Jonathan Xu was joined by Emily Hu (left) and Alice Yang for the final instalment of the Shenkman Summer Afternoons of Music series on Aug. 23. Fred Sherwin/Photo

The Shenkman "Summer Afternoons of Music� series wrapped up on Sunday with a trio of performances by three of the city's most gifted young pianists including a pair of pianists from Orléans.

The concert was opened by Emily Hou, 17, who played Partita #2 in C Minor by J.S. Bach.

The Grade 12 Colonel By student is coming off a highly successful competition season during which she finished in first place in the Crescendo International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall in New York City and was invited on a summer exchange program which took her to Germany, Luxemburg and Belgium in early July.

She also placed first in the Diploma Level Category at the Ottawa Kiwanis Festival in April and received the Doreen Givens J.S. Bach Trophy for the honour, plus an invitation to the provincial Kiwanis competition. And she placed first on piano in the Ontario Registered Music Teachers' Association (ORMTA) provincial com-petition and second overall.

Good friend and fellow prodigy, Alice Yang, placed third in the ORMTA provincial competition and second on piano. She also won the Ottawa Chamberfest Rising Stars competition and she won the Steinway competition.

But her biggest accomplishment was placing first in the nation wide Canadian Music Competition.

The 14-year-old, who will be heading to Colonel By this fall, demonstrated her immense at Sunday's concert during her performance of Ravel's Jeux d'eau, which she followed up with Chopin's Scherzo No. 1 and Scherzo No. 2. In between, Ottawa pianist Jonathon Xu, performed Franz Liszt's Consolation No. 3 and Hou returned to the piano to play the second and third movements of Beethoven's Path�tique taken from Sonata No. 8.

Hou then brought the 70-minute recital to a close with a stirring performance of Chopin's Polonaise in A-flat Major.

The series of four afternoon concerts were organized by Gloucester Music Teachers Association president Jennifer Messer.

Proceeds from the concert series will be given to the Children's Aid Foundation of Ottawa to help provide music lessons for children in their care.

Messer also manages the Steinway Piano Gallery on Star Top Road. The Gallery hosts recitals on a regular basis for a small fee which is also given to the Children's Aid Foundation for the same cause.

Messer recently presented a cheque to the Children's Aid Foundation on behalf of the GMTA in the amount of $4,186.83.

This is the first year that the Shenkman Arts Centre has hosted the Summer Afternoons of Music series, and by all accounts it was a huge success. Messer is hopeful the Arts Centre will agree to host the series of four concerts next summer.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)