Two Winners Of 2020 BSO Concerto Competition Announced

Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce the winners of BSO's 2020 Young Artist Concerto Competition. Yvette Kraft (violin) is the 2020 Winner of the Senior Division and Daniel Stein (cello) is the 2020 Winner of the Junior Division.

Both winners will join the BSO for their spring concert on May 30 & 31 to perform the works that garnered their winning placement in the 2020 competition. Yvette will perform Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1st movement), and Daniel will perform Edouard Lalo's Cello Concerto in D minor (1st movement).

Yvette Kraft was born in Spokane, Washington and began violin at the age of five with Mateusz Wolski. She has performed at master classes with prominent musicians including Noah BendixBalgley, Augustin Hadelich, Josef Špaček, Vadim Gluzman, Ilya Kaler, and Shlomo Mintz, to name a few. She made her debut with the Spokane Symphony at the age of eleven and since then has won multiple concerto competitions in Washington, Idaho, and Michigan. She has performed as a soloist with the Spokane Symphony, Spokane Youth Symphony, Interlochen Intermediate Orchestra, the Washington/Idaho Symphony, Seattle's Philharmonia Northwest Orchestra, and will be debuting with the Seattle Symphony in 2020 having won their Young Artist Appearance Award in 2019. She is a 2019 Seattle Young Artist Music Festival Gold Medalist and a semi-finalist in the 2019 Louis Spohr International Violin Competition. She will be competing on the international stage again in the Grumiaux International Violin Competition in Brussels, Belgium this March. She studies with Simon James in Seattle, WA.

Daniel Stein, 16, began cello lessons at the age of six at the Hochstein School in Rochester, NY, and has since studied with teachers at home and abroad, including Pippa Macmillan and Kirsten Jensen in Cambridge, England, and Priscilla Jones of Bainbridge. While in England, he also had the opportunity to collaborate with the Britten Sinfonia, as well as the Seraphin Chamber Orchestra at King's College, Cambridge. Daniel currently studies with Rajan Krishnaswami in Seattle, and plays a 1933 Marc Laberte cello generously loaned to him by the Carlsen Cello Foundation. He also plays in the cello sections of both Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra and the Bainbridge Island Youth Orchestra, as well as with a string quartet composed of Island teenagers. Daniel conducts his studies at home. Besides cello, he especially enjoys Spanish and history. In his free time, he enjoys playing chess, as well as writing articles for the e-mag Autodidact's Journal.

BSO Music Director Mario Alejandro Torres congratulates all participants in BSO's 2020 Young Artist Concerto Competition, saying, "I am amazed at the incredible talent of our own Bainbridge Island young musicians, as well as the wonderful performances by the participants in the Senior Division. They offer bright promise as music ambassadors and future artists." Photos of this year's winners may be found here.

Don't miss the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra's upcoming concert on February 8 and 9, as Maestro Mario Alejandro Torres leads the BSO in a concert that honors the extraordinary achievements of female composers.

Tickets and performance details are available online at www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org, by phone at 206.842.8569 or in person at BPA, 200 Madison Avenue North, Bainbridge Island.

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