In Tuesday’s (4/6) Post-Bulletin (Austin, Minnesota), Tim Ruzek writes, “More than two months ago, they each took a turn on the Knowlton Auditorium stage to audition their musical talents before three judges and a few others. Now Austin High School senior Kelsey Fleming and Lizzie Chen, a 15-year-old foreign-exchange student at Faribault’s Shattuck-St. Mary’s School, will join the Austin Symphony Orchestra on the same stage Sunday before a much bigger audience. Fleming, a harpist, and Chen, a cellist, were selected as the winners of the Austin Symphony Orchestra’s first-ever Young Artists’ Competition, giving them a chance to perform with an orchestra, which is a ‘very rare opportunity to do such a thing,’ director/conductor Stephen Ramsey said. They also will get to perform solos during the show ‘New Voices,’ the finale of the orchestra’s 53rd season. … The Austin symphony’s first [competition] proved to be a success, attracting 20 kids to audition for the contest, Ramsey said. It was open to children in seventh through 12th grades from designated counties in southeastern Minnesota, northern Iowa and western Wisconsin.”
Posted April 8, 2010
