LA PLATA, Md. — The Charles County Youth Orchestra is pleased to announce Brian Dixon, cellist, as the winner of the seventh annual CCYO Concerto Competition. Violinist Scarlett de Leon earned second place. Both musicians received cash awards, and Brian will perform Goltermann’s Concerto No. 4 as the featured soloist at CCYO’s Winter Concert next January.
Distinguished judges for this year’s competition were Jody Gatwood, violinist and professor emeritus at The Catholic University of America, and Samuel Swift, retired principal cellist of the U.S. Army Band. Held Saturday, June 13, at Christ Church in La Plata, the competition featured seven talented young musicians performing their memorized pieces before a live audience and the judges.
CCYO has a full summer schedule, with five upcoming concerts: the annual Independence Day/Alumni Reunion Concert on July 3 at the Alice Ferguson Foundation, followed by four Chamber Music Festival performances on July 18, 19, 25 and 26 at Christ Church in La Plata.
Auditions for CCYO’s upcoming season will be held Sept. 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Musicians of all levels and all instruments except piano are encouraged to audition. Sign-ups are available now at https://www.charlescountyyouthorchestra.org/.
CCYO includes four ensembles: Prelude Strings for beginning string players, Encore Strings and Encore Band for intermediate musicians, and the Charles County Youth Orchestra for advanced musicians. CCYO serves students from Prince George’s, St. Mary’s, Calvert and Anne Arundel counties, as well as Charles County.
CCYO presents two large concerts and several smaller concerts each year, a two-week Chamber Music Festival with four additional chamber music concerts, a Concerto Competition Concert as well as masterclasses and sectionals for students in all four of CCYO’s ensembles.
This past year CCYO has performed concerts at the Port Tobacco Courthouse, the Maryland Veterans Museum, Kris Kringle at the Fairgrounds, Indian Head Village Green, Christ Church in La Plata and the Alice Ferguson Foundation.
Recently, CCYO has been spotlighted in an online film by the Charles County Arts Alliance and has been featured on WTOP radio. Also, two CCYO String Quartets were finalists in the prestigious Washington Performing Arts Society Misbin Chamber Music Competition in Washington, D.C.
The Charles County Youth Orchestra is sponsored in part by grants from the Charles County Charitable Trust, the Charles County Arts Alliance, the Maryland State Arts Council and donations from generous individuals.