The Silverman Competition winners
DMA students Lisa Yu-Hsien Lin and Judith Valerie Engel, and BMus student Daniel Tong are the 2020 Robert and Ellen Silverman Piano Concerto Competition finalists. They were among six UBC piano students to compete at the competition semi-finals at Roy Barnett Recital Hall in February. All three finalists will have the opportunity to perform their concerto with the UBC Symphony Orchestra at the Old Auditorium in the autumn.
The UBC Laptop Orchestra (SUBCLASS) travelled to Manila in February to collaborate with students from the University of the Philippines College of Music on a one-of-a-kind concert. Using innovative motion-activated bodysuit technologies pioneered in the SUBCLASS lab, UBC students “performed” works by UP students that were created especially for the technology, which converts movement into sound.
Bernardino Assunção Photo: Takumi Hayashi
The winner of this year’s UBC School of Music Concerto Competition is MMus student Bernardino Assunçao (clarinet) for his performance of Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto, Op. 57. The first runner-up was MMus student Gabriel Landstedt (piano), for his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43. The second runner-up was DMA student Nikola Markovic (piano) for his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18. Open to all music students, the annual Concerto Competition is an opportunity for young musicians to earn a coveted spot as a solo performer with the UBC Symphony Orchestra. Competitors select virtuoso works which highlight their exceptional technical and expressive abilities as musicians. There were many entries in the competition and the performance level was extremely high, as always. Bernardino performed with the orchestra on March 13th.
In February, BMus piano major Braden Eguia won the Fraser Valley Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Solo Competition. He performed the third movement of the Mozart piano concerto in D minor, K. 466 with the orchestra.
The UBC Opera Ensemble in Europe this winter
Also in February, UBC Opera students travelled to the Czech Republic and Germany, where they reprised their performance of Mieczysław Weinberg’s The Passenger to sold out audiences. UBC Opera is grateful to the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and many different community organizations for making this ambitious production possible.
Voice students Juliana Cook (current BMus), Yeeun Yenny Lee, and Cassie Chang (current BMus) won the 2020 Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Scholarship. They will receive $5000 to fund summer studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
BMus student Amanda Andrishak received second place at the Vancouver Women’s Musical Society’s 2020 Piano Scholarship Competition. In addition to a scholarship, she will perform a solo recital at a VWMS event next season. DMA student Emily Logan received the Honorable Mention award.
BMus violin student Adrian Kwan won the 2020 Joseph and Melitta Kandler Scholarship. Adrian will receive $4500 to assist with the cost of pursuing advanced music training or research outside of Canada this summer.
Opera students Magdalena How (current MMus, BMus’19) and Yeeun Yenny Lee (current MMus, BMus’18) performed at the annual Wall Ball Fundraiser in support of Vancouver’s Union Gospel Mission, which provides meals, shelter, outreach, and other services to people struggling with homelessness, poverty, and addiction.
