PORT ANGELES — Teenagers from across the North Olympic Peninsula will perform their chosen music and vie for cash awards in the 34th annual Nico Snel Young Artist Competition, open to the public this Saturday.
Admission is free to the competition from 9:30 a.m. till noon at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 Lopez Ave., and audience members are invited to stay for part of the event or for the whole morning.
The Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra hosts the event, welcoming students who live in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
It is named after the beloved former conductor of the Port Angeles Symphony, Nico Snel, who led the orchestra for 18 years until his death in 2003.
Symphony music director and conductor Jonathan Pasternack serves as a judge along with pianist, vocalist and educator Jolene Dalton Gailey, flutist Sharon Snel and cellist Pamela Roberts.
The four will provide feedback to the competitors and choose the winners to be announced by Saturday evening.
First prize is $500; second $250 and third place $200 in the contest, with the funds provided by anonymous supporters of the Symphony.
Participants this year include four Port Angeles teens: soprano Katie Cobb, 16; cellist Karson Nicpon, 18; pianist Emma Weller, 17; and violinist Adam Weller, 15; from Port Townsend are clarinetist Kincaid Gould, 17, and violinist Aliyah Cassidy Yearian, 14.
Thirteen-year-old violinist Yau Fu will participate in the Junior Young Artist Competition.
Their musical performances will range from a Mozart piano sonata to Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for Clarinet to Ravel’s “Chants Populaires.”
For more about the Nico Snel competition and other Port Angeles Symphony programs, see the “Education” link at PortAngelesSymphony.org or phone the Symphony office at 360-457-5579.
