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EVANSTON, Ill. --- Five Northwestern University School of Music students will perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on May 21, as part of the John F. Kennedy for the Performing Arts Conservatory Project for developing and presenting young talent.

Twice a year, the nation’s leading music schools are invited to send students to the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theatre to introduce top new talent to the public. Project participants have the opportunity to be critiqued by world-renown musicians, such as conductor Leonard Slatkin and tenor and opera administrator Plácido Domingo.

During the May 2007 cycle of performances, in addition to Northwestern, students from the San Francisco Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester,  Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and Shepherd School of Music at Rice University will perform.

The Conservatory Project is part of the Kennedy Center's "Performing Arts for Everyone" initiative, which provides free daily performances at 6 p.m.

The following Northwestern music students will perform at the Kennedy Center May 21:

Kristin Figard, viola

Kristin Figard is a senior, majoring in both Viola Performance and Harpsichord Maintenance and Studies.  She studies viola with Professors Almita and Roland Vamos and harpsichord with Professor Stephen Alltop.  Initially focused on violin and piano, she was one of only four Americans participating in the semi-final round of the 1997 International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition for Young Musicians.  As a violist, Figard has won First Prizes in the Collins Award of the American Opera Society of Chicago, the Musicians Club of Women Scholarship Competition, and the 18th Annual Kingsville International Young Performers Competition.  She has performed on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series and the “Live from Studio One” Series, both broadcast live on WFMT, and has served as Principal Violist of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony. 

 

Michael Martin, trumpet

Michael Martin, is a senior and studies with Professors Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer.  Martin has performed with many noted orchestras, including the Atlanta Symphony, the New World Symphony, and the Grand Tetons Music Festival Orchestra.  This past summer he was a trumpet fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he received the Roger Voisin Trumpet Award. Other awards for Martin include First Prize in the National Trumpet Competition in Washington, D.C. and winning the Northwestern University Concerto Competition. In addition to his studies at Northwestern, Martin is a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony.

 

Micaela Oeste, soprano

Micaela Oeste is pursuing a master’s degree in vocal performance and studies with Professor Karen Brunssen. The 2006 winner of the American Friends of Austria Music Award Competition for Singers, she was a Young Artist with the Chicago Opera Theatre the same year, singing the role of Giunone in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno D’Ulisse in Patria.  She also participated in the Young Artist Program at Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts and was featured there as Gretel in Humperdinck’sHansel und Gretel .  At Northwestern, Oeste has been heard as Blanche in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, as La Cecchina in Piccini’s La Buona Figliola, and as Pieta in the a concert presentation of Eric Whitacre’s opera-electonica Paradise Lost. Oeste holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Central Arkansas.

 

Sian Ricketts, oboe

Sian Ricketts is a senior and studies with Professor Grover Schiltz.  Among her awards are First Places in the winds/brass division of the 2003 Schubert Club Competition and in the winds division of the Thursday Musical Competition.  She received Second Prize in the 2000 Midwest Double Reed competition, and is the recipient of both the John R. Galvin Scholarship and the Virginia C. Shaffer Scholarship at Northwestern. Ricketts has participated in the Brevard Music Center and in Quebec’s Domaine Forget International Music Festival.

 

Johnny Carlos Salinas, saxophone

Johnny Carlos Salinas is a doctoral student, studying with Professor Frederick Hemke.  Salinas has performed as a soloist with orchestras throughout the Chicagoland area, and is also a member of the Hyacinth and Osomo Saxophone Quartets.  Both ensembles have won the Chesapeake Bay Chamber Music Competition and have been finalists at the Fischoff National and Coleman Chamber Music Competitions.  Salinas’ awards include first Prizes in the International Frank Huntington Beebe Fund, the Hellam Young Artist Competition, and the Andreas Makris Woodwind Competition.  He received both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Northwestern University.

Pianist Kay Kim will accompany all five students.

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Northwestern University at the Kennedy Center

May 21, 2007, at 6:00 p.m.

 

Incantation, Thrène, et Danse (Alfred Desenclos [1912–])

Michael Martin, trumpet
Kay Kim, piano

Sonata for Oboe and Piano (Paul Hindemith [1895-1963])

Munter 
Sehr langsam–Lebhaft–Sehr langsam- 
Wieder lebhaft

Sian Ricketts, oboe
Kay Kim, piano

Suite for Viola and Piano (Ernest Bloch [1880–1959])

IV. Molto vivo

Kristin Figard, viola
Kay Kim, piano

Fantasie sur un thème original (Jules Demersseman [1833–1866])

“Im Abendrot” from Four Last Songs (Richard Strauss [1864–1949])

Johnny Carlos Salinas, saxophone
Kay Kim, piano

“O luce di quest anima” (Gaetano Donizetti [1797–1848])f
from Linda di Chamounix 

“Mein Herr Marquis” (Johann Strauss [1866–1939])
from Die Fledermaus                                                                       

Micaela Oeste, soprano
Kay Kim, piano

            
Visit the Kennedy Center's web page about the Northwestern School of Music, including links to video of the 2005 and 2006 Conservatory Project performances.