Concerto Movement Competition Winners to Perform with the Palo Alto Philharmonic

The Palo Alto Philharmonic’s annual Family Concert will take place on May 12, and will feature five extraordinary soloists – the winners of this year’s Concerto Movement Competition.  The competition was open to musicians of high school age or younger, and after a preliminary screening of the applicants' recorded performances, the finalists auditioned before a distinguished panel of judges.  This year's winners are from the Peninsula and South Bay, and despite their youth, are all veteran performers, having won numerous competitions and appeared in orchestra concerts and recitals.

Cellist Elena Ariza, age 14, is a freshman at the Menlo Upper School and has studied cello since she was four years old.  In 2012 she won first place in five different competitions.  Last year she and her friends performed at charity concerts around the Bay Area and raised over $12,000 for victims of the Japan earthquake.  Elena will play the 2^nd Movement of Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante.

Pianist Alex Chien, a fourteen year old freshman at Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose, has been playing the piano since he was four.  He was the first prize winner of both the 2012 Los Angeles International Liszt Competition and the 2013 Marian Filice Piano Competition.  He has appeared as a soloist with many Bay Area orchestras, including the Peninsula Symphony and Fremont Symphony Orchestra.  Alex will perform the first movement of the Rachmaninoff Concerto No.3 in D minor.

Cellist Songyi Chun, age 17, is a senior at St. Francis High School, Mountain View, and began her cello studies at age nine.   She has performed as a soloist with the El Camino Youth Symphony, of which she is a member, and is the winner of numerous competitions, including the Peninsula Orchestra Young Artist Solo Competition and the Korean Times Youth Music Competition.  Songyi will play Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo.

Cellist Jeremy Tai, age 14, is a freshman at Monte Vista High School in Cupertino, and has been playing the cello for 7 years.  In 2012 he won first place at both the Music Teachers' National Association Performance Competition and the American Fine Arts Festival International Concerto Competition.  Among his many solo performances was an appearance at the Junior Bach Festival in Berkeley.  Jeremy will play the 1st Movement of the Dvorak Concerto for Cello.

Violinist Alex Zhou, age 11, is a sixth grader at The King's Academy in Sunnyvale, and playing the violin when he was 6.  In 2012 he was a first prize winner at both the California Youth Symphony Concerto Competition and the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in Italy.  In October 2012 he appeared on National Public Radio’s "From the Top" with host Christopher O'Riley.  Alex will play the Havanaise by Saint-Saens.

The concert will be held at the Cubberly Theatre, 4000 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto, at 3 PM on Sunday, May 12.  Ticket Prices are $10 for General and Senior Admission, and $5 for Students.  Tickets are available in advance from www.paphil.org, and may also be purchased at the door the afternoon of the performance.