Sax player Michael Moynihan admits he's plenty nervous about standing in front of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and going solo at tonight's Celebrate the Future concert.
To hear him say that is a little surprising. The 17-year-old Catalina Foothills High School senior is a veteran performer — two seasons in the Tucson Philharmonia Youth Orchestra and a big win in this year's Arizona Daily Star Battle of the Bands with his Afrobeat/funk band Afrodelic Stegosaurchestra.
But this is a first, he is quick to remind you.
"I am so nervous. This is another thing I have never done, to play in front of an orchestra like that as a soloist," he said between classes last Thursday. "It's going to be an amazing experience. I just want to play well and have good memories from that night. I'm pretty confident in my piece, but I'm still nervous about how it's going to feel up there in front of the orchestra."
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Moynihan is one of four young musicians and a young composer to take the spotlight at tonight's annual TSO youth concert. All five were winners of the orchestra's yearly young artist and composer project, a competition hosted and financed by the Tucson Symphony Women's Association. The panel of judges — Conductor George Hanson and TSO players clarinetist Andy Braden, principal keyboardist Paula Fan and acting assistant principal cellist Anne Gratz — started out with a slate of 41 musicians in three age groups in the preliminary round before narrowing its choice to the five winners.
Moynihan started his sax studies with jazz and ventured into classical music as a way to iron out some technical difficulties in his play, he said.
For the contest, he played the minutes-long first movement from Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Fantasia."
"I was really nervous. I had never done anything like that before. I had never performed a piece of classical music (solo) for an audience before that," he said. "I was really pleased and surprised when I advanced to the second round of competition and actually secured first place."
Moynihan, who plans to study saxophone performance at Indiana University in the fall, will play the piece again tonight.
Other contest winners:
● University of Arizona engineering major Devin Wiley has been playing piano since he was 5 and is minoring in piano performance under UA Professor Tannis Gibson. Wiley, who has performed in the United States and France and in 2002 won the UA President's Competition, will perform the first movement of Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A major.
● UA graduate student Humberto J. Colón-Rivera is working toward his master's degree in double bass performance. He will perform the first movement of the Bottesini Bass Concerto.
● At 9 years old, pianist Shelby Yuan is the youngest of this year's performers. The Corbett Elementary School third-grader, a student of pianist Angeline Ng, has been playing piano since age 4 and cello since 8. She will perform the first movement of Franz Joseph Haydn's Piano Concerto in D major.
● UA music major Roger Foreman, who is studying composition and violin performance, won the composer contest. The TSO will perform his work "Celtic Festival."
Quick Take
Tucson Symphony Orchestra's Celebrate the Future concert
Featuring as soloists the winners of the 2005-2006 TSO Young Artist Competition and Young Composer Project
Conducted by: George Hanson
When: 7 p.m. today
Where: Tucson Music Hall (Main Stages map, Page XX)
Cost: $15, with discounts available through Ticketmaster, 321-1000; or TSO, 882-8585
