The teen performed Frederic Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2, First Movement in B
flat minor.
Second place went to Zachery Talbot from West Side High School. Talbot won
$500 for his rendition of “Funeralilles” by Franze Liszt. Third place and a $250
prize went to Marsh Valley High student Josh Smedley. Smedley played a
“tocacata.”
Hubbard has been playing the piano for the past eight or nine years and said
he believes music is kind of a way of life.
“It opens up your brain and it gives you opportunities and it allows you to
do so much,” Hubbard said. “And it's fun.”
Hubbard was excited to play in the Dahle Performing Arts Center for the first
time.
“It's a great opportunity and this is an amazing hall, and I'm so glad that
this community supports music so much and allows us to come and inspire other
people and inspire ourselves in playing,” Hubbard said.
The 10 students came from around Southeast Idaho and Cache County.
“We sent out invitations to all of the regional high schools and also Cache
Valley high schools, and we said we would take the first 12 applicants that got
in,” said Melissa Waddoups, the event’s announcer. “But they had to get the
approval of the department head of the music department in their high school.
They had to have that signature so that we'd only get one student representing
each school.”
The students played a variety of pieces from composers such as Chopin, Mozart
and Rachmaninoff.
“I'm just in awe. I can't believe that kids are that dedicated to
perfection,” Waddoups said. “The amount of talent that we possess in this valley
is just astronomical.”
The competition was judged by Allison Bangerter, Natalia Lauk and Christine
Smith. Lauk completed her honors doctorate in Russia and represented the Russian
classic pedagogy of piano music.
This was Lauk’s first time judging a competition in the United States, and
said she was first looking for musicality from the performers.
“How much heart and soul the child puts in it and how full is their contact
with the piano because the Russia classic school requires the full contact, from
your shoulder to your fingers, how clearly your energy pours from all your body
to your sound,” Lauk said. “That's what I'm looking for.”
Lauk also commented on the selection of pieces the students
performed.
“The bar is set really high. I'm looking forward to listening to Russian
composers like (Serge) Rachmaninoff. Also to Chopin because it's a piece that is
for a really mature musician,” Lauk said. “I don't see any piece that wouldn't
be for a really mature musician.”
Though she did not win, Hannah Walker, an 18-year-old senior from Sky View,
competed with “Romance” by Jean Sibelius. Walker has been playing the piano for
13 years and loves to perform.
“I love how it gives me the ability to have free expression and to bring joy
to other people,” Walker said.
Walker chose “Romance” because of its array of parts.
“It has a good variety of big parts and slow parts,” Walker said. “And it's
one of the most fun ones to play because it's all over the place.”
