PORT ANGELES — Thirteen-year-old cellist Travis Baros was shocked when he found out he had won his division in a North Olympic Peninsula-wide contest.
“I was so nervous,” Baros said of his performance, “and didn’t play as well, when I knew I could play better.”
Despite all of that, Baros, who lives in Sequim, won first place in the junior section of the Nico Snel Young Artist Competition.
The event, hosted Jan. 25 by the Port Angeles Symphony, was open to Clallam and Jefferson county musicians ages 4 to 14 in the junior division and up to age 22 in the senior category. The public event took place at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Port Angeles.
The rest of the competition’s winners were 16-year-old violist Violet Knobel of Port Angeles, who took first place in the senior division; violinist Amalia Bell, also 16, who won second prize, and Juniper Fleischer, a 12-year-old pianist from Port Townsend, the third-place winner in the senior category.
In the junior division, Port Angeles violinist Abby Zajkowski, 12, took second place while 14-year-old violinist Alice Shields of Port Angeles won third prize. Annaleigh Harrison, a 10-year-old pianist from Port Townsend, received an honorable mention.
The winners, who performed music ranging from Bach to Beethoven and from Haydn to Corelli, were awarded a total of $1,400 in prize money.
Baros, the lone cellist among the winners, said he initially chose his large instrument “because the rest of my family plays violin, and I wanted to be different. I played viola for one year, but I wasn’t really enjoying it. My parents still wanted me to play an instrument, so I chose the cello. It is one of my favorite things to do now.”
Port Angeles Symphony Artistic Director Jonathan Pasternack, who served as a judge along with symphony violist Anne Burns and oboist and flutist Julie Fay, said the interaction among all of the musicians is what he loves most.
“Our adjudicators give constructive comments and even dialogue with the participating musicians, right after the performances,” Pasternack said.
“The Young Artist Competition was begun by beloved former conductor of the Port Angeles Symphony, the late Nico Snel,” he added.
“Along with Adventures in Music, the YAC is an integral part of our educational and community outreach mission.”
Another cellist whose musical career began in public school in Clallam County will be the featured soloist in the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Feb. 15. Traci Winters Tyson, a well-known performer and educator — now an orchestra teacher in the Port Angeles School District — will play David Popper’s “Hungarian Fantasy” and Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei” with the full orchestra.
The dramatic Fifth Symphony by Gustav Mahler will complete the concert at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://portangelessymphony.org.
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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.
