Meet MYSO's 2013 Concerto Competition Winners!

Written by Michelle Hoffman | 05 April 2013

2013 Senior Symphony Concerto Competition Winner and Carrie Rondeau Memorial Scholarship Recipient

Thomas Bagin began his musical training at the age of 4 when he started piano and violin. In third grade be began teaching himself the trombone, and soon began private lessons. He currently studies with Mark Hoelscher, adjunct professor at UW Milwaukee and bass trombonist for the Millar Brass Ensemble of Chicago. 

With the encouragement of director Thomas Dvorak, Thomas auditioned for MYSO in seventh grade and earned first chair in the Jr. Wind Ensemble. In ninth grade he performed with Philharmonia and has played in the Senior Symphony for the last three years. MYSO has given him the opportunity to play side-by-side with musicians from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, attend master classes, compete in concerto competitions, as well as compose a brass quintet and full orchestra piece as a John Downey Fellow. In 2012, Thomas led the trombone section on tour with Senior Symphony to the Czech Republic and Austria.

Thomas has experience playing in church orchestra, brass ensembles, and has played in a professional Christmas recording. He is currently involved with the brass quintet Victorious Brass. In 2011, he won the Lakeshore Symphonic Band Young Artist Concerto Competition and took third place in the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc Lakeshore Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition. In 2012 he won the Menomonee Falls Symphony Concerto Competition and was chosen for the honors recital with the Civic Music Association, receiving the same honor in 2013.

In addition to being named winner of this year’s Senior Symphony Concerto Competition—an honor of which he is especially proud as he is keenly aware of the high level of competition—this year he was also named a finalist for the “President’s Own” Marine Band Concerto Competition; this honor gave him the opportunity to play in the John Philip Sousa Hall at the Marine Barracks in Washington, DC. Thomas was also named a winner of the 2013 Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Auditions and will perform with the MSO at the Stars of Tomorrow Concert on June 5 at the Sharon Lynn Wilson Center.

Thomas would like to dedicate this performance to his parents and grandparents who have supported him in his musical endeavors for the past 14 years; whether it be financial, driving, or just attending a performance, his family has always supported his music!

2013 Philharmonia Concerto Competition Winner

Mercedes Cullen has been studying the violin since the age of four when she began her study with Kathy Kalfas. She now studies with Pamela Simmons. Music has long been important in her life. She enjoys improvisation and fiddling, and recently won the fiddle contest at Milwaukee’s Indian Summer. This is her fifth year in MYSO, and she is currently a member of Philharmonia. She has participated in MYSO's Chamber Ensemble Program and this year she performed in the Bach Players chamber group.  Outside of music, Mercedes enjoys soccer, volleyball, training her dog, horseback riding and working with horses, showing dairy cows at State Fair, swimming at her grandma's lake in northern Wisconsin and learning other instruments, such as the piano and guitar. She would like to thank her teachers for their instructive, patient teaching over the last ten years.

2013 Sinfonia Concerto Competition Winner

Sarah May is a seventh grader at Peace Lutheran Academy in Sussex. She started Suzuki violin lessons when she was three years old with Mary Ellen Meyer and continued on with Lindsay Erickson. For the last six years she has studied with Pamela Simmons. Sarah has enjoyed singing in the Milwaukee Children’s Choir and in the musicals “The King and I” and “Seussical the Musical.” She now sings in the Academy Choir and plays in the string ensemble at her church. Before joining MYSO, she played with the Waukesha Area Youth Orchestra directed by Tim Cobb. Two years ago, she was also a winner in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Bach Double Competition and in MYSO’s String Orchestra Concerto Competition. When she’s not making music, she enjoys cooking and all sorts of hand crafts from crocheting to drawing. She would like to thank Mrs. Simmons for her patient, enthusiastic teaching and dedicates her performance to her.

2013 String Orchestra Concerto Competition Winners

Séamus La-Inju Dallman, age 10, has been studying violin with Katherine Brooks at the String Academy of Wisconsin (SAW) since age 4 and is a fifth grade student at the University School of Milwaukee (USM). He is a winner of the 2013 Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Bach Double Competition.  Séamus serves as a Concertmaster of the MYSO String Orchestra North led by Anne Marie Peterson and is a John Downey Creation Project Fellow. Under the tutelage of Daniel Maske, Séamus is composing his first orchestral score, entitled Hermes’ Flight, which includes parts for violin, viola, cello and bass.  Séamus has been a member of SAW’s Paganini violin ensemble led by David Anderson and USM’s Middle School Orchestra led by Ligia Vascan. Séamus also studies piano with Steve Ayers at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. This spring, Séamus will perform the role of the Fiddler in USM’s performance of Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Adam Moreno. He enjoys tennis, skiing, sailing, swimming and wilderness camping with his younger brother Henry. Séamus is deeply thankful to his teachers, family, and friends for supporting his love of music.

Abigail Hanna, 10, is a fourth-grader at Tippecanoe School for the Arts And Humanities in Bay View. She has been on the honor roll several times with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Bilingual, she speaks fluent English and Spanish. She started playing cello last year in the Progressions Program, and currently plays with String Orchestra Central. She has been selected to play for several master classes, and also is part of MYSO’s Chamber Ensemble Program. She is honored to have Ms. Ravenna Helson as her private mentor and instructor and thanks her for all the countless lessons she has given her. If she is not found playing the cello, she is on stage performing on First Stage. She made her debut last season in A Wrinkle in Time and this year she performed in Mole Hill Stories. She recently was cast as Rizzo in the musical Grease. Besides cello, Abigail plays the piano which she started at age five. She has performed in countless piano recitals and won a 4th of July Talent Show. Recently this school year she started playing the flute which she has found a love for the magical sound it produces. Abigail also tap dances every week at Young Dance Academy in Oak Creek and also enjoys ice skating, swimming, gymnastics, baton twirling and reading. Abby loves school and has very high expectations for herself.

Bassist Jacob McKee, 14, is an eighth grader at Frank Lloyd Wright Intermediate School in West Allis.

Bradley Nowacek is a sixth grader at Wauwatosa Montessori, where he especially enjoys math and writing.  He studies cello with Mr. Scott Cook at the String Academy of Wisconsin, and also enjoys playing soccer.  Bradley especially wants to thank his dad for all his support.

2013 Flute Chorale Concerto Competition Winner

Neville Nazareth is a sixth grader at Maple Dale School in Fox Point. He has been studying the flute for two years with Ms. Lauren Sperry. Neville also plays the piano, viola, and piccolo, and has been given the opportunity of playing in both band and orchestra at school. He has participated in the UWM Honors Band. Neville has perfect pitch, and is enjoying his first year at MYSO. He enjoys playing duets with his brother using a combination of instruments. His favorite subjects at school are math, science, and Spanish and is also active in Forensics. In his free time, Neville loves to compose poetry, read, travel, and do woodworking and origami.

Helpful reminders for audiences

Written by Michelle Hoffman | 07 February 2013

The idea of a live instrumental concert is to enjoy the music, not worry about a set of guidelines. However, the only way to fully enjoy the music is to listen; and, therefore, many of the hints below will focus on enjoying the concert quietly. The audience is an essential part of a concert, along with the composer, the music, the conductor and the musicians. Just as the musicians must do their part to make the performance a success, so must you! With our Winter Concerts approaching--the first this weekend--we have compiled some hints just for you.

• Try not to talk to your neighbors during a performance.
• Try not to rustle your program noisily while the music is playing. Also, searching for something in a plastic shopping bag is very noisy and is strictly prohibited. (Believe us, it happens!)
• Unwrap your cough drops before the performance. The candy with a silent wrapper has yet to be invented, and listening to someone trying to open a wrapper stealthily is excruciating.
• Please turn OFF your cellular phone, beeper, pager, alarm watch and any other electronic devices that may make noise during the concert. Even phones on "silent" or "vibrate" mode emit a signal that could be picked up by and audible through nearby sound equipment. Also, no texting, please! Luminous LED screens are very annoying to other audience members!
• If your young child becomes restless or noisy, out of courtesy for the other audience members--and so as not to risk spoiling the recording of the concert--please take him or her out of the hall immediately. Also, the audience is free to stand up and stretch during breaks between orchestras; use this opportunity to allow your youngsters to be themselves. MYSO concerts are performed by young people, but because of the advanced music performed and the length of the concerts, they may not be appropriate for very young audience members. Please keep this in mind when planning who will join you at the concerts.
• It is strongly recommended that you stay seated during a concert. When people get up during performances it is a visual distraction to performers and also a distraction to fellow audience members. If you or a child must leave the hall for a reason other than the above, please do so during breaks in the music, or better yet, during applause.

• Fill in all seats by moving to the middle of rows.
• Use coatrooms and coat check areas as a way to save on space in seating areas. Those bulky winter coats can take up a lot of space in a concert hall!

• Camera flash is prohibited at all times, especially during the music.
• Please be aware of others around you; be courteous to your neighbors. Your