The University of Redlands President’s Honor Recital, an annual event hosted by university President Stuart Dorsey to showcase talented musicians in the School of Music, will take place in the Memorial Chapel on Sunday, March 9 at 2 p.m. The free event is open to the public.

Since 1983 the President’s Honor Recital has provided a public showcase for outstanding performers in the University of Redlands School of Music. The five students performing in the concert are winners of the 2007-08 School of Music auditions held last November. All university students taking lessons on an instrument or in voice with a School of Music faculty member are eligible to enter the competition.
 
Opening the program will be saxophonist Joshua Alvarez, of the Coachella Valley, a first year graduate student. Alvarez, accompanied by pianist Lara Urrutia, the university’s Accompanying Coordinator, will be performing the saxophone concerto by 20th century composer Henri Tomasi.

Alvarez was previously a winner in the 2005-06 competition while an undergraduate music major. In 2005 and 2007 he received the School of Music Director’s Award for outstanding accomplishments, and in 2006 he was awarded the prestigious Presser Foundation Scholarship, an honor given to a student for exceptional musicianship, exemplary scholarship and excellent promise. 

Alvarez hopes to return to the Coachella Valley and possibly teach music at the middle or high school level.

Following Alvarez will be pianist Jina Silva, of Hemet, a 19-year-old sophomore piano performance major. Silva will be performing two movements from Samuel Barber’s Excursions— piano pieces with a distinctly American flavor.

While a student at Hemet High School, she was able to perform in Europe, Seattle and Yosemite with the Jazz Band, and on both coasts of Central America with the Concert Band.  

Silva holds a Lehigh endowed piano scholarship and is the recipient of a university Achievement Award and a Presidential Scholarship. Silva formed a piano duo partnership with fellow classmate Diana Muñoz, calling themselves Blanc et noir, representing the colors of the piano keys. Last February, Blanc et noir was a prize-winner in the Inland Piano Festival.

Flugelhorn and trumpet performer John J. Tribelhorn, of Menifee, a senior, will be performing a piece by Richard Peaslee called Nightsongs. Pianist Stephanie Markley will be accompanying.

Tribelhorn, a student of Redlands Symphony Orchestra principal trumpet and professor David Scott, earned a coveted spot playing next to Scott in the orchestra through an audition.  Tribelhorn is a recipient of several honors and awards, including the Konica-Minolta Scholarship, the Californian Student of Merit Award, a university Presidential Scholarship, the School of Music Talent Award and a university Achievement Award. He has a strong interest in music education and is preparing for a career as a public school teacher.

Flutist Ryan Wu, of Temple City, a senior pursuing degrees in music and German language, will be performing Fantasie Pastorale Hungroise by 19th century composer Albert Franz Doppler, accompanied on the piano by Lara Urrutia.

Wu, who graduated from Temple City High School in 2004, has marched with the Tournament of Roses Honor Band and earned first place in the Southern Young Musician Festival, Los Angeles County Music and Arts Institute Competition and the Dan Stover Rotary Music Competition. In 2003, Wu qualified for the advanced level in flute performance through the Certificate of Merit examination administered by the Music Teacher's Association of California. He has earned the university’s Presidential Scholarship, Music Merit Award and Achievement Award, and is listed in Who’s Who Among Students 2006.

Concluding the recital will be 19-year-old soprano Laurel Dimmick-Hughes, of Yucaipa, who will be singing two arias, “Regnava nel silenzio” from Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti, and “Mein Herr Marquis” from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss Jr.
Dimmick-Hughes, a scholarship student of Artist Professor of Voice Marco Schindelmann, has won major prizes in competitions throughout California, including first place in the Friends of Arts Education Cerritos Center Performing Arts Scholarship in 2006 and the VOCE State Competition of the Music Teachers’ Association of California in 2005. 

In 2003 she won the coveted first prize in the classical voice category in the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards Competition that included a performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. 

Judges for this year’s Honor Recital competition were Jon Robertson, music director of the Redlands Symphony Orchestra; David Romano, international recording artist and vocal teacher; Peter Schoettler, principal French horn performer and educator affiliated with Lincoln Center in New York City; and Andrew Glendening, director of the University of Redlands School of Music.

For more information, contact the President’s Honor Recital coordinator Louanne Long, professor of piano, at (909) 748-8689 or louanne_long@redlands.edu.

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