2005 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition

June 3, 2005
The University of Texas at Austin, Butler School of Music
Austin, Texas

The Finalists

Stephanie Corwin (USA), First Place

Stephanie Corwin (b. 1981) received her Master of Music degree in May 2005 from Yale School of Music where she studied with Frank Morelli. She is a native of Marietta, Georgia and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Davidson College, where she was the winner of the Davidson College Concerto Competition. From 2001 to 2002, Stephanie spent a year in Würzburg, Germany, where she studied with Albrecht Holder at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg while also attending the Julius-Maximilians Universität. Her summer festivals include Aspen, Banff Centre for the Arts, and National Repertory Orchestra (summer 2005.) She is a member of the Intrada Winds, winners of the 2004 Coleman Chamber Music Competition. Stephanie’s principal teachers include Mary Beth Griglak, Albrecht Holder and Ruth Shelly Unger. In the fall, Stephanie will begin pursuing the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at SUNY Stony Brook, where she will continue studying with Frank Morelli.

Lou Pacquin (Canada), Second Place

Lou Pacquin (b. 1982) is a native of Montreal (Quebec, Canada.) She received a BM in Performance at McGill University where she studied with Stéphane Lévesque. In October 2004, she won the CBC Prize of the Classical Concerto Competition at McGill University and performed the Mozart Bassoon Concerto in Bb Major, K.191 with the McGill Symphony Orchestra in December of 2004. She also won three prizes in February 2005 at the 21st Annual Contest of the Trois-Rivières Symphony Orchestra: Radio-Canada’s First Prize Étoiles Galaxie (wind category), the Grand Prize of the Jury of the City of Trois-Rivières (all categories) and the Radio-Canada Prize (all categories). She is on the substitute list of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Lou has played in master classes at McGill University with Suzanne Nelson, Carlo Colombo and Richard Beene, and attended summer festivals such as Centre d’Arts Orford, Domaine Forget, and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Katherine Evans (USA), Third Place

Katherine Evans (b. 1982) is from Towanda, KS. At 17 she was the winner of the Wichita Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, performing the Hummel Concerto in F, and as an 18 year old was an Honorable Mention in the Garrison Keilor Prarie Home Companion Talent from Towns under 2001 Show. She won First Prize in the 2005 MidWest Double Reed Society Solo Competition, and was recently was one of four prize winners in the Williams-Reck Competition, as well as being a finalist in the WSU’s Concerto-Aria Competition in 2001 and 2004. She has attended the Madeleine Island Chamber Music Festival. In 2006 she will graduate from Wichita State University, where she studies with Nicolasa Kuster, having taken two years off to pursue a degree in nursing. Her teachers include Steve Vacchi and Merilee Tuinstra, and in high school she attended the Interlochen Arts Camp where she studied with Doug Spaniol.

Stephanie Patterson (USA), Honorable Mention

Stephanie Patterson (b. 1984) is a bassoon performance major at Oberlin Conservatory where she studies with George Sakakeeny. She is from Lafayette, California where she began playing bassoon with Cyrle Perry. She attended Brevard Summer Music Festival last summer where she took lessons with William Ludwig. At Oberlin she has also studied with Nicolasa Kuster and Carlo Columbo, and is planning to study next fall with Professor Sokolov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory while she is taking a semester abroad at Smolny College.

Sara Scurry (USA), Honorable Mention

Sara Scurry (b. 1982) from Dallas, TX, is Principal Bassoon of the Mexico State Symphony Orchestra in Toluca, Mexico. Since joining the orchestra in February of 2004, Sara has performed the Mozart Sinfonie Concertante with the orchestra as well as touring to Paris, France. She began studying at the Interlochen Arts Academy with Barrick Stees when she was 14. Upon graduation Sara pursued her studies at The Juilliard School with Judith LeClair and Oberlin Conservatory where she received a Bachelor of Music degree in February 2004 and was a student of George Sakakeeny. As a founding member of The Black Sheep Bassoon Quartet, Sara performed quartet recitals and taught lessons at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China. She has attended music festivals as Music Academy of the West, Brevard Music Center and Interlochen Arts Camp.

Wendeline Everett (USA), Alternate

Wendeline Everett, 21, from Eugene, Oregon currently studies Bassoon Performance with George Sakakeeny at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Previous teachers have included Nicolasa Kuster, Carlo Colombo, Steve Vacchi, and Wendell Hanna. At Oberlin she has performed with the Oberlin Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, and Contemporary Music Ensemble as well as various chamber ensembles. She has attended Interlochen Arts Camp (2001), Brevard Music Festival (2002), and this summer will study at Music Academy of the West. In addition to studying bassoon, she is also a physics major in the Double Degree program at Oberlin and was recently named a Goldwater Scholar.

Sofía Almanza-Saavedra (Panama), Alternate

Sofia Almanza-Saavedra is from Panama City, Panama. She began her bassoon studies at the age of 12 at the Conservatorio Nacional de Panama, where she studied with James Hansen for 7 years. She continued her studies with Nicolasa Kuster at Wichita State University in 2003. Sofia activly participates in the school ensembles as well as many competitions. She attended the Aspen Music Festival and School (2004), where she studied with Nancy Goeres, Steve Dibner and Per Hannevold and has been selected for the 2005-2006 Youth Orchestra of the Americas. Besides studying the bassoon, Sofia is an accomplished saxophone player. She first traveled to the USA to participate in the 13th World Saxophone Congress, where she played for a master class given by Eugene Rousseau. Her proferssinal performance experience includes the Panama National Symphony Orchestra and Opera Kansas.

Repertoire

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in a minor, RV 498 (performed from memory in the final round)
Ludwig Milde: Concert Studies, Opus 26, #20
HyeKyung Lee: Dreaming in Colours
One additional piece for final round (chosen from the MQVC Repertoire List)