“Talk about patience. Tucson teen Joshua Thai has been waiting two years to cash in on his prize after winning the junior division of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra’s 2020 Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto Competition,” writes Cathalena Burch in Monday’s (1/31) Arizona Daily Star. “Two years is easily five in kid years. This weekend, Joshua, now 15, gets to play with the community orchestra under the baton of Music Director Linus Lerner, his prize for winning the Vanek competition…. Joshua will perform the third movement of … Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto, a piece he was set to perform in the 2020-21 season that was canceled courtesy the pandemic. Josh … began studying violin at age 7 and by 11 he was playing with an orchestra, debuting with the Arizona Symphonic Winds under the baton of László Veres. He adds the Vanek competition win to a growing list of contest prizes that includes back-to-back first place finishes in Colorado’s Rocky Ridge Music Center concerto competition…. The Wieniawski concerto is on a program that includes … South Korean violinist Edwin So Kim performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.”
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