Ross Chu (senior-music education) said he plays the marimba, a percussive keyboard instrument, and tonight will be his first time participating in the annual competition.
"I'm treating it as a performance," Chu said. "[My audition concerto] is just one of the pieces I'd be playing for a recital. I'm in it for the experience."
Another twist in the competition is pitting vocalists against instrumentalists.
"The guidelines are very specific for instrumentalists," Sasha Piastro (graduate- voice performance and pedagogy) said. "But for vocalists, we don't sing concertos, we sing arias or art songs. So you have to go in and sing an aria or two."
Piastro is competing tonight with an aria from the French opera Manon. To give vocalists and instrumentalists equal opportunity, tonight's judging panel will consist of faculty representing each area of performance.
One of the judges is Gerardo Edelstein, a music professor who conducts the Philharmonic Orchestra and will conduct the winner or winners at their solo performances in February. Edelstein emphasized the importance of the competition to young musicians.
"This is an invaluable experience for [the winner]," Edelstein said. "Only a few very talented and gifted musicians get the chance to play solos with an orchestra, and this is an experience that they will not forget the rest of their lives."
Graduate students will be judged alongside undergraduates in tonight's competition.
"I guess on paper it does look a little unfair," Piastro said. "But you're getting people from all different walks."
Piastro added that when students enter the "real world," they would vie for jobs with professionals with decades of experience.
