WPO Student Concerto Competition

The concerto competition has been suspended for the 2009-2010 season so we can perform our 'Young Talents in Action' recital concert featuring students from the Ip Piano School. The competition will resume in our 25th anniversary season.

Nicole DiBlasi, age 16, began her violin studies at age 5. As a Classics for Kids winner in 2005, she was soloist with the Brockton Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared as soloist with the Salem Philharmonic, the Reading Symphony, and the Hillyer Festival Orchestra and was invited to rejoin them on the Hatch Shell as part of the WCRB Classical Concert Series. Nicole was prizewinner in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and New England Conservatory Youth Concerto Competitions, and her chamber group, the Bouty String Quartet, received third prize in the 2008 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition. As a high school honors student and violin student of Professor Yuri Mazurkevich at Boston University, she is also a member of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School. She has previously studied with Jin-Kyung Joen and Marylou Speaker Churchill. Nicole also was recently selected as a candidate for Miss Massachusetts Teen USA.

Daisy Joo, a junior in high school and violin student of Jin-Kyung Joen, started lessons at age 4. She is a first violinist in New England Conservatory's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom she has traveled to Brazil, Venezuela, and China. Daisy has won Parkway Concert Orchestra's Violin Competition, New England Philharmonic's Young Artist competition and Quincy Symphony's "Young Artist Performs" Competition. Daisy also has placed in NEC's Preparatory School's Concerto Competitions and the Rhode Island Philharmonic's Concerto Competition. She has received scholarships from the Sharon Chamber Music Association and attended the Killington Music Festival as a select "Junior Apprentice". There Daisy collaborated with Max Levinson and studied with Juliette Kang, Yehonatan Berick, and Miriam Fried. This past summer she attended Le Domaine Forget with scholarship and studied with Mark Fewer, Yehonatan Berick, and the Arthur-Leblanc String Quartet. Daisy has participated in masterclasses by Irina Muresanu, Miriam Fried, Lynn Chang, Regis Pasquier, and James Ehnes.

Eva Belmont is a student at Buckingham Browne and Nichols high school. She studies piano privately with Mr. Jonathan Bass through New England Conservatory Preparatory Division. In 2005, Eva won the New England Piano Teachers Association Ruth Davidson competition, as well as the Rivera prize for contemporary music. In 2006, she won second prize at the Steinway Society of Massachusetts piano competition. In addition to studying solo music, she also enjoys playing chamber music. Eva is currently a member of a piano trio at New England Conservatory Preparatory and attended the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program for the last two summers.

Sarah Koenig-Plonskier is currently the Concertmaster of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of the New England Conservatory led by Benjamin Zander. In 2005, she was a guest soloist with the Lowell Philharmonic and performed with the Walnut Hill String Quartet in a live radio broadcast from Boston’s Symphony Hall on WGBH. In 2006, Ms. Koenig-Plonskier will be performing as guest soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Brockton Symphony Orchestra, the Quincy Symphony Orchestra and the Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra. She has received numerous awards, including First Place in the 2006 Boston Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Ms. Koenig-Plonskier has been closely involved in programs which help to bring music to disadvantaged communities, both in the United States and abroad. In 2004 and 2005, she partnered with Boston Ballet Conductor Jonathan McPhee in a Community Leadership Program to bring classical music to Boston area inner city schools. She traveled to Guatemala, Panama, Brazil and Venezuela with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra on tours aimed at bridging cultural, language and socioeconomic gaps with music and performance. Ms. Koenig-Plonskier began her violin studies at age 4, and has studied with Lisa Lederer, Jennifer Elowitch, and Fudeko Takahashi. She currently studies with Professor Yuri Mazurkevich. Sarah will attend The Juilliard School in the fall of 2006.