HOUSTON, June 11, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Winners of the 30th anniversary Ima Hogg Young Artist Competition were announced following last night's final round at Stude Hall on the campus of Rice University. For the first time in the competition's history, the top four contestants competed in the finals accompanied by the full Houston Symphony under the direction of Music Director Hans Graf in front of an enthusiastic audience of more than 800.
Shih-Kai Lin received the coveted first place $5,000 Grace Woodson Memorial Award and will appear with the Houston Symphony as a guest soloist during the July 1 Houston Chronicle Dollar Concert at Jones Hall at 7:30 p.m. He was also presented the Audience Choice Award. Second place winner Hrant Parsamian accepted the Houston Symphony League Jerry Priest Award of $2,500 and a guest solo appearance with the Houston Symphony at the Miller Outdoor Theatre Perry Homes Summer Symphony Nights concert on June 24 at 8:30 p.m. Third place winner Ji Hye Jung accepted the Selma Neumann Memorial Award of $1,000, while fourth place winner Ahrim Kim received $300.
Judges for the Competition were Richard Dyer, chief classical music critic of the Boston Globe, Daniel Hege, Music Director of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and Ron Merlino, Vice President and Artist Manager at Columbia Artists Management in New York.
Awarded the Gold Ribbon First Prize in Education from the American Symphony Orchestra League in 2002, the competition is considered one of the most prestigious multi-instrumentalist competitions in the orchestral world.
2006 Ima Hogg Young Artist Competition Winners:
Shih-Kai Lin
Shih-Kai Lin, of Taiwan, is currently enrolled at The Julliard School and studies violin with Cho-Liang Lin and Naoko Tanaka. In 2002, he won first prize in the Quincy Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition and second prize in the Brockton Symphony Concerto Competition. Lin is the recipient of scholarships from the Chi-Mei Cultural Foundation of Taiwan and the Young Musical Scholars Foundation for his outstanding musical and academic achievements. Last year he received a fellowship from the Aspen Music Festival for the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
Hrant Parsamian
After graduation with a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, Hrant Parsamian won the Cello Fellowship in Montgomery Alabama, where he holds the principal chair and performs as an artist in residence. He is a top prize winner of several international competitions, including Olga Koussevitsky, HAMS, and Hudson Valley; his solo experience includes performances at Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, and appearances with the Lyric Orchestra of Hoboken and Montgomery Symphony. Parsamian holds bachelor degrees from The Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna and The Julliard School, where he studied with Aldo Parisot.
Ji Hye Jung
Korean percussionist Ji Hye Jung has been studying the marimba since the age of five. She has performed as soloist with most of the premier orchestras in Korea, including the Seoul Symphony Orchestra, the Korean Symphony Orchestra and the Eurasian Philharmonic, with which she has given over fifty concerto performances. Jung was a finalist in the 2005 Ima Hogg Young Artist Competition. She studies with Robert Van Sice at the Peabody Conservatory and is a faculty member of the Peabody Preparatory.
Ahrim Kim
Cellist Ahrim Kim, from Korea, won first place in this year's Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition. Her international solo experience includes performances at Alice Tully Hall, appearances with Yewon Orchestra, Prague and Sophia Orchestras, and music festivals around the world. She is a graduate of the Julliard Pre-College Division and currently studies at New England Conservatory of Music with Laurence Lesser.
Students from more than 60 prestigious music colleges, universities and conservatories faced off in the preliminary round, with 10 musicians coming to Houston for the semi-final and final rounds at Stude Concert Hall in the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. The four finalists triumphed over more than 90 musicians from 16 states within the U.S. For the first time citizens from Canada and Mexico participated in the preliminary round. In addition, numerous international musicians studying within the U.S. competed.
This year, Competition Chairman Gayle Eury, Co-Chairman Donna Shen and Chairman Emeritus Charlotte A. Rothwell worked together to commemorate the 30 years of high-level musical competition offered through the Ima Hogg Young Artist Competition.
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