The 63rd Young Artists Concert

On Tuesday night, July 1st, Redlands Summer Music Festival had its second concert of 2014. It’s the 91st year of the festival. You can catch a different concert every Tuesday and Friday night of the entire summer. Specifically on July 1st, Redlands held the Young Artists Concert, a night filled with young talented classical musicians. There were violinists, pianists, women who sang Soprano, and even a Trombone player. The emcee for the evening Eric Gruenler started the night off giving the audience a brief introduction, and welcoming everyone to the 63rd Annual Redlands Bowl Young Artists Auditions Winners Concert. He invited Jeff Waldron, the chairman of the board of Redlands Community Music Association and their executive director out on stage to give thanks to all the associates that helped make the night happen. “There are a lot of them and they are very, very hard working,” Jeff mentioned about his associates. “There are many threads to weave of the music festival... while they manage to have a good time while doing it, these ladies year in and year out, by themselves, raise between twenty to twenty-five percent of the total budget to put on the Summer Music Festival.” The performances began at around 8:15 p.m., starting out with a performance by Wenfang Han, a thirteen-year-old pianist. The spotlight then shined on eleven-year-old Matthew Yee, who played the violin. Melissa McCann, who is earning her Master of Fine Arts in vocal performance from UC Irvine, then sang Soprano. Then, Liam Glendening, a junior at Redlands High School, played two songs on the Trombone. Before a quick intermission, they announced each of the young artists, and handed them their scholarships. The Junior League (the younger musicians) received a $500 scholarship and the Senior League (the older musicians) received a $1,000 scholarship. After those announcements, and a quick intermission the last three winners performed. The first to perform was Konrad Rudowicz an accomplished violinist who is a native from Lodz, Poland. Then Emily Collins, who performed two songs singing Soprano. She holds both a Bachelor and a Master of Music right here from University of Redlands. Last but not least, Kyle Orth performed. He is a successful pianist who has “soloed with numerous professional orchestras.” The classical music brought the community together for a summer night and these talented young musicians received recognition for their talent and hard work.