Concert features young artists

Pianist Daniel Park.

Even though critics everywhere have decried the seeming decline of interest in classical music, a counterpoint message will be delivered live and on the Toledo Museum of Art's Peristyle stage Sunday at 3 p.m. when the Toledo Symphony presents its Family Concert IV, the Young Artists Competition Winners Showcase.

Resident conductor Chelsea Tipton II will lead the concert.

Three up-and-coming young musicians will show that interest in classical music is alive and well in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

Flutist Andrew Bova, double bassist Jon Hammonds, and pianist Daniel Park each will take a turn in the spotlight with solos backed by the symphony.

Each young artist was selected during auditions last year sponsored by the Toledo Symphony League.

"Between 15 and 25 people apply for the competition," notes symphony artistic administrator Merwin Siu. Eligibility is determined by age, level of artistry, and residence. "We open the competition to people within our performance region," he adds.

Hammonds and Park both hail from Ann Arbor, where they are students at Huron High School. Bova, who graduated in 2007 from Perrysburg High School, has just finished his freshman year at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Hammonds, who studies with TSO assistant principal bassist Barton Dunning, will perform the Allegro movement from the Koussevitsky Concerto for Double Bass in F# minor.

He has been principal bass with high school band and orchestra, the Michigan Youth Orchestra, and other classical and jazz groups. Last month he was soloist with the Huron Orchestra.

Bova, whose major instrument is the bagpipe, studied flute with TSO principal Joel Tse before graduation. He will perform Cecile Chaminade's Concertino with the orchestra.

"I really like the piece," he said this week. "I've only performed it twice - with the Toledo Youth Orchestra and the Perrysburg High School Symphony Band."

Formerly principal flutist of the Toledo Youth Orchestra, Bova continues to study flute privately and perform with a university symphony and flute choir. He has been piping since sixth grade, he says, and is active in regional pipe bands. His plan is to teach ethnomusicology at the university level.

Park, a native of South Korea, began piano studies as an elementary student and now studies with Sook-Chung Kim Park. He also is an accomplished clarinetist.

With the Toledo Symphony he will perform the Moderato movement from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.

The family-oriented program will begin with an excerpt from Aaron Copland's ballet, Rodeo, and conclude with Dances of Galanta by Kodaly.

Family Concert IV, the Young Artists Competition Winners Showcase, is to begin at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle. Tickets are $16 to $20 at 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.

Contact Sally Vallongo at: svallongo@theblade.com.