2025 Concerto Competition Winners Announced, to Perform April 11 with UMass Symphony Orchestra
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Graduate students Daniel Ryu and Robert Grahmann, along with freshman Laura Wang, have been named winners of the 2025 Concerto/Aria Competition and will perform with the UMass Symphony Orchestra on Friday, April 11, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. in Tillis Hall.
One winner was selected from each of the three categories (Graduate, Undergraduate, and Open) following public auditions held on February 11.
“I’m very excited for this concert because it is a huge opportunity for our students,” said Director of Orchestral Studies in the UMass Department of Music and Dance Gonzalo Hidalgo Ardila. “Every year we have a competition open to all and the best three participants win the chance to play with the orchestra. The jury are all faculty members and guest musicians from other institutions, so we keep an incredibly high standard in our selection of the winners.”
Grahmann will perform Richard Rodney Bennett’s Concerto for Marimba and Chamber Orchestra, joining the orchestra on the marimba. Wang, on violin, will feature on Zigeunerweisen Op. 20 by Pablo Sarasate, while Ryu, a cellist, was selected for his performance of Robert Schumann’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 129.
Our winners this time are very strong musicians with amazing skills and sensitivities in making music,” added Ardila. “The audience will have the chance to listen to three people who are young in age, but at the same time incredible professionals. I’m so proud of them and it is an honor to have the chance to conduct them.”