YOUNG ARTISTS’ COMPETITION

BURLINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Young Artist Competition 2023-2024

A UNIQUE PLATFORM FOR EMERGING TALENTS TO SHINE ALONGSIDE THE PRESTIGIOUS BURLINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.
Burlington Symphony Orchestra is excited to announce the winners of our 2023-2024 Young Artist Competition. The Burlington Symphony Orchestra supports and encourages promising young artists by offering them the chance to perform as a soloist with a symphony orchestra.  
  • The competition was open to woodwind, brass, strings, and piano.
  • Applicants can be a maximum of 21 years of age at the time of application.  There is no minimum age however only candidates 16 and under will be considered for the Emerging Young Artist Award.
  • Canadian citizenship is a requirement, and the musician must reside or study in Ontario.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The 2023 competition has two categories and three awards:

Strings and Piano Category

A First Place Winner who will perform with the Burlington Symphony as a soloist during the 2024/25 Season and receive a prize of $500.

 

Winds and Brass Category

A First Place Winner who will perform with the Burlington Symphony as a soloist during the 2024/25 Season and receive a prize of $250.


An Emerging Young Artist

Who will receive a prize of $250 and be acknowledged at the concert, on our website and social media. Possible performance may be offered.

2023-2024 YOUNG ARTISTS’ COMPETITION WINNERS

Elliot Sloss

First Place Winner
Strings/Piano

Elliot Sloss started playing the cello when he was four years old, and in the 16 years since, his love for his cello and music has taken him many places.

Elliot attends the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studies with Peter Wiley and Gary Hoffman. Previously, he studied with Paul Widner and Joe Johnson at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada where he participated in the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists for many years.

Elliot is a three-time 1st place winner in the national round for strings in the Canadian Music Competition. Most recently, he won in the 15-18 year old Chamber Music category, performing Schulhoff’s Duo for Violin and Cello with his friend and musical duet partner, Duncan McDougall. Elliot won three concerto competitions in 2019. He won the North York Music Festival Competition and performed with the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra. He won the Taylor Academy Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition.

He has attended many summer music festivals in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. He has played in many ensembles, and one of his favourite chamber performances was playing Mendelssohn’s String Octet.

Elliot plays on a 1706 Giuseppe Guarneri ‘filius Andreae’ cello made in Cremona, and a 1925 Victor Fetique bow made in Paris.

Amiel Ang

First Place Winner Winds/Brass/Percussion

Amiel Ang is a percussionist based in Toronto, Ontario; who will be making his orchestral solo debut with the Burlington Symphony Orchestra as a part of their 2024/25 season. Amiel is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s of Music in Performance at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music and is a member of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. A versatile musician, Amiel spent the last summer performing as the Principal Timpanist for l’Orchestre de la Francophonie’s 2023 season, and touring as the drummer of Nam Nguyen’s musical “A Perfect Bowl of Pho” as a part of the Kick and Push Theatre Festival in Kingston, Ontario. As a soloist, Amiel has been selected as the winner of the HMCS York Naval Reserve Band Open Concerto Competition, the Burlington Symphony Young Artist Competition, and was an honourable mention in the TSYO Concerto Competition. Amiel’s principal teachers include Aiyun Huang, Beverley Johnston, John Rudolph, Michelle Colton and Ryan Scott. He is also consistently inspired by his colleagues in the UofT Percussion studio.

Ethan Hyo Jeon

Emerging Young Artist Winner

Ethan Hyo Jeon is a scholarship student at The Royal Conservatory’s Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists under the tutelage of David Hetherington. Throughout his years of study, Ethan has garnered numerous awards and scholarships, including being the Grand Prize winner of the Ontario Music Festival Association Competition in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and third place winner in the CANIMEX Canadian Music Competition National Final in Quebec City and Toronto. Notably, Ethan has been featured as a soloist with the Kitchener Waterloo Chamber Orchestra and Laurier Symphony Orchestra, earning these opportunities as a winner of the youth concerto competition.

As an enthusiastic chamber and orchestral musician, Ethan holds the positions of principal cello in the Taylor Academy Chamber Orchestra at The Royal Conservatory of Music, as well as assistant principal cello with both the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 2023. In the past summer, he toured the East Coast of Canada with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada under the baton of Sascha Goetzel, showcasing pieces such as Brahms’s Violin Concerto and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

Recently, Ethan was honored to receive the 2024 National YoungArts Award in classical music from the United States. Furthermore, Ethan is the founder and president of the Music in the Air Project, an initiative aimed at organizing performances and concerts with young musicians to share the love and passion for music with entire communities.

  • Using the Registration Form, please submit a video recording (via Youtube link, Google Drive, Dropbox etc.) of you performing your piece, preferably with piano accompaniment. Please ensure you have met the following conditions:

    • one movement of a concerto or a one-movement composition, originally composed for your instrument and orchestra.
    • orchestral parts must be readily available and accessible.
MUSIC SELECTIONS

Application Steps

Step 1:  Fill out the application form: Online Application Form

Step 2:  Send a non-refundable application fee of $20 via this link: Pay with this Eventbrite link

Deadline for submission is has been extended to December 31, 2023

Winners will be notified by January 15, 2023 . Adjudicators will not provide feedback to applicants.

Inquiries can be emailed to:  [email protected]

A LIST OF OUR PAST WINNERS