The CYS Young Artist Competition is held each May at Stanford University to select soloists for the coming season. It is open to any instrumentalist who is 18 years or younger*. A panel of judges, who are notables from the local music community, conducts the preliminaries and finals.  Generally one pianist and one other instrumentalist are chosen to appear - one in the November series and one in the March series.  A cash award (The President's Prize) of $200 is given to each winner.

Bethany Wang, was chosen as a winner of the California Youth Symphony Young Artist Competition held at Stanford University last spring. She performed the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with CYS on the November 13 and 20 concerts. Bethany, who began her piano studies at age 4, is currently a pupil of Dr. Jed Galant of Newark. She has been one of the top three winners at competitions such as the U.S. Open Music Competition, the Chinese-American Piano Competition, and the Open Russian Piano Competition. She was also a winner at the Menuhin-Dowling Piano Competition, and the American Beethoven Society’s Young Pianist Competition.

In 2003, Bethany received the Paderewsky Medal for completing ten years of National Guild of Piano Teacher’s Auditions, and in 2004 she was invited to perform in the Jr. Bach at Carmel concert, as well as the Bay Area Steinway Society’s Young Artist Concert. Most recently, Bethany won first prize at the Ross McKee Piano Competition and the San Francisco Young Pianist Competition. Her music studies have also included chamber music at the Fair Banks School of Performing Arts in Del Mar, and the Sequoia Chamber Music Camp at Humbolt University. Besides playing the piano, Bethany loves to read and draw. She is currently a senior at San Ramon Valley High School.

Kenric Tam is a piano student of John McCarthy in the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Last season Kenric performed as concerto soloist with the Richardson Symphony in Dallas Texas under Maestro Anshel Brusilow as winner of the 2005 Lennox International Young Artist Competition. In addition to his victory in the California Youth Symphony Young Artist Competition, he has captured first prizes in the El Camino Youth Symphony Concerto Competition, the San Jose Youth Orchestra Competition, the CAPMT Concerto Competition, the MTAC Concerto Competition, and several other competitions.

He was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Warsaw Piano Workshop, sponsored by the Frederic Chopin academy of Music, in August 2005. He will perform the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 in March 2006 with CYS l

Kenric Tam

The selected musicians will perform with the California Youth Symphony (CYS) at two Sunday performances May 14^th at the Flint Center in Cupertino and again on May 21^st at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center. Both concerts begin at 2:30 p.m.