The School of Music recently announced Minha Jeon, piano, and Stephen Dubetz, clarinet, as winners of the 2024 Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition.

Jeon will perform Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Symphony Orchestra at the February 21, 2025 concert at the Hamel Music Center.

“Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 was a significant challenge for me,” Jeon said. “It felt very different from my natural tendencies as a musician, which made it a piece I wanted to push myself to overcome. While preparing for this competition, I focused entirely on this work, determined to approach it with everything I had. I’m glad that the effort led to a positive outcome, and it has given me a bit more confidence to take on a wider variety of repertoire in the future.”

Dubetz will perform Carl Nielsen’s Concerto for Clarinet with Symphony Orchestra next fall.

“Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto written for the composer’s friend, clarinetist Aage Oxenvad,” Dubetz said. “It’s a pitched battle between tonalities centered around the note ‘F’ and the note ‘E’ may be a reflection of Oxenvad’s mental health, as he suffered from what today may be diagnosed as bi-polar disorder. Played through in one movement, the concerto dazzles, dances, and delights as one simple, two-note theme transforms again and again through various tempi, textures, and moods.”

The 2024 competition was held December 2 in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall. The competition is open to full-time students majoring in music from all areas (brass, jazz, keyboard, strings, percussion, voice, and woodwind). Students are required to compete with substantial complete works for soloist and orchestral accompaniment as defined by each area.

“I’m especially thankful to Professor Christopher Taylor, whose creative ideas helped me find solutions to many of the difficulties I faced,” Jeon said. “Winning this competition has made the process all the more rewarding, and I’m happy to have had this opportunity to grow as a musician.”

Dubetz expressed similar sentiments.

“It is an honor to be one of the winners of this year’s competition,” Dubetz  said. “The representatives from each division were all stellar performers and musicians of the highest caliber. Being selected from among a diverse pool of incredible talent is both immensely validating and a real dream-come-true.”