Rondo Young Artist Festival Winners to Perform at Carnegie Hall

Sophie Lee, a student at Yorktown High School, is among the first-place winners of the second annual Rondo Young Artist Festival, an international concert showcase that gives five- to 18-year-old musicians a taste of the professional musician’s life through touring and recording.

They will debut at Carnegie Hall May 4.

The recital, at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, will feature classical musicians performing works by Beethoven, Liszt, Piazzolla, and others in piano, violin, cello, voice solos and a piano trio. 

The Festival features a series of Concerts designed to give RONDO winners a chance to make music the way professional musicians do. The top four winners of the competition will also take part in The Special Tour Presentation in a private residence in Bronxville, NY, alongside concert 
pianist Alexandre Moutuzkine, on May 18 and June 8. They will also be part of the Lenox Hill House Concert Series in New York City. 

“[Rondo gives] so much personal attention to each participant in guiding their forming careers,” says Emilia Oskotsky, the festival’s executive director and one of its founders. “This makes us unique among youth music festivals and inspires youngsters to keep nurturing their talents.”

Music teachers agree. “Rondo Young Artist Festival gives performers of the pre-college age an array of opportunities to perform in major concert venues”, says Mark Packman, Piano faculty member at The Montclair State University and at the Manhattan School of Music Pre College Division. “The very best players are selected for Carnegie Weill Recital Hall. I find the 
conditions of the competition to be very fair both artistically and financially.”