February 2025 Concert Featured Two Winners as Soloists

The LAS “Expressions of Youth” concert on February 15, 2025, featured the two winners of the 52nd annual Competition for Young Musicians.

Olivia Luan performed as the soloist for the 1st movement of Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16, by Grieg, and Ariel Pawlik-Zwiebel was the soloist in the 1st movement of the Violin Concerto by Sibelius.

General Information
Annual Competition for Young Musicians

Every fall, the Livermore-Amador Symphony Association conducts its Competition for Young Musicians. Our 2025–2026 season will mark the 53rd annual competition. The winners will perform as soloists with the Symphony at the Bankhead Theater on February 14, 2026, and will be awarded $750.00. The competition is open to instrumentalists and vocalists who reside in Alameda County, Contra Costa County, the City of Tracy, or the community of Mountain House, California. Piano and String applicants should be 19 or younger as of February 14, 2026. Vocal, Wind, Brass, Percussion and Harp applicants should be 22 or younger as of February 14, 2026.

Applications for the 2025 competition will be accepted starting on September 21, 2025. The deadline is September 28, 2025. Music is to be chosen from the standard repertoire for orchestra. The selection, one movement of a concerto or a comparable work, should be between 5 and 15 minutes in length.

Those accepted to compete will perform in person on Sunday afternoon October 12, 2025, before a panel of judges, including the Music Director. Contestants must provide their own accompanists. Each student who participates will receive a written evaluation. Intonation, tone quality, technique, style/interpretation, and memorization will be taken into consideration.

Winners, as soloists, will perform the same music with which they competed. Previous winners of this competition may reapply after an intervening year. However, anyone who has performed two times as a soloist with the Symphony cannot be considered as a contestant.

The following compositions are not to be chosen.
(They were performed by the Symphony in 2024–2025 or will be performed by LAS in 2025–2026.)
Clarinet: Concerto No. 2—Navarro
Piano: Concerto in A Minor—Grieg
Viola: Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra—Vaughan Williams
Violin: Concerto—Sibelius
Violin: Concerto—Tchaikovsky

 
Application

Applicants submit a non-refundable fee of $25.00, a completed application form, and, for preliminary screening, a recording of themselves playing the solo to be performed at their audition.

Application Form:
The application form is filled out and submitted by mail or email.

Application Fee:
Use the button below to pay online. Type in the name and musical instrument of the applicant, then click on PayPal, venmo, or Checkout. Or, write a check for $25 payable to Livermore-Amador Symphony Association and mail it to Livermore-Amador Symphony, c/o 744 Polaris Way, Livermore CA 94550. Please include your address and contact information.

Video: Applicants must post a recording video to YouTube and email a link to competition@livermoreamadorsymphony.org. For piano recordings, accompaniment is not essential. All applicants are notified of the outcome of the preliminary screening.

 
If you have any questions, you may contact Competition Committee Chair Anne Badders (competition@livermoreamadorsymphony.org).

Past Winners

See a list of past winners and the pieces they played, from the 1973–74 through 2023–24 seasons.

See photos of winners from the 2011–12 through 2023–24 seasons.

 

© Livermore-Amador Symphony Association