jin, a junior at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, began studying piano at the age of five. He is an award-winning young composer who has had works featured at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Gottlieb Hall at the Merit School of Music, and at Chicago's Symphony Center. His "Three Songs Without Words" took third prize in the IMEA All-State Composition Contest.
Four Score Festival
The Generation Next Young Composer's Competition performance takes place during the Music Institute of Chicago's annual Four Score Festival, which annually highlights contemporary music. The March 6 concert features works by Polish composers Marta Ptaszy?ska, an award-winning composer and professor at the University of Chicago, and the late Henryk Górecki, described as "a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during the post-Stalin cultural thaw." The March 13 concert includes compositions by husband and wife Zhou Long and Chen Yi, both on faculty in the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Composition program. Both concerts will be performed by MIC faculty, staff and guest artists.
About the Music Institute of Chicago
The Music Institute of Chicago (MIC) believes that music has the power to sustain and nourish the human spirit; therefore, our mission is to provide the foundation for lifelong engagement with music. As one of the three largest and most respected community music schools in the nation, MIC's musical excellence is built on the strength of our distinguished faculty, commitment to quality, and breadth of programs and services. Founded in 1931, MIC is one of the oldest community music schools in Illinois. MIC is a member of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts and accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. Each year, our world-class music teachers and arts therapists provide the highest quality arts education to more than 5,000 students of all ability levels, from birth to 100 years of age at campuses in Evanston, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Lincolnshire, and Winnetka. MIC also offers lessons and programs at Steinway of Chicago stores in Northbrook and Downers Grove and early childhood and community engagement programs throughout the Chicago area and the North Shore. MIC's Nichols Concert Hall education/performance center, located in downtown Evanston, reaches approximately 14,000 people each year. MIC community engagement and partnership programs reach an additional 6,500 Chicago Public School students annually.
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