PRESS & REVIEWS
LAWRANCE BUDMEN
ALHAMBRA COMPETITION WINNERS
DISPLAY REMARKABLE MUSICIANSHIP
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By Lawrence Budmen, 2005
The training and nurturing of gifted young musicians is one of the most important aspects of arts education. Too often musical organizations do not realize that providing opportunities for aspiring artists ensures the future of the art form. In a gesture of heartening generosity and foresight the Alhambra Orchestra has established a Young Artists Concerto Competition in memory of Ray Millette, one of the founders of the Miami based community ensemble. The three top prize winners of the competition displayed their prodigious artistry in a concert aptly titled "Celebrating the Future" on April 3 at Ransom Everglades Auditorium in Coconut Grove.
First Prize Winner Carmine Miranda gave an impressive performance of the opening Allegro from Dvorak's "Concerto in D Major" for Cello and Orchestra - the Mount Olympus of cello concertos. He is a junior at Gulliver Preparatory School. His teacher is University of Miami Professor Ross Harbaugh. Miranda counts Israeli cellist Yehuda Hanani as one of his mentors. Miranda's often awesome performance of the Dvorak concerto showed remarkable maturity and poise. His sense of the music's long arc was prodigious. Miranda's spacious shaping of the score's lyrical second subject was wonderful indeed. He brought a sense of innate musicality and flexibility to every bar of the music. His passionate involvement in the score's ever winding musical thread was impressive. With a spirited rendition of the cadenza Miranda capped a triumphant performance. Here is a young cellist of impressive artistic endowment.
Nicholson (who is also Artistic Director of Miami's Beethoven Society) showed fine sensitivity to his young soloists' interpretive styles and provided solid support. In creating a forum for such gifted instrumentalists Nicholson and his Alhambra ensemble have given Miami a gift of priceless value. They have endowed music's future!