Quad City Symphony Announces Winners of Youth Concerto Competition
Two members of the Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles (QCYSE) have been named winners of the annual Concerto Competition – a pianist from Alleman High School and a trumpeter from Pleasant Valley High.
Last month, eight Youth Symphony Orchestra (YSO) members auditioned to win one of two prizes. The YSO Prize winner is typically
Ernesto Estigarribia is music director of the Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles.
awarded the opportunity to play their concerto at the QCSYE Winter Concert in February, accompanied by the YSO.
The Grand Prize winner performs their concerto with the QCSO at the QCSO/QCSYE Side-by-Side Concert in April. Winners are selected by a committee consisting of professional community musicians from Northwest Illinois and Eastern Iowa.
The winner of the 2020-2021 Grand Prize is pianist Quentin Fonseca. Fonseca is a sophomore at Alleman High School in Rock Island, and this is his first season as a member of the YSO. He has been studying piano for over six years, with the past two as a student of Dr. Marian Lee. He hopes to continue to pursue his passion for classical piano for many years to come.
The YSO prize winner is Erika Holmberg, trumpet. Holmberg has been involved in the arts since a young age, having played trumpet for five years, piano for 11, cello for seven, and studied voice for seven. She has participated in the QCSYE for eight years and is in her third year as a member of the YSO.
Holmberg – a junior at PVHS — has been a two-time Iowa All-State Music Festival selection for both chorus and band and has made the SEIBA Honor Band, OPUS Honor Choir, NCACDA Honor Choir, NATS Vocal Regional Finals, the SEISTA Honor Orchestra, and Piano Baroque and Classical Festival Finals multiple times each, in addition to other various music activities.
Erika Holmberg won the YSO Prize in the annual Concerto Competition.
Holmberg serves as a Drum Major in the PVHS Marching Band, is a part of the PVHS Spartan Winds, Spartan Jazz Band, Full orchestra, Chamber Choir, Leading Tones Jazz Choir, Scholastic Bowl, Spartan Ambassadors, and the Varsity Girls’ Golf Team.
Holmberg also spends a lot of time rehearsing and performing with her string trio, The Lyra Trio, at the new Deanery School of Music, Davenport. In college, she plans to study psychology and/or music education and trumpet performance.
During the concerto competition, Covid-19 restrictions were implemented to ensure the health and safety of students, including a limited in-person audience of less than 10 socially-distanced adjudicators and
Quentin Fonseca won the Concerto Competition Grand Prize.
audience members. Masks and sanitation were required.
Fonseca will perform the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra at the Side-by-Side Concert in April 2022. Holmberg will perform and record the Arutiunian Trumpet Concerto with the YSO on Sunday, May 9, 2021.
The Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles (QCSYE) program consists of five performance groups (four youth orchestras and a youth choir) for students in grades 2 through 12.
Under the direction of the outstanding QCSYE conducting staff, members have the opportunity to perform great orchestral and choral repertoire with the most talented young musicians in the area and learn from the mentorship of professional musicians from throughout the region. Ensemble members come from the greater Quad-Cities, as well as other communities in southeast Iowa and northwest Illinois.
