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Young Artist Concert features top WVU talent

WVU Young Artist Winners

Student musicians from across the country will take the spotlight in the upcoming Young Artist Concert by the West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra. Six students in WVU’s School of Music have been chosen as featured performers in the annual event.

The concert, set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 23, is in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre of the Creative Arts Center.

“This concert gives outstanding students the chance to appear in a featured performance with our Symphony Orchestra, which is a rare and wonderful opportunity for a young musician,” said Mitchell Arnold, director of orchestral activities at WVU. The students were chosen in a competitive audition held in January.

The program features five pieces:

  • A performance major focusing in piano, Philip Nichols will play “En el Generalife” from Manuel de Falla’s “Nights in the Gardens of Spain.”
  • Trumpeter Colton Duvall from Smithburg, Maryland, performs Joseph Haydn’s “Trumpet Concerto”                                                  
  • Flutist Brittany Trotter, of Laurel, Mississippi, will perform “Concertino for Flute and Orchestra” by Otar Gordeli. Trotter is a Doctor of Music candidate.
  • Violinist Phillip Ducreay, from Schenectady, New York, is a dual master’s candidate in music performance and musicology. He will perform Maurice Ravel’s “Tzigane.”
  • Performing on piccolo, music performance master’s candidate Tatiana Cassetta, of Royal Oak, Michigan, performs Antonio Vivaldi’s “Piccolo Concerto.”
  • Tubist and doctoral candidate Lawrence Dine, of Cincinnati, Ohio, performs Vaughan Williams “Tuba Concerto.”

"I am extremely blessed to have the opportunity to perform as a soloist with the WVU Symphony Orchestra,” Trotter said. “It has been a pleasure to work with such fine student musicians and I am very grateful for their hard work in learning this piece. Most of all, I am excited to share the stage with such wonderful and extremely talented musicians".

Dine admitted that “being able to perform as a soloist with the WVUSO is a dream come true. Tubists don’t often get to perform as soloists. I usually sit in the back of the orchestra supporting the musicians around me, so it will be quite a change of pace to sit in the front of the orchestra and let my talented colleagues return the favor! It is a very special opportunity for me.”

Cassetta echoed Dine’s thoughts, saying “for a few years now, I've dreamt of performing Vivaldi's Piccolo Concerto with an orchestra, and I am beyond grateful that I get to realize this dream with the WVU Symphony Orchestra.”

Ducreay thinks “it is a distinct pleasure to be performing Maurice Ravel’s 'Tzigane' with my students and colleagues in the WVU Symphony Orchestra. The opportunity to work with Dr. Arnold, who has been a great source of inspiration for me, is just fantastic.”

For Duvall, the opportunity is the icing on the cake.

“Having been in this orchestra for three years, spending one of my last performances with them as a soloist is an honor,” Duvall said. “It is a memory that I am really glad I will get to cherish after I finish my degree."

For tickets, contact the WVU Box Office at 304-293-SHOW or visit Ticketmaster. WVU students receive free admission with their student IDs.