Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra wins 1st place in Vienna music fest

The Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra (MSJO) won First Place at the 12th Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival held Sunday at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.

Under the baton of the Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO) executive director and associate conductor Jeffrey Solares, the MSJO performed Wolfgang Amadeus

Mozart’s “Divertimento in D major (KV 136, 1st movement Allegro),” Antonín Dvorák’s “Serenade for Strings, 3rd mvt.,” and Béla Bartók’s “Rumanian Folk Dance.”

Apart from these competition pieces, the youth orchestra comprised mainly of students 10 to 21 years old from the MSO Music Academy, also performed nine other pieces, including two Filipino works – Ernani J. Cuenco’s “Kalesa” and Manuel Velez’s “Sa Kabukiran” – as well as pieces by Bach and Vivaldi.

Apart from Solares, Sara Maria Gonzales and Arnold Josue also helped in training the MSJO for this year’s Summa Cum Laude International Music Festival (SCL Festival). Held every July of each year, the SCL Festival invites young talents from all over the world to perform in one of Vienna’s two main classical concert venues: the Golden Hall of the Musikverein and the Wiener Konzerthaus.

As the MSO’s youth orchestra, the MSJO isn’t new to the SCL Festival as it won Second Place last year. After Venice, the youth orchestra will be touring Europe, performing in some of the world’s greatest concert halls in the cities of Bratislava, Florence, and Rome. The MSJO was formed in 2014.