2019 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition

January 11-13, 2019
The Colburn School
Los Angeles, California
Host: Richard Beene

The Semifinalists

Marisa Esposito, First Place

Marisa Esposito is an Artist Diploma student at the Cleveland Institute of Music studying with Barrick Stees. Originally from Long Island, she holds a Bachelor of Music Education from the State University of New York at Fredonia where she studied with Laura Koepke, and also a Master of Music in Bassoon Performance from CIM. Currently, Marisa serves as adjunct bassoon faculty at SUNY Fredonia and as Acting Second Bassoon with the Erie Philharmonic. She also holds substitute positions with the Canton and Youngstown Symphony Orchestras, CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, and the New World Symphony. Earlier this year, Marisa won first place at the National Society of Arts and Letters Competition for Winds, Ohio River Valley Chapter. She is also an advocate for early childhood music, leading many music classes for young children and families at local preschools, day care facilities and family centers. Through this work, Marisa hopes to instill a love of music and community in future generations.

Julianne Mulvey, Second Place

Julianne Mulvey began her musical studies on flute with her mother and then made the wise decision in the sixth grade to switch to the instrument of her dreams, the bassoon. Julianne is a sophomore at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music studying with Benjamin Kamins. Previously, Julianne was a member of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and traveled to South America on their tour in 2017. In March of 2017, Julianne performed on the National Public Radio show From the Top which was taped in front of a live audience in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. Last summer, Julianne attended the Texas Music Festival and was a finalist in the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition with her performance of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto in B-flat. She has also attended the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and Brevard Music Center Summer Institute. Julianne has played in master classes by the Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet and Steven Braunstein, and has been coached by legendary flutist Robert Willoughby. Outside of the concert hall, Julianne enjoys advocating for classical music through community outreach and is a former member of the From the Top Center for the Development of Arts Leaders. Her past teachers include Richard Svoboda of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Neil Fairbairn.

Margaret O'Leary, Third Place

Maggie O’Leary, from Claremont, California, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2015 and studies with Daniel Matsukawa, Principal Bassoon of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Maggie is the Louisa Knapp Curtis Fellow and a recipient of the YMF/ASCAP Leiber and Stoller Scholarship. She is currently contrabassoonist with Symphony in C, and has performed in concert with the New World Symphony. In 2018, Maggie was a Finalist in the Albert M. Greenfield Student Concerto Competition and in 2015 she was a YoungArts finalist and a semifinalist in the Los Angeles Music Center’s Spotlight Competition. Maggie has been heard on Southern California’s KUSC Radio as a member of the Colburn Honors Woodwind Quintet, the Colburn Youth Orchestra, and the Young Musicians Foundation Debut orchestra, and on NPR’s From the Top. During her summer months and holidays while attending Curtis, Maggie has participated in the Verbier Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, New York String Orchestra Seminar, Sarasota Music Festival, and Aspen Music Festival and School as a recipient of the Nancy Goeres Bassoon Fellowship. As part of Music from Angel Fire in August 2018, Maggie performed in the Triacanthos Quintet, an ensemble formed at the Curtis Institute of Music, and participated in numerous outreach events for children. In addition, she performed Mozart’s Sonata in B-flat major, K. 292 with Peter Wiley, former cellist of the Beaux Arts Trio and Guarneri String Quartet. Maggie began playing the bassoon at age 12, and previously studied with Carolyn Beck, Principal Bassoon of the Redlands Symphony and the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra.

Cheryl Fries, Honorable Mention

Cheryl Fries, a native of Red Creek, New York, is a bassoonist and chamber musician currently working and performing in Manhattan. She has performed with various ensembles in New York and Boston, MA and has most recently performed regularly with the Phoenix Orchestra, a Boston-based chamber orchestra that strives to make classical music more accessible. Cheryl enjoys performing and advocating for contemporary music and has premiered several chamber and orchestral pieces. This past summer, Cheryl participated in the Bowdoin International Music Festival Fellowship program, where she performed Elliot Carter’s Retracing for solo bassoon in the Gamper Contemporary Festival. Additionally, Cheryl regularly performed in the student-run Tuesday Night New Music concert series while attending New England Conservatory for her undergraduate degree. An avid chamber musician, Cheryl performs regularly with an woodwind quintet at Manhattan School of Music and has formerly performed with a piano trio in Boston, Massachusetts. Cheryl studied with the Principal Bassoon of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Richard Svoboda, during her Bachelor of Music studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, and in 2016 was a finalist in NEC’s Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. She is currently studying at the Manhattan School of Music in the Orchestral Performance Program, where she is a student of Associate Principal Bassoon of the New York Philharmonic, Kim Laskowski.

