Southeastern Louisiana University

Music students take top honors at concerto competition

Contact: Christina Chapple

3/4/09

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     Cello performance major Feliks Volozhanin took the top prize, earning an invitation to perform his competition selection, Franz Joseph Haydn's “Cello Concerto in C Major,” with the orchestra on March 14. He also received a $1,000 cash award.

     A junior from Chelyabinsk, Russia, Volozhanin studies with Southeastern music instructor Karen Jung, who is also head of access services at the university's Sims Memorial Library.

     Second prize went to Liliia Oliinyk, a freshman piano performance major from Kherson, Ukraine, who performed Robert Schumann's “Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54.” She studies with Kenneth Boulton, associate professor of piano.

     Southeastern graduate student Scott Campbell of Grants Pass, Ore., a recent graduate of Brigham Young University Hawaii, also participated in the competition, performing a saxophone concerto by Alexander Glazunov. He is a student of music instructor Richard Schwartz.

     Boulton said competitors included musicians from across the state representing a wide variety of instruments and backgrounds. “Feedback from the judges indicated that the overall group was of the highest caliber of talent pools,” he said, “but it was clear that Felix and Liliia were in a class of their own.”

     While both students have previously won music competitions in their native countries, they said participating in the concerto competition was a valuable experience. Since coming to Southeastern two years ago, Volozhanin has also won the Elizabeth Harper Vaughn Concerto Competition, which included an invitation to perform with the Symphony of the Mountains in Kingsport, Tenn. He was also one of three winners of the concerto competition sponsored by the Southeastern Chamber Orchestra and performed with the orchestra last April at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts.