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The UMass Amherst Symphony Orchestra and Director Gonzalo Hidalgo Ardila have announced graduate student Daniel Ryu, first-year undergraduate student Laura Wang and graduate student Robert Grahmann as winners of this year’s Concerto/Aria Competition. The three winners, selected from each of three categories (Graduate, Undergraduate, Open) following public auditions held in February, will perform with the UMass Symphony Orchestra during their concert Friday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m. in Tillis Hall.

“I’m very excited for this concert because it is a huge opportunity for our students,” says Ardila, director of orchestral studies in the Department of Music and Dance. “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,” Ardila adds. “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.”

The Symphony Orchestra will also perform Jean Sibelius’s “Finlandia Opus 26.”

Tickets to the April 11 performance are $15 for adults and $5 for seniors, youth and students, and can be purchased from the Fine Arts Center. UMass Amherst students are free with a valid ID.