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Concerto/Aria Winners Announced
Released February 19, 2008
The Northern State University Department Music is please to announce that Hatem Elgenedy and Keiko Muto are the vocal and instrumental winners of the 2008 Concerto/Aria Competition, which was held on Jan. 31, at NSU.
Judges for the competition included Dr. Abra Bush, Dr. Sarah Kahl and Ms. Jennifer Peterson. All three judges are on the faculty of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. Dr. Robert Vodnoy, Director of Orchestral Activities at NSU was the coordinator of the event. The winners will be featured soloists on the Apr. 6concert of the Aberdeen University/Civic Symphony Orchestra. There were 13 competitors in this year’s competition.
In order for a student to be eligible to compete, he/she must be enrolled as full-time student at NSU in the spring 2008 semester and be enrolled in applied lessons on their primary performing instrument or voice. Competitors may not be the winner of a previous AUCS concerto competition. Instrumentalists must perform a concerto movement, or a concert piece for instrument and orchestra. Vocalists must perform an aria from an opera or oratorio, or piece for voice and orchestra.
Hatem Elgenedy is music major at NSU. He is originally from Cairo, Egypt and is the son of Mohamed Sayed Ahmed Elgenedy and Karima Abd El Samiaa. At NSU, he studies with Dr. Raouf Zaidan. Elgenedy, who has studied voice for nine years, began studying piano when he was nine years old at the Cairo Conservatoire He won the first prize in the Cairo opera house competition, and a scholarship from the famous baritone Tom Krause, allowing him to take master class with Krause and sing at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland.
At NSU Hatem sang the role of Thuy in the NSU production of “Miss Saigon” and has also performed in “Tosca,” “Pagliacci,” “La Traviata,” “Aida,” “Merry Widow,” “Don Giovanni,” and “Madam Butterfly.” Hatem plans to complete his studies at NSU and audition for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. For the April concert, Hatem will perform “Hai gia vinta la causa...vendró mentr’io sospiro” from “Le nozze di Figaro,” by W. A. Mozart.
Keiko Muto is a music education major at NSU. Originally from Kannami
City, Shizuoka, Japan, Muto is the daughter of Hisao and Noriko
Muto and has been studying at NSU for five years. She is the timpanist
of the Aberdeen University/Civic Symphony, plays percussion in the
Symphonic Band, and has also worked with the NSU community band
as a student conductor. Keiko currently studies with NSU’s
Dr. Terry Beckler, and previously studied with James Panerio. Keiko
hopes to become a band/percussion instructor back in her home country
of Japan, and to and help out smaller school bands that never had
professional direction. For the April concert, Keiko will perform
the first movement of the “Concertino for Marimba,”
by the American composer Paul Creston.
About Northern State University
Northern State University is a premier residential institution characterized by outstanding instruction, extraordinary community relations, and unparalleled extracurricular opportunities. In August of 2007 NSU was named by US News and World Report as one of the best undergraduate public institutions in the Midwest. For more information about NSU, visit our Web site at www.northern.edu.
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