May 12, 2005

Students to perform at Kennedy Center

Four School of Music students will perform at the Kennedy Center in Washing-ton, D.C., on May 23, as part of the John F. Kennedy for the Performing Arts Conservatory Project for developing and presenting young talent.

Twice a year, the nation’s leading music schools are invited to send students to the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre to introduce top new talent to the public. Participants have the chance to be critiqued by world-renown musicians.

The Conservatory Project is part of the Center’s “Performing Arts for Everyone” initiative, which provides free daily performances at 6 p.m.

The student performers are:

Cellist Anna Burden, 20, a junior who studies with Professor Hans Jorgen Jensen, will perform Gregor Piatigorsky’s “Variations on a Theme of Paganini.” 

Trumpeter Ethan Bensdorf, 20, a sophomore who studies with Professors Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer, will perform Oskar Böhme’s Concerto for Trumpet in F Minor, Op. 18.

Marimbist Owen Clayton Condon, 27, who studies with Professor Michael Burritt, will perform Northwestern alumnus Joseph Schwantner’s 1990 work “Velocities.”

Winston Choi, 27, is studying with Professor Ursula Oppens. Choi will perform Olivier Messiaen’s Prelude No. 5 (“Les sons impalpables du rêve”) and Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53.