Canterbury Pianist Wins Young Artist Competition

Kenny Wang, an 11th-grader at Canterbury High School in Fort Wayne, was the top winner in the Ninth Annual Young Artist Competition sponsored by the Wagon Wheel Symphony of the Lakes.
Competition was Saturday in the Performing Arts Center of Warsaw Community High School.
Wang won first place, which included a $1,000 Thomas N. Stirling Memorial Scholarship and the opportunity to play his piece, Wolfgang Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, KV 488,” with the Symphony of the Lakes at a future public concert, according to a news release from the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts.

    Pictured (L to R) are Abram Korenstra, first place, junior division; Nathan Li, third place, junior division; Jonah Zimmerman, third place, senior division; and Kenny Wang, first place, senior division. Not pictured are Melissa Tan, second place, junior division, and Maria Tan, second place, senior division. Photo Provided
  

In all, 14 young musicians competed with 10 in the senior division and four in the junior division. Second-place winner in the senior division was Maria Tan, a cellist who is a junior at Canterbury School. Her second-place finish included a $500 Thomas N. Stirling Memorial Scholarship for playing Camille Saint-Saens “Concerto No. 1 in a minor, Op. 33.” Third place went to Jonah Zimmerman, a violinist from Warsaw Community High School, who received a $250 Thomas N. Stirling Memorial Scholarship for his performance of Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen.”
The competition, which is held annually under the sponsorship of the orchestra and its parent organization, the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts, is in its ninth year. The scholarships are named in honor of the symphony’s late music director, Thomas N. Stirling, who died suddenly in December 2018.

    Andrea Texeir (at podium), coordinator of the ninth annual Young Artists Competition, is pictured with senior division student competitors (L to R) Abigail Thomas, Jaxton Routsong, Jonah Zimmerman, Ashley Jing, Mackenzie Evans, John Paul Meyer, Brighan Hudson, Margaret Burkholder and Kenny Wang. Not pictured is Maria Tan. Photo Provided
  

Other contestants in the senior division included Mackenzie Evans, violin; Ashley Jing, violin; J.P. Meyer, clarinet; Brigham Hudson, flute; Jaxton Routsong, piano; Abigail Thomas, clarinet; and Margaret Burkholder, flute.
In the junior division, first place went to pianist Abram Korenstra. Placing second was violinist Melissa Tan, and third was Nathan Li, violin. Also competing in the junior division was Ingrid Lund, piano.
Judges for the competition included Dr. Judie Meulink of the Classic Arts Program, Dr. Wally Brath, who heads the worship arts program at Grace College, and Emily Thompson, a violinist from Fort Wayne who is a principal with the Wagon Wheel Symphony of the Lakes.
For more information, and to inquire about next year’s competition, log on to https://wagonwheelcenter.org/event/9th-annual-young-artist-state-wide-competition/