Friday 5th July, 9:30 am
Addleshaw Booth Opera Theatre
ITG Orchestral Competition Final
Finalists :
Keven Crotty
Peter Auricchio
Matthew Laird
Steven Marx
Christopher Moore. Reporter
This year's Orchestral Competition finalists included: Peter Auricchio from Boston University, a student of Terry Everson; Kevin Crotty from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a student of James Ketch; and Matthew Laird and Steven Marx from Grand Valley State University, both students of Richard Stoelzel. Alan Siebert, a member of the ITG Board of Directors and trumpet professor at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music admirably co-ordinated the competition. The judges for the finals were Pasi Pirinen of The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gareth Small of the Hallé Orchestra, and Mike Woodhead of the Orchestra of Opera North.
The excerpts for the finals included (in order): the "Ballerina's Dance" from Stravinsky's Petroushka, the lyrical solo from Strauss' Don Juan, the lyrical solo from Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, two excerpts from Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (one selected for sight-reading), and the opening solo from Ravel's Piano Concerto. The opening of Bach's B Minor Mass was also selected, but the finalists could choose where they wanted to perform it with the rest of the excerpts.
Lots were picked for the order of the finalists and Steven Marx was first. Marx played the "Ballerina's Dance" with great clarity of sound and performed the Gershwin with nice jazz-like inflections. The Ravel excerpt was performed on D trumpet.
The second finalist was Matthew Laird who played a lively Petroushka and filled the horn for a full, round sound in the opening Mahler Symphony No. 2 excerpt. The Ravel excerpt was performed on C trumpet.
The third finalist was Kevin Crotty who also performed the Petrouska in a lively tempo and incorporated a free-flowing, sweet sound in the lyrical solo from Don Juan.
Peter Auricchio was the last finalist and unlike the others, stood to play his excerpts. Peter applied a dark sound to his Gershwin excerpt and played the Mahler with great conviction.
As usual, the competition proved to be an invaluable experience for all the finalists. Each applied themselves to the experience of preparing difficult excerpts and learned to perform them under pressure - truly, a real-life experience!