Nina Laube, Honorable Mention

Nina Laube is currently a student of George Sakakeeny at the Eastman School of Music. Recently, she has studied and performed at the Texas Music Festival, Round Top Festival Institute, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and Domaine Forget, where she has had the opportunity to work with many inspiring faculty artists and colleagues. She has also been a substitute bassoonist with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. Nina began studying the bassoon with Ann Dufek in Evanston, Illinois. Other significant mentors include Judith LeClair, with whom she studied at Hidden Valley Music Seminars, and Drew Pattison. In 2016, Nina performed a solo and duet recital with Bill Buchmann at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Chicago. An avid chamber musician, she has also performed in many Rochester and Lake Placid schools and community centers with her quintet.

Corinne Crowley. Semifinalist

Corinne Crowley is currently pursuing her master’s degree at Rice University Shepherd School of Music studying with Benjamin Kamins. She recently completed a year of Artist Diploma study at Oberlin Conservatory with Drew Pattison. Corrine received her bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory in 2017 studying with George Sakakeeny. She completed a portion of her bachelor’s degree at the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam, working closely with Simon Van Holen and other members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. She has appeared professionally with the Toledo Symphony and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. She has recorded with the Oberlin Orchestra numerous times and can be heard on several orchestral and chamber music CDs produced by the Oberlin Record Label. As a chamber musician, Corinne has performed across the United States and Europe, including a five-concert tour of France with her woodwind quintet as well as performances in Cleveland’s Severance Hall with Grammy-Award-winning Snarky Puppy. She has participated in the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Roundtop Music Festival, Texas Music Festival and the Eastern Music Festival. She has performed in master classes for renowned bassoonists including Gustavo Núñez, Judith LeClair, Benjamin Kamins, Richard Beene, Kristin Wolfe Jensen, Helma van den Brink, Dennis Michel, Stephen Paulson, and David McGill. In 2016, Corinne was a semifinalist at the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition held at the Colburn School.

Morgan Davison, Semifinalist

Morgan Davison is an up-and-coming bassoonist based in New York City. Being a musician all her life, Morgan is well-versed in many kinds of music performance, and enjoys playing and learning about orchestral, chamber, and solo music. She also plays flute, oboe, and piano. Pursuing her passion as a bassoonist, she has traveled to many different countries including including Switzerland, England, and Taiwan. An avid learner, she has taken many master classes with esteemed bassoonists from around the world, such as Phillipe Hanon, Leonard Hindell, Sophie Dervaux, William Winstead, and Judith LeClair. She currently studies at Manhattan School of Music with Kim Laskowski, Associate Principal Bassoon of the New York Philharmonic. Morgan loves to attend summer festivals, and has been to ones such as the Aspen Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, the Interlochen Arts Camp Institute, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Morgan is active in chamber and solo competitions, and has won awards in both categories. She is a two-time winner in the National YoungArts Foundation Competition. She attended the Interlochen Arts Academy, and while there, her woodwind quintet advanced to the semi-finals of the Fischoff Chamber Competition. As a junior in high school, she traveled to Taiwan and won her division in the Asian Double Reed Association Young Artists’ competition. She has been a three-time winner and advocate for the Young Musician’s Foundation of Colorado, which is her home state. On her downtime, Morgan enjoys hiking, swimming, writing poetry, painting, and spending time with her friends, her twin brother Cameron, and her family’s Australian shepherd, Max.

