Five Western Michigan University School of Music students will have the incredible experience of performing at Carnegie Hall in February, as part of the Manhattan Concert Productions (MCP) Fourth Annual Collegiate Honors Recital.
Each year, MCP chooses a university to hold a performance competition in their music department to narrow down a slate of semifinalists. The Artistic Director of Manhattan Concert Productions leads a panel to judge the competing semifinalists. Student musicians are selected as finalists to be brought to New York City expense free for their debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.
The students selected to attend (pictured from left to right) are:
Flutist Maria Eugenia Vallejo is a junior majoring in performance with a minor in multimedia arts technology. Vallejo is a Diether H. Haenicke International Scholar and Nancy C. and Douglas P. Roosa Scholar. She received an honorable mention with the Flute Quartet and second place with the Gale Force Winds Quintet in the 2013 WMU Chamber Music Festival. A native of Quito – Pichincha, Ecuador, Vallejo was Principal Flute of the Youth Orchestra of Quito and a member of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Ecuador. She taught at the Foundation Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador.
Pianist Ahmed Anzaldúa is a graduate student majoring in performance and choral conducting. In 2002, Anzaldúa won first prize at the Cullel International Piano Competition. He has collaborated with numerous composers for the premieres of new works, including such renowned figures as Helmut Lachenmann and Arturo Marquez. He is a founder of the Chihuahua Ensemble; he plays concerts regularly with his brother, violinist Abderrahman Anzaldúa; he is part of a piano duo with pianist Tina Gorter; and he has been invited to play with various chamber music groups in Mexico, Spain, and the United States.
Soprano Alexandria Shiner (BM ’13, Music in Voice Performance) won first place and received the Jessye Norman Award for Most Promising Fourth Year Student at the 2013 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Great Lakes Region State Competition. Shiner has performed with Opera Naples and Harbor Country Opera. She is a staff singer at St. Augustine Cathedral in Kalamazoo, Mich., and formerly sang at First Congregational Church of Battle Creek.
Percussionist Skye Hookham is a senior majoring in performance and music therapy. Hookham is an Edwin E. Meador Theatre and Performing Arts Scholar and was the Harper C. Maybee Scholar in the 2012-13 academic year. She is a member of Birds on a Wire, WMU’s new music ensemble; the Student Music Therapy Association; and Pi Kappa Lambda music honors society.
Trumpeter Ray Bazz is a graduate student majoring in performance. Bazz was a semifinalist in the International Trumpet Guild’s Competition in 2012.
To learn more about the Manhattan Concert Productions, please click here.