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And The Winner Is.......

scott spencer

scott spencer

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Rochester, NY
I know I've bragged about my little darling here before, but she raised her bar to new heights yesterday, and sometimes a proud papa can't resist. Tessa is a 16 YO junior and competed in the Rochester Philharmonic League's 2016 Young Artist Auditions held at the Eastman School of Music's Kilbourne Hall. It attracts the top talent for 11th and 12th grade high school students from the nine county Greater Rochester Area, and $4500 total is awarded to top contestants in several music classifications....string, woodwind, piano, voice, etc. She sang 3 classical pieces on two occasions in front of two different panels of judges that were selected by the RPL ....7 very well regarded vocal judges in all. By noon she was the unanimous recipient of the Tessa Martin award for top female vocalist of the competition, and received a $500 check. That award made her eligible to compete as a finalist for scholarship awards. Later in the day she also won the Jan De Gaetani award for top overall vocalist of the competition, along with a $1000 scholarship. Couldn't have hoped for any better outcome than that! At the beginning of the day I wondered if we even belonged there ...by the end of the day, there was no doubt! A couple of notable contestants she beat out were last year's Tessa Martin Award winner from 2015, and another senior vocal student who's been accepted at Carnegie Melon, Eastman School of Music, Syracuse University, and Ithaca College for Vocal Performance. She even received applause from the afternoon judging panel when she finished. What an amazing day!

Due in large part to the Eastman School of Music, the Rochester Philharmonic is a disproportionately talented organization for a city of this size, which in turn trickles down through just about every surrounding county in the area. Our schools are loaded with teachers who are Eastman grads, kids of Eastman grads, grand children of Eastman grads, etc....the music scene is huge in this town. This was really an honor.

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As a followup to the original post, the attention from this award hasn't quite died down for us yet. Tess ended up on the RPO website, RPO Facebook page, Greece School District website and Facebook page, the Greece Post, on the cover of the June issue of GreeceNewsNY as part of a 2 page story. With each new news release, she gets another round of calls and accolades from friends, acquaintances, and family. She was invited to meet and work with some of the Eastman professors a few weeks ago, and will be performing in a recital at the Eastman's new Hatch Hall in July as a result of her awards.

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Scott, you have all the rights in the world to be proud! Congratulations to all involved in helping her become successful and congrats to her for putting in the effort and time to be successful!!!!:thumb::congrats::headbang::highfive:
 
Congratulations!
These days, with too much emphasis on science and technology, parents often overlook arts and performance arts in their child's education. Wonderful to see that this has not been the case here.
 
Paul Douglass said:
That is awesome! Congrats to all! Don't suppose, maybe you have a little video you could post.......?
Click to expand...

We weren't allowed to capture any portions of this performance...it was closed door auditions except for the pianist. We listened through that closed door though! I do have a clip of one of the songs that she sang at a recital in early February. She did a good job in February, but sounded convincingly more dramatic, confident, and dynamic yesterday. Her skills and confidence are still gaining momentum by the month. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's a Handel piece called Va Gogendo that has kind of an impressive finish. Thanks to all for the encouragement!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC4ueW_Gbxg
 
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It's been quite a while since I posted the original story in this thread, but I do have some followup for anyone interested. Tess has been pretty busy since winning the Rochester Philharmonic Young Artist Auditions last March.

In July 2016, the winners of the March YAA event (the original story line of this thread), performed at the "Celebration of Winner's Concert" at the Eastman's Hatch Hall. Tessa did a beautiful job, and following the concert she got invited to sing at the Rochester Philharmonic League's annual luncheon in September. She was the only performer for the luncheon, and she sang for major supporters and board of directors of the RPO, including the keynote speaker, Ward Stare who's the principal conductor of the RPO. It was an incredible honor, and they were kind enough to invite us (parents) for the luncheon. It's hard to imagine a more discriminating or knowledgeable audience to perform for. They were thrilled, we were thrilled, and it was just an amazing day for all of us!

On October 23, 2016, Tess also won the Rochester Lyric Opera "Jonathan Angelone" vocal competition. It was a similar to the YAA event, except that it was exclusive to vocalists, there were more of them, and the winner was chosen during a live finalist's concert that took place later in the evening of the same day of the preliminary rounds. It made for a long hectic day, but was just as exciting as the previous competition, plus her mother got to witness this one, so she had some idea of what we'd gone through in March. (it's always a nail biter just before they announce the winner)

In Mid-November 2016, Tessa traveled to Grapevine, Texas outside of Dallas, and sang in the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) All-National Honors Choir, along with about 350 other elite high school vocalists from around the US. (for perspective, think in terms of "All County" chorus on steroids). Singers were selected by recorded audition by the NAfME committee. They were directed by Anton Armstrong from St. Olaf's College. One out of roughly every 35,000 high school students in the US gets selected for this, and only 255 school districts from the country were represented. A once in a lifetime event that was cost prohibitive for my wife Amy and I to attend, but we've at least ordered the DVD!

Just this week it was announced that she was selected to the NAfME All-Eastern Honors Choir to be held in Atlantic City in April 2017. It's only held every other year, and includes about 250 kids from the 15 east coast states. It should have similar talent as the All National Choir, and we're making plans to make the 7 hour drive to see this one!

Several college auditions are pending, another high school musical is in the works, and a couple local recitals should keep her occupied for most of the winter.

The RLO Finalists:
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NAfME National Choir:
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Hatch Hall Celebration of Winner's Concert:
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