Elena Ariza, 16, earns chance to play with South Valley Symphony
Published in the Jan. 21 – Feb. 3, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Cellist Elena Ariza will perform with the South Valley Symphony March 7.
The sweet sounds of classical music filled Morgan Hill resident Audrey Gray’s home music studio as three young musicians competed as finalists in the South Valley Symphony’s 7th annual Al Navaroli music competition Jan. 10.
Cellist Elena Ariza, a 16-year-old student at Menlo High School, earned an opportunity to perform with musicians at the March 7 symphony concert which will be held at Gavilan Community College’s theater. Fellow competitors BinHui Kwon, on oboe, and Brian Lee, on flute, received honorable mention accolades at the competition.
Ariza performed Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto #2 in E minor as well as a portion of Antonin Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor to win the competition. She’ll perform the full Dvorak concerto at the concert.
Ariza started playing the cello at age 4 and performs in the San Francisco Youth Orchestra. She was a little nervous at the Navaroli audition competition but said that it helps young musicians to build their confidence in performing for the public. This was her second time competing.
“The Herbert felt a little fresh for me because it’s a newer piece than the Dvorak,” she said. “It’s just kind of fun to see how well you’re doing.”
An 11th-grader at Valley Christian School, Lee performed Handel’s Sonata for Flute in B minor in the audition competition. He started learning to play the flute in seventh grade.
“It was nerve-racking for sure,” he said of his performance. “It’s good to play in front of people, for people, that’s important. I really like Handel. I like Baroque music in general in how it’s written.”
Kwon performed the Rondo Pastorale oboe concerto by Vaughn Williams in the audition competition. He is a senior at Branham High School in San Jose.
“I found it by googling ‘concerto’ and that was the first thing that came up and I listened to it and liked it,” he said. “I like modern music a lot.”
South Valley Symphony Director and Conductor Anthony Quartuccio said all three competitors “did an awesome job” and the reason the symphony puts on the audition is to encourage emerging musical talent among young people.
“This is an educational and community experience, and it’s not designed to be a competitive experience,” he said.”We believe that all the artists are in this transition in their lives and growing and developing. Today is only a snapshot of this beautiful blossoming that is taking place over time.”
David Thompson, who plays the clarinet in the South Valley Symphony’s orchestra, coordinated the event which is named after Al Navaroli, a Gilroy resident who spent many years of his life supporting the symphony and its involvement with youth musicians.
“He was actually our ‘Mr. Symphony,’” Quartuccio said. “He was our biggest cheerleader for many, many years, and so in his memory we wanted to establish a competition that would feature young talent so that new generations of musicians would be discovered and the orchestra would continue and grow. That was the intention.”
