(Posted March 2, 2018)
Gloucester
Music Teachers Association honours top students
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online
The
Gloucester Music Teachers Association held its annual
First Class Honours recital on Sunday evening, bringing
together some of the most gifted young pianists in the
east end.
The
students who ranged in age from eight to 18, had all achieved
a mark of 80 per cent or higher on their Royal Conservatory
of Music exam in the past year. Those students who received
the highest mark in their respective grade levels were
presented with a special medallion.
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This
year's top Gloucester Music Teacher Association
students received a medallion for receiving
the highest mark at their grade level. Staff
photo
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Among
the 17 recipients was eight-year-old Spencer Song, who
received the highest mark in Ontario for the Preparatory
B exam, and Amy Li, 18, who received the highest mark
in the country on her ARCT theory exam.
Both
individuals performed during Sunday's recital at Orléans
United Church. Song opened the program with Muzio Clementi's
Sonatina in G Major, Op 36 No 2. His flawless performance
belied the fact that he only started playing the piano
a year ago.
Li
brought the recital to a close with beautiful rendition
of Lieberstraum No 3 by the 19th century Hungarian
composer Franz Liszt. In between were several spellbinding
performances, too numerous to be able to mention them
all in this limited space.
Some
of my personal highlights included eight-year-old Emily
Liu's rendition of Melody; Athena Liau's performance of
Sonatina in G Major by Latour; and Olyn Wang's
rendition of Dussek's Sonatina in G Major.
The
program included performances by several sets of siblings
as well, including twins Zoe and Isabelle Dudzinski who
played Fantasia on Greensleeves as a duet.
Micheal,
Cindy and Iris Li also performed as did Alice and Michael
Yang and the Hou siblings Emily, Alexandre and Charlotte
who walked away with the lion's share of the hardware.
Each
of them received the highest mark in their respective
grade levels on both their practical and theory exams,
which is a first for the siblings.
Emily
Hou also recently performed at the famed Carnegie Hall
in New York City along with Michael Li and Alice Yang,
as part of the Crescendo International Music Competition
sponsored by Steinway Pianos.
She
did so well, in fact, that she was invited to take part
in a special international music camp being held over
a two-week period in Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg.
Emily
will also be taking part in the upcoming Kiwanis Music
Festival competition with many of the other young pianists
who took part in Sunday's recital. The Festival is being
held in Ottawa from April 3-28.
(This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of
our local business partners.)
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