Local Teen Composers Work with Seattle Symphony Musicians
April 19, 2013 at 2:00 p.m.
The inspiring talent of tomorrow’s composers will be on display in Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall on Tuesday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m. Ten Seattle-area teenage composers will have their music premiered by Seattle Symphony musicians and friends as the culmination of the 2013 Merriman Family Young Composers Workshop. For 12 weeks, these gifted students developed their new works under the guidance of Workshop Director and composer Samuel Jones.
Jones will interview each young composer prior to the performance of his or her work. The composers will briefly discuss the inspiration behind their pieces, providing insight into the thoughts and musical ideas of classical music’s next generation of stars.
The participants in this year’s workshop are Pierre Suignard of Bellevue; Clara McMichael of Des Moines; Wilhelmina Esary of Duvall; Cole Holland of Edmonds; Craig Michael Walstead of Gig Harbor; Christina Sun of Mercer Island; Benjamin Davis, Stefanos Jones, Will Langlie-Miletich, Benjamin Salman and Akshay Srivatsan of Seattle; and Daniel Lazar of Tacoma. Biographies for each composer are listed below.
This concert is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. For more information, visit www.seattlesymphony.org, or call the Seattle Symphony Ticket Office at (206) 215-4747.Ticket Office hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., and Saturday, 1–6 p.m.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
The Merriman Family Young Composers Workshop gives students the opportunity to work on all aspects of composing, including writing themes, learning orchestration and preparing a final score with parts, all under the tutelage of Dr. Samuel Jones. The workshop began in 1992, under the direction of Conductor Laureate Gerard Schwarz and former Composer in Residence Bright Sheng. Due to the generous support of the Merriman Family Foundation, young composers continue to have the opportunity to hone their skills and develop their own creative voices.
Current and former participants in the Young Composers Workshop have received national recognition, including the following awards and honors: the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers)/Morton Gould Young Composers Award, the BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) Student Composer Award, the Delius Prize for high school composers, the Music Teachers National Association Composition Award, the PTA Reflections Award, and a From the Top Public Radio International broadcast. Alumni of the program have gone on to study music and composition at the nation’s top universities, conservatories and summer music programs.
Participants are selected for the workshop based on submitted applications and music scores. The Merriman Family Young Composers Workshop is part of the Seattle Symphony’s Family, School & Community Programs.
MEET THE COMPOSERS
Benjamin Davis is delighted to be attending the Young Composers Workshop for his seventh year, having started at age 10. Benjamin is currently a senior at Lakeside School. He has been studying composition with Sharon Van Valin since the age of 6; he also studies piano, violin, viola and electric guitar. Benjamin has been the winner of many local and regional composition contests, including those of the Seattle Music Teachers Association, Washington State Music Teachers Association, Washington State Federation of Music Clubs, and the American College of Musicians. He was a national winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs Composition Contest in both 2009 and 2010, and was also a national winner of the Music Teachers National Association Composition Contest in both 2009 and 2011. Benjamin’s other interests include chess, skiing and filmmaking. Next year, he will be attending Brown University, where he plans to continue studying music composition.
Wilhelmina Esary is in her first year of the Young Composers Workshop. She is in 10th grade, lives in Duvall and is homeschooled. Wilhelmina has studied composing at the Academy of Music Northwest for 3 years; she also studies piano with Mr. Willard Schultz and voice with Nancy Zylstra. Wilhelmina has performed at various local music festivals including the Seattle Bach Festival and the Seattle Young Artists Music Festival. She also studies composition with Eric Flesher and conducting with Dr. Julia Tai at the Academy of Music Northwest. She enjoys singing in a Gregorian chant choir, and is interested in pursuing music studies in college.
Cole Holland is an 18-year-old composer and pianist from Edmonds. He has played piano since age 3 and began composing at age 7. This is his third year in the Young Composers Workshop. Cole has recently completed music courses at Edmonds Community College, and he finished high school in early February. This past summer, Cole was invited to perform his compositions at Hollywood’s Indie Entertainment Summit. Cole started his own record label, Native Samurai Records, which has received 3.5 million views on YouTube; the label owes much of its success to the many collaborations Cole has had with other rising artists. In the fall of this year, Cole will attend Cornish College of the Arts, where he will study music composition. After completing his undergraduate degree, Cole plans to study film scoring at Seattle Film Institute, and to later write for independent films in the Seattle area while continuing to collaborate with artists both inside and outside his company.
Stefanos Jones began composing at age 7. His primary instrument is the piano, which he started at age 5. Stefanos has learned much from classical pianist Mark Salman, his teacher for the past five years, and he has been a pianist with the Seattle Conservatory of Music since he was 10. Stefanos also plays violin in his school’s chamber orchestra and recently studied composition with Eric Flesher. In 2012 Stefanos was a national finalist in the River of Words Poetry Competition, and received a Silver Key for Poetry in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Outside of music and writing, Stefanos’s interests include hiking, soccer and reading. Stefanos is a freshman at Lakeside School; this is his first year in the Young Composers Workshop.
Will Langlie-Miletich, 15, is a sophomore at Seattle’s Roosevelt High School. This is his second year in the Young Composers Workshop. Will has won local awards for both classical and jazz compositions. Originally a guitarist, Will currently studies double bass with Seattle Symphony Principal Bass Jordan Anderson. Will was the top double bass soloist in the 2012 Washington State Solo and Ensemble Contest. This year, he serves as Principal Bass of the Seattle Youth Symphony and the Roosevelt Symphony Orchestra, and is Co-Principal Bass of the Thalia Symphony. Will has also been selected for the All-Northwest Honors Orchestra. This summer, he will travel to Washington, D.C., Russia and London as part of Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America.
Daniel Lazar is a junior at the Tacoma School of the Arts. He has been composing for a year; this is his first time in the Young Composers Workshop. After graduating from high school, Daniel hopes to attend college somewhere warm, where he will study film scoring.
Clara McMichael, 17, is a junior at Mt. Rainier High School in Des Moines, Washington. She has been studying harp for the past six years under her aunt, harpist Leslie McMichael. She also plays French horn, cello and piano. Clara has been composing since elementary school, and audited the Young Composers Workshop last year. After completing high school, Clara plans to go to college, study music and travel abroad.
Benjamin Salman is an 18-year-old homeschooled student. He has been studying piano and composition seriously since the age of 10, though he has improvised on the piano for as long as he can remember. He lives in Seattle, where he studies with his father, Mark Salman, and attends the Seattle Conservatory of Music, where he participates in performance, academic and chamber music programs. This is his third year in the Young Composers Workshop. In addition to the work being performed in this year’s concert, Benjamin has composed a previous string quartet, a piano quintet and a clarinet quintet; he is currently working on a piano sonata and a violin concerto. Benjamin is also an accomplished pianist: This spring, he performed the first movement of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra as a result of his second place finish in their Young Artists Concerto Competition. Benjamin’s extramusical interests include history and geography; he came in 12th in the nation (first in Washington state) in the 2009 National Geographic Geography Bee. He intends to study piano and composition in college.
Akshay Srivatsan is 17 years old and is currently a senior at Lakeside School. This is his fourth year in the Young Composers Workshop, and his first year auditing. Akshay studies composition under Janice Giteck at the Cornish College of the Arts and plays the violin under the instruction of Ilkka Talvi. After high school, Akshay hopes to study engineering in college and enter the field of scientific research.
Pierre Suignard, composer and cellist, is a junior at Lakeside School. He is involved with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, the All-Northwest Orchestra, and the Academy of Music Northwest, where he studies composition with Eric Flesher. Pierre has studied both cello and piano with Olga Ruvinov, Wayne Slater and Sumiyo Ohuchi. In 2005 Pierre played as a soloist in a Tiny Tots concerts at Benaroya Hall. Since then, he has competed in the Seattle Young Artists Music Festival, Performing Arts Festival of the Eastside, and the Washington State Solo and Ensemble Contest. With Lakeside School’s Chamber Orchestra, Pierre performed the Vivaldi Concerto in G minor for Two Cellos in a competition in Victoria, B.C. Last year, the Octava Chamber Orchestra commissioned Pierre to write an orchestral work, which was performed in November 2012. In June, this piece, titled Heroic Overture, will be performed by the Seattle Symphony in a Discover Music concert. In addition to playing and composing music, Pierre enjoys sailing, hiking and reading.
Christina Sun is a senior at Mercer Island High School. This is her third year participating in the Young Composers Workshop. Christina plays the piano and flute, and has been composing for seven years under Sharon Van Valin. Christina enjoys playing in her school band, and has traveled with the group to perform in the London New Year’s Day Parade, and the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California. This past January, the piece that Christina composed for last year’s Young Composers Workshop was invited to be performed as part of the pre-concert activities at the Celebrate Asia, an annual Symphony event. Besides composing, Christina is an avid tennis player, oil painter and world traveler. In the future, she plans to continue composing and to study bioengineering in college.
Craig Michael Walstead is a homeschooled senior from Gig Harbor, Washington. He has been composing for the last four years; for the past year, he has had formal composition training with Professor Gregory Youtz of Pacific Lutheran University. In the future, he plans to study composition at a music school. Craig works part time as a piano and music teacher, and hopes to always have teaching as a part of his life. He is very involved in his church and would like to write church and worship music.