Utah Baroque Ensemble’s 15th Annual Levente Medveczky Student Scholarship Competition was held on March 18th at 7:30 pm in Orem Public Library’s “Library Hall.” The event is open to instrumental artists from Grades 9-12 who are either residents of Utah County or are studying with a music teacher from the county. It is named in honor of Levente Medveczky, who served as organist for UBE prior to his untimely death in 2019.
Finalists who performed in this year’s concert were selected from video auditions. Seven were chosen, including Eva Harmon (violin), Fiona Jiang (piano), Luke Kelley (flute), Annie Poulsen (piano), Dawson Rasmussen (piano), Elizabeth Ricks (piano), and Clara Wadsworth (viola).
What a difficult task for UBE Director Martha Sargent and Alexander Woods, founder of BYU Baroque Ensemble, to adjudicate and select a winner. Every performance was outstanding! While the judges retired to discuss their decision, the audience was treated to a superb “exhibition performance” by bassoonist Laura Roberts (who, as an eighth grader, was not yet old enough to join the competition).
In the end, Clara Wadsworth, a student of Dr. Claudine Bigelow, was selected as winner of a $500 scholarship for her performance of the Allemande movement from J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor (transcribed for viola). Clara will repeat her performance as part of UBE’s spring concert, to be held at 7:30 pm on Sunday, April 14th, at the meetinghouse at 481 E. Center St. in Orem. Congratulations to Clara and to all of the wonderful performers this year!