NEC Prep’s Concerto Competition Winners Announced

NEC Prep’s Concerto Competition was held over two Saturdays in November and featured performances by instrumentalists in four age groups. The winners were violinist Yubeen Choi, pianist Maggie Bai, violist Hsuan-Wei (Allison) Chen, and violinist Jiyu Oh.

Choi won among students 12 and younger (Category A), Bai won among 13- and 14-year-old students (Category B), Chen won among 15- and 16-year-old students (Category C), and Oh won among 17- and 18-year-old students (Category D). 

In the final round of the competition, Choi, who studies with Miriam Fried, performed Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22; Bai, who studies with Angel Ramón Rivera, performed R. Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54; Chen, who studies with Mai Motobuchi, performed Britten’s Lachrymae for Viola and String Orchestra, Op. 48a; and Oh, who studies with Soovin Kim, performed Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47. 

The competition winners will appear with NEC Prep ensembles. Choi, Bai, and Chen will perform with the Junior Repertory Orchestra, Youth Repertory Orchestra, and Youth Symphony, respectively, in May, and Oh will perform with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in February.

Dylan Wu and Nemanja Zivanovic placed second and third respectively in Category A; Gabriel Jojatu, Rebecca Gansner, and Stefan Ladendorf placed second, third, and fourth, respectively, in Category B; Benjamin Choi placed second and Claire Tong and Sophia Fortuin tied for third place in Category C; and Hayden Ren and Daniel Ma placed second and third, respectively, in Category D. Oh, Ren, and Ma attend Walnut Hill School for the Arts, with which NEC has a partnership.

Bruce Brubaker, Christopher Elchico, Mi-Eun Kim, Steven Laraia, Sang Woo Kang, and Pete Walsh served as judges for the competition. 

Pictured above, left to right: Yubeen Choi, Maggie Bai, Hsuan-Wei (Allison) Chen, and Jiyu Oh.