Teachers Association Concerto competition winners will perform with BCO Saturday

By Peter Alexander May 8 at 3:30 p.m.

The Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO) will present winners of the 2024 Colorado Music Teachers Association (CMSTA) Concerto Competition on a concert program Saturday (May 11; details below).

The winners in four categories—Piano Elementary, Piano Junior, Piano Senior, and Percussion and Winds—will each play the concerto movement that was required for the competition, with the orchestra (see the concert program below). The BCO music director, Bahman Saless, will conduct.

An annual event, the CMSTA Concerto Competition has three piano categories that are held every year. There are vocal and instrumental categories in alternating years: strings and voice in odd-numbered years, and winds/percussion (one category) in even-numbered years. The competition is for pre-college students up to age 19.

The 2024 competition was held in March, with videos submitted online. A panel of three judges—Saless; Hye-Jung Hong, piano faculty from Missouri State University; and Jason Shafer, principal clarinet of the Colorado Symphony—selected the winners.

The four categories and winners are:
—Piano, elementary: Aiden Chan
—Piano, junior: Bobby Yuan
—Piano, senior: Mercedes Maeda
—Percussion and winds: Alexander Zhao, bassoon

The BCO has set up an online auction to raise funds for the concert. The “Colorado Young Stars Award Fund” auction will run through Friday (May 10).

This year marks the first time that the BCO worked with the CSMTA to support the competition and present the winners. In a written communication, Saless commented, “We are looking forward to many years of continued collaboration and hopefully building community support and excitement in the Boulder area.”

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CSMTA Concerto Competition Winners’ Concert
Boulder Chamber Orchestras, Bahman Saless, conductor

• Haydn: Keyboard Concerto in D major, Hob.XVIII:11. Mvt. I, Vivace (Piano, Elementary)
  -Aiden Chan, piano
• Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K414, Mvt. I, Allegro (Piano, Junior)
  -Bobby Yuan, piano
• Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Mvt. I, Molto allegro con fuoco (arr. by Cord Garben (Piano, Senior)
  -Mercedes Maeda, piano
• Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto in D minor, RV481, Mvt. I, Allegro (Percussion and winds)
  -Alexander Zhao, bassoon

8 p.m. Saturday, May 11
Boulder Seventh Day Adventist Church

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