Accolades
FIVE CONSERVATORY STUDENTS AWARDED SCHOLARSHIPS AT TUESDAY MUSICAL CLUB COMPETITION
Five Conservatory students were among the 26 recipients of Tuesday Musical Club scholarships. Those students are: Sung Ha Lee, a junior piano major from Seoul, South Korea; Hiromi Takaoka, a senior piano major from Tokyo, Japan; Wei-Wei Le, a senior violin major from Shanghai, China; Alyson Cambridge, a double-degree junior (sociology/voice) from Arlington, Virginia; and Scott Skiba, a sophomore voice major from Bridgeville, Pennsylvania.
The Tuesday Musical Club, an Akron-based organization, sponsors the annual scholarship competition for student singers, pianists and instrumentalists, with several awards in each category. According to Marie Brooker, scholarship chairman of the Tuesday Musical Club Awards, "The purpose of the 2000 scholarship program is two-fold: 1. to provide performance experience and valuable critique; 2. to award 26 scholarships to assist talented students with the advanced study of music." Prizes were awarded after the competition held March 18 in Akron. The 2000 competition drew students from 20 colleges and universities. Winners represented eight schools.
VIOLINIST
YUUKI WONG AWARDED
FIRST PRIZE AT THE
INTERNATIONAL KINGSVILLE COMPETITION
"In
competitions," says Yuuki Wong, "anything can happen. You never know
what the judges are looking for so the best you can do is to play really
well. Everything else is beyond your control."
Sound familiar? Many Conservatory students feel the same way when entering competitions, but Wong can testify that the hard work is well worth it.
Wong, a junior violin performance major from Singapore, won First Prize in the Grand Finals at the International Kingsville Music Competition, held in late-March and on April 1, on the campus of Texas A&M - Kingsville. In the Grand Finals, he competed with five other finalists and performed Tchaikovsky's Concerto in D Major. First prize included a cash award of $4,000 and a performance as soloist with the Corpus Christi Symphony during the 2000-2001 concert season. At the preliminary competition, where he competed in the senior bowed division, Wong was awarded $2,000 as first prize winner. He was also given the Outstanding Violin Performance Award. Previously, he won second prize in the junior violin division of the ASTA Solo Competition in 1998.
At Oberlin, Wong studies with professors Roland and Almita Vamos. He credits the latter for encouraging him to enter the Kingsville competition. Almita Vamos says of him, "Yuuki is very unique. He came to Oberlin at a young age, 15, yet he was very mature. He's brilliant. He's hard working. He's disciplined and very talented. And he's a very nice person. He's lots of fun and I've loved working with him."
SARAH
CLEMMENS '00 AND SPENCER MYER '00
RECEIVE JAVITS FELLOWSHIPS
Two seniors - Sarah Clemmens, a double-major in musicology/physics from Apollo, Pennsylvania, and Spencer Myer, a piano performance major from North Ridgeville, Ohio - have received the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, one of the most prestigious awards available to American students in the arts and humanities. The one-year award includes full tuition and up to $15,000 stipend for living expenses, and is renewable for four years, at any accredited institution of higher learning. Clemmens will begin a Ph.D. program in musicology at Yale University in the fall; Myer plans to pursue a DMA at the Juilliard School.
According to its literature, the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program, a branch of the U.S. Department of Education, provides financial assistance to students of superior ability, as demonstrated by their achievements and exceptional promise, to undertake study at the doctoral and master of fine arts (MFA) level in selected fields of the arts, humanities and social sciences. Panels of experts appointed by the Javits Fellowship Board select fellows according to established criteria. Eligibility is limited to individuals who, at the time of application, have not yet completed their first year of graduate study, or will enter graduate school in the next academic year.
SARAH CLEMMENS '00 NAMED ONE OF 85 NATIONAL RECIPIENTS OF ANDREW W. MELLON FELLOWSHIP
In
addition to winning a Javits Fellowship, Sarah Clemmens was named an
honorary recipient of the Mellon Fellowship -- an award that offers
one-year full-tuition with a $14,750 stipend, given annually to 85 graduate
student candidates. With her graduate school tuition and expenses already
covered by the Javits Fellowship, Clemmens accepted the Mellon Fellowship
on an honorary basis.
Clemmens describes the application process of the Mellon Fellowship as a competition. "Last fall all candidates entered applications with a writing sample, since the award is for studies in the humanities only. Then in the semi-final round, candidates are interviewed. So, I visited the University of Michigan for a regional interview where four U.M. Humanities professors asked questions about my personal goals, about musicology and my studies in musicology.
"The interview process was brand new to me: exciting and frightening," continues Clemmens. "These professors are asking all sorts of intense questions, and I really had to think on the spot. It was like taking an exam. But I felt good about it. I was the very last interview, so they were all really tired."
JOHN BLICKWEDEHL SELECTED OUTSTANDING MUSIC MAJOR BY THE PRESSER FOUNDATION
Music education major John Blickwedehl '00 was designated a "Presser Scholar" and presented with a check and a Certificate of Award in April when he was honored by The Presser Foundation.
Blickwedehl has marched three years with The Glassmen, a 128-member drum corps based in Toledo, Ohio, that offers a 28-city summer performance tour. Members range in age from 15 to 22. Originally formed in 1961 as the Maumee Suns, the drum and bugle corps performed throughout northwest Ohio as a parade corps until it entered Ohio American Legion Competition and was renamed the Glass City Optimists in 1967. In 1971 the corps became the Glassmen to represent Toledo, the "Glass Capital of the World."
Blickwedehl says, "Each summer we live on a bus, sleep on floors and learn to deal with living closely with people during the national tour. That tour provides the time for us to perfect an 11-minute performance for the final competition, this year, in Madison, Wisconsin in August. The competition and summer is an experience of a lifetime."
He has also - along with senior tuba performance major THOMAS LUKOWICZ - worked closely with Spirit of America, a Cape Cod-based marching/field unit with honor guard, wind ensemble and a fife and drum corps, directed by voice major RICK PUGSLEY '00.