By Michael Hopkins
The 28th annual MASTA Chamber Music Festival was held on March 4, 2019 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Guest artists and competition judges were the four members of the MUSE Ensemble: Danielle Belen (violin), Kyoko Kashiwagi (violin), Eva Stern (viola), and Katri Ervamaa (cello). Additional festival faculty included Molly Baugh and Molly Evans.
The winning ensemble of the 28th annual MASTA Chamber Music Festival Competition was the Grosse Pointe South High School String Quartet for their performance of the first movement of String Quartet No 2 in F major, Op. 92 by Sergei Prokofiev. Members of the quartet are Anna Jarboe (violin), Isabelle Adams (violin), Billy Beardslee (viola), and Katherine Beardslee (cello). They will be featured at the Michigan Youth Arts Festival in May.
The runner up ensemble was the Americký Quartet of Ann Arbor for their performance of the first movement of the String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, “American” by Antonin Dvorak. Members of the quartet are Vallan Roan (violin), Young Seo Lee (violin), Samuel Yang (viola), and Sebastian Berofsky (cello).
Congratulations to these students and their coaches, Kathryn Votapek and James Gross!
Thank you to all the participants for a great festival and a wonderful recital! I would like to thank these MASTA members for sending students to the festival: Stacey Bowen, Megan Crawford, Michael Edwards, Alesia Byrd Johnson, Burke Lokey, David Ormai, Nathan Peters, Steve Reed, Alicia Gregorian Sawyers, Patricia Smith, Anne Thompson, and Ching-wen Tseng.