Sunday, May 4, 2014 at 3:00pm and 6:00pm
The 55-year-old Greater Miami Youth Symphony (GMYS) brings its 2013-2014 season to a close with two back-to-back finale concerts held on Sunday, May 4, 2014 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center (SMDCAC).
A 3:00pm show features several youth ensembles including GMYS Young Mozarts, Young Sousas, Concert/Jazz Band, and the higher-level Concert Orchestra with Concerto Competition Winner Valentina Salazar (performing the first movement of Dmitri Kabalevsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major). The 6:00pm show will feature the Beach Mozarts, String Orchestra, and the advanced Symphony Orchestra accompanying Concerto Competition Winner Edward Luengo (performing the third movement of Antonín Dvorák’s Cello Concerto in B Minor).
The GMYS Concerto Competition has been held for more than 20 years, with young musicians competing before a panel of professional musicians. The competition showcases the best young instrumentalists in South Florida. Previous winners have gone on to attend The New World School of the Arts, The Julliard School and have won music scholarships to premier universities.
This year’s winner in the younger division, Valentina Salazar, was born in Caracas and started violin studies with the Preparatory Program of the Greater Miami Youth Symphony at the age of six. She also performs with a GMYS chamber ensemble and studies under Professor Israel Aragón Arce. On her own initiative, she had studied the “cuatro”, a string instrument made popular in Venezuelan folklore.
In the upper division, Venezuelan-American cellist Edward Luengo began his musical studies at age six at the Doral Conservatory with Maria Salas and Alexander Berti. Now a senior, he currently studies with Professor Aaron Merritt at the New World School of the Arts. Luengo has participated in musical organizations such as El Sistema Miami and Florida Music Educators Association All-State Orchestras since 2010. In addition to winning the GMYS Concerto Competition this spring, he was a winner of the New World School of the Arts Concerto Competition in 2011 and 2014. Luengo has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Natasha Brofsky, Denise Djokic, Emmanuel Feldman and Jean-Michel Fonteneau. He has performed in master classes led by Johannes Moser, Laurence Lesser, Wendy Warner and the New Oxford String Quartet. He will soon study under the tutelage of Professor Daniel Veis at Park University’s International Center for Music as a full scholar for his Bachelor of Music Degree.
The mission of the Greater Miami Youth Symphony is to instill life-long values of discipline, teamwork, responsibility, respect, and cultural appreciation in young musicians, ages five through eighteen. The organization reaches out to youth from a broad variety of cultural, ethnic and economic backgrounds and trains young people to perform professionally and function together as first-rate orchestras and ensembles.
Advance tickets are $20.00, $17.00, $15.00 (Youth & Seniors $10.00). Day of Performance Prices are $23.00, $20.00, $18.00 (Youth/Seniors $13.00). Tickets to the second finale concert can be purchased for $2.00 for those attending the first performance at regular price.
South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center
10950 SW 211 Street
Cutler Bay, Fl 33189
Box office: 786.573.5300
www.smdcac.org
Greater Miami Youth Symphony
5275 Sunset Drive
Miami, Fl 33143
305.667.4069
www.gmys.org
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