The Pasadena Community Orchestra is excited to announce that violinist Ezra Shcolnik is the winner of the 2024 Young Artist Competition (Senior Division). Ezra will perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at the Pasadena Community Orchestra’s May 10, 2024 concert.
About our Young Artist Competition Senior Division winner. Violinist Ezra Shcolnik is pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he studies with Robert Lipsett. This season, Ezra appears as a soloist with several orchestras in Southern California, including the Colburn Orchestra, the Pasadena Community Orchestra as the Senior Division prizewinner of the 2024 Young Artist Competition, the Peninsula Symphony as the top prizewinner of the 2024 Knox Competition, and the San Fernando Valley Symphony. Previously, he appeared with the New Mexico Philharmonic. Ezra is also a composer whose music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, USC Thornton Edge, and Colburn Academy Virtuosi. At age twelve, he performed his own composition as a soloist with the Performance Santa Fe Orchestra. An active orchestral musician, Ezra serves as concertmaster of the California Young Artists Symphony and in various principal positions with the Colburn Orchestra. He has also served as associate concertmaster of the Aspen Chamber Symphony and the Performance Santa Fe Orchestra. Summers have found Ezra studying chamber, solo, and orchestral repertoire under the guidance of esteemed artist faculty at the Aspen Music Festival as the recipient of several fellowships, as well as at the Perlman Music Program. Outside of music, Ezra enjoys exploring new places and eating good food.
About the Young Artist Competition. Pasadena Community Orchestra has been promoting and providing solo performance opportunities for young instrumental artists since 1986. Each year the winner of the Competition has the opportunity to play a concerto with the Orchestra during its upcoming season, as well as receiving a cash prize. Several previous competitors and winners have gone on to prestigious music schools and careers in music performance. Starting in 2023-24, the Orchestra has hosted a Senior Division competition and a Junior Division competition.
