The Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra concludes its 12th season with a concert featuring the three winners of the orchestra’s fifth annual Schatz-Harris Concerto Competition Sunday in Waimea.
The Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra concludes its 12th season with a concert featuring the three winners of the orchestra’s fifth annual Schatz-Harris Concerto Competition Sunday in Waimea.
The 4 p.m. performance at Kahilu Theatre will feature Guest Conductor Harvey Felder, one of three current candidates for new artistic director, who will lead the orchestra in an inspiring program entitled “Salute to Youth: Embracing the Future.”
Accompanied by the orchestra, competition winner Alexander Canicosa-Miles will play George Golterman’s “Cello Concerto No. 3 in B Minor, Opus 51, Movement No. 1;” Erin Emi Nishi will play Dmitry Kabalevsky’s “Violin Concerto in C Major, Opus 48, Movement No. 1;” and William Suh will play Antonin Dvorak’s “Concerto for Violoncello in C Major, Opus 104, Movement No. 1.”
Canicosa-Miles, 12, has been studying cello with Lifen Anthony of Honolulu for the last three years. In 2013 and 2015 he won awards from the Hawaii Music Teachers Association, and the same years, spent time in Japan for cello intensives, as well as studying at summer camps in China. He loves playing cello in the Hawaii Youth Symphony, and says that the possibility of winning and playing with the Kamuela Philharmonic is what led him to enter the competition.
Nishi, 13, began violin lessons with Mia Lai Carlson at age 3, and has studied with Helen Higa of Punahou Music School on Oahu for the last 8 years. Her older brother also plays violin, and she has been attending summer violin camps with him since she was 2. Nishi entered the concerto competition as a “fun challenge” to see if she could really master this piece and to test her skills as a violinist. She is looking forward to attending the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival in Waimea this summer to work with violinist Ignace Jang, and other festival instructors as well.
Suh, 16, began playing cello at age 6 in Seoul, South Korea, and has won many awards. Most recently, he placed first at the Music Teacher’s National Association state competitions from 2011 to 2015. He has studied with Andrew Eckard, assistant principal cellist of the Honolulu Symphony, and Jonas Carlson, Punahou Music School director. Suh hopes to major in music at a music conservatory on the East Coast, and is grateful for the opportunity to perform with the Kamuela Philharmonic, as those opportunities are not plentiful in Hawaii. He is also looking forward to his performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations” with the Oahu Civic Orchestra later this month.
Felder will also conduct the orchestra in “Symphony No. 2 (The Romantic)” by Howard Hanson, and “Les Preludes” by Franz Liszt.
Tickets range from $6$30 and are available at www.kamuelaphil.org or www.kahilutheatre.org.
Info: www.kamuelaphil.org. ■