Almost exactly one year ago, students in the School of Music were preparing to compete in the annual Emerging Artists Competition when the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to the proceedings. This Spring, as the School attempted to revive the competition, they realized that the event could not be held in the same way as before, and put a twist on the annual auditions in February.  Instead of performing live for the judges, each finalist performed for the camera and submitted pre-recorded videos to our panel of judges.  Preliminary rounds were held prior to these finalist recording sessions by each area in the School including, brass, keyboard, strings, voice, woodwinds, percussion, jazz combos, and classical chamber music.  Out of this group, 11 finalists were chosen by the faculty.  Three outside judges listened to all the videos and were extremely impressed.  One judge commented, “It was such a pleasure to hear all of these students and I would like to make sure that they are aware of how awesome they are. Each of them presented a polished performance that was clearly the result of hard work and sensitive musicianship. Congrats to them all!”  The judges were Earl Coleman, MU alum and retired Professor of Voice at Columbus State University in Georgia, Brooks Hafey, another MU alum and Associate Professor of Piano at Chadron State College in Nebraska, and Elisabeth Stimpert, Associate Professor of Clarinet at the University of Central Missouri and bass clarinetist for Alarm Will Sound.

Our 2021 Emerging Artists are:

Anthony Blatter, bass-baritone, and Hans Bridger Heruth, piano

Bass-baritone Anthony Blatter is an undergraduate student of Professor Steven Tharp. With pianist and MU alumnus Hans Bridger Heruth, he performed Three Songs by John Duke: "Miniver Cheevy," "Richard Cory," and "Luke Havergal."

Andrew Lewis, cello, and Natalia Bolshakova, piano 

Cellist Andrew Lewis is a graduate student of Professor Eli Lara. He will perform the 2nd movement of the Cello Concerto by Antonin Dvořák with MU faculty member Natalia Bolshakova, and the “Gigue” from J.S. Bach's Third Solo Suite in C Major.


Calien McPike, marimba 

Calien (Mac) McPike is an undergraduate percussion student of Professor Megan Arns. On marimba, he will perform a varied program of transcriptions of works by Sergei Rachmaninov, Claude Debussy, and J.S. Bach.

Isabel Quintela, soprano, and Ross Dryer, piano 

Soprano Isabel Quintela is studying for a Masters in Voice with Professor Christine Seitz. She will sing the Métamorphoses of Francis Poulenc, as well as the aria "Sempre libera" from La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi.

Evan Watkins, piano 

Finally, pianist Evan Watkins is a graduate student of Professor Peter Miyamoto. He will perform the fiendishly difficult “Vallée d’Obermann” from Années de pèlerinage, Première année by Franz Liszt.
 

Professor of Violin Julie Rosenfeld has been the Coordinator of the Emerging Artists Competition and Gala Recital since 2015. "We have never had such difficult conditions as these to hold our annual Emerging Artists Competition. All preliminary and final rounds were held remotely, and the competitors relied on the cooperation of David Myers and his terrific staff to produce professional-quality video auditions, which were promptly posted to YouTube for our three judges to hear. I sat through the complete four hours of taping and found myself emotionally moved by hearing LIVE performances again after almost a year of social distancing. The day when live cultural events resume cannot come too soon."

Congratulations to all our students and faculty for receiving this honor.  Please join us for the Gala recital featuring all these students on April 6th at 7 pm via livestream from our School of Music YouTube channel.