Amelia del Caño, Semifinalist

Amelia del Caño graduated with distinction from the Eastman School of Music in 2017, earning a Bachelor of Music in Bassoon Performance and receiving the Andrew J. Bogiages Memorial Prize in Bassoon. Amelia has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra during her time at Eastman and was a semifinalist in their Second Bassoon/Contrabassoon audition in May 2017. In the summer of 2018, Amelia was both the runner-up for the Second Bassoon position with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and a finalist in the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra Principal Bassoon audition. In October, she performed with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic as a substitute Second Bassoon. During her undergraduate studies, Amelia participated in several special performances, including the premiere of Kevin Puts’s Letters from Georgia with renowned soprano Renée Fleming and the Eastman Philharmonia, a recording of Jeff Tyzik’s Images, and a trip to Niagara Falls with the Eastman Wind Ensemble. As part of her woodwind quintet “Quintensity,” a two-time consecutive winner in Eastman’s Honors Chamber Recital competition, Amelia has garnered much respect as a chamber music advocate and educator. In addition to being consistently requested for music outreach in Rochester and Buffalo, her quintet was invited three years in a row by the Lake Placid Sinfonietta to the Adirondacks for teaching residencies and recitals. The quintet was honored to be the first and only wind group in the history of the Peter Salaff Award to be selected for the prestigious prize in May 2017. Amelia is currently pursuing a Master of Bassoon Performance & Literature at the Eastman School of Music, where she is the bassoon studio teaching assistant and departmental assistant to her professor, George Sakakeeny.

Eleni Katz, Semifinalist

Eleni Katz is a bassoonist who has always demonstrated a love for the art of performance. During her high school years, she studied with Benjamin Coelho, Professor of Bassoon at the University of Iowa, whose teaching style sparked a new passion for the instrument. Her experience at the Interlochen Bassoon Institute was pivotal in her decision to pursue music as a career. This past spring, Eleni received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Under the mentorship of Professor Marc Vallon, she performed numerous solo recitals as well as Carl Maria Von Weber’s Concerto in F Major with full orchestra. She was selected as a winner of the UW-Madison Symphony Concerto Competition, for which she performed Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto in B-flat. In the past three years, Eleni was a runner-up in the Marquette Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Concerto Competition, winner of the Irving Shain Woodwind Collaborative Piano Competition, and winner of the University of Iowa Double Reed Day Concerto Competition. Eleni has participated in both the Imani Winds and Madeline Island Chamber Music Festivals, the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and the Chautauqua Institution music festival, and played with the National Repertory Orchestra this past summer. This fall, Eleni started her master’s degree at the Yale School of Music and is studying under Professor Frank Morelli. Eleni is looking forward to the numerous opportunities to perform chamber music and orchestral works at Yale. In her free time, Eleni enjoys practicing yoga, hiking, and cooking with friends.

Molly Smit, Semifinalist

Molly Smit is a senior at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Bassoon Performance. After starting her musical journey at age 12 on the saxophone, her band directors suggested she try something a little more challenging, thus starting her career on the instrument with 13 thumb keys. Hailing from Southern California, Molly studied bassoon with Elliot Moreau before moving to Bloomington, Indiana where she currently studies with Kathleen McLean. In California, Molly has participated in the SCSBOA All Southern Honor Band and the CMEA All State Wind Ensemble, as well as the Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble and Youth Orchestra. Throughout her bassoon career of seven years and counting, she has played in lessons and masterclasses for a multitude of esteemed bassoonists including William Ludwig, Christopher Millard, Richard Hoenich, and Bram van Sambeek. When not in a practice room or slaving over reeds, Molly enjoys cooking, hiking, and spending time with friends and family.

Eligibility

Women bassoon players who are citizens of the Americas (North America, Central America, South America), or who are enrolled in school in the Americas during the year prior to the competition and who will not have reached their 26th birthday by the date of the Final Round of competition in January of 2019.

Prizes

First Prize: US $9,000
Second Prize: US $5,000
Third Prize: US $2,000
Two Honorable Mentions: US $1000 each
Five Semifinalist Awards: US $500 each

Repertoire

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in F Major, RV 485 (Op. 45, No. 5/F. VIII, No. 8/P. 318)
Memory Component: in the final round, the Vivaldi will be performed from memory
Cindi Hsu: Spring Fever.
This work was the winner of the 2018 Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition.
Francisco Mignone: 16 Valsas para fagote solo. For the preliminary round, applicants must record “Aquela modinha que o Villa não escreveu,” “Valsa da outra esquina,” and “Valsa improvisada”. In the final round, a selection of any combination from all 16 of the Mignone waltzes can be chosen. Time parameters will be communicated to semifinalists upon their selection.
Alexandre Tansman: Suite.
The Tansman is for the final round only.

All repertoire is now available at TrevCo-Varner Music and Forrests Music. Spring Fever is also available as a digital download from the publisher, Imagine Music.