Student Competition Winners to Perform With Miami String Quartet

The Miami String Quartet will perform with six student competition winners on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Millard Auditorium.

The Hartt School will present the annual Miami String Quartet Student Competition Concert,  featuring six talented Hartt students performing with the school’s quartet-in-residence, on Thursday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Millard Auditorium.

Admission is free for University of Hartford students, faculty, and staff with ID. Tickets for the general public are $30-36, with discounts available for seniors, students, and groups.  To purchase tickets, call the University of Hartford Box Office at 860.768.4228 or 800.274.8587, or visit www.hartford.edu/tickets.

The exceptional students who won this year’s competition are guitarist Nick Cutroneo, French horn player Andrew Ho, violinist Yang-Sun Kim, clarinetist Dan Liptak, flutist Kristen McGuire, and marimba player Bill Solomon. The program for Thursday’s concert will include works by Beethoven, Boccherini, Brahms, Mozart, and Tedesco.

These six Hartt students will have the incomparable experience of performing for an audience side-by-side with a professional quartet.  The Student Competition Concert is a unique opportunity for Hartt’s student musicians – one that is unparalleled among similar music conservatory programs.

The winners were selected by the Miami String Quartet members from more than twenty applicants to the competition via two audition rounds.  At the preliminary audition, the student musicians performed a movement of a standard concerto or other substantial solo composition.  Ten students from this first round then moved on to a final audition, at which they performed a complete work with the members of the Quartet.

The six exemplary students come from around the globe and across the U.S.  Nick Cutroneo is a second-year master’s guitar student from Somerset, N.J., and is a student of Richard Provost.  Andrew Ho, from Waterford, Conn., is an undergraduate senior and studies French horn with Dan Grabois.  Yang-Sun Kim studies violin with Katie Lansdale, and is a second-year Graduate Professional Diploma candidate from Busan, South Korea.  Dan Liptak, from Moretown, Vt., is an undergraduate senior and studies clarinet with Ayako Oshima.  Flutist Kristen McGuire, from Suffern, N.Y., is an undergraduate sophomore who studies with Janet Arms.  Bill Solomon, From Kansas City, Mo., is a doctoral candidate and studies marimba with Ben Toth.

Prior to the concert, there will be a special dinner featuring an interview with a member of the Miami String Quartet. The dinner will be held at 6 p.m. in the 1877 Club. Dinner tickets are $39.  Following the concert, there will be a free reception in honor of the student performers.