Four Lamorinda teens competed with their group against more than 390 participants in the 59th Annual Junior Bach Festival auditions on Feb. 5 before going on to perform the Concerto for Oboe and Violin (1060), Allegro, on March 31 at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Kensington. Jin-Young Heo played the violin solo and Daniel Gurevich of Pleasanton took the oboe solo with orchestral accompaniment under the direction of their teacher Heghine Boloyan. Less than one third of the total festival audition participants were invited to perform. The group (which includes Stanley Middle School seventh-graders Heo and Katherine Chen, Stanley eighth-grader Dana Zhu, and Acalanes High School eleventh-grader Erin Chen) plans to compete again in two years. The Junior Bach Festival was founded in 1953 by Berkeley music director Tirzah Mailkoff after one of her students attended the Carmel Bach Festival, which inspired her to create a festival for children to audition and perform in the San Francisco Bay Area. This festival calls for kids through the age of 21 with exceptional talent in music to compete against others from throughout California by performing any piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. The festival takes place around the time of Bach's birth date: March 21. Congratulations to these talented musicians!
From left: Jin-Young Heo (Stanley Middle School, grade 7), Erin Chen (Acalanes High School, grade 11), Katherine Chen (Stanley Middle School, grade 7), Heghine Boloyan (Teacher), Not pictured: Dana Zhu (Stanley Middle School, grade 8)
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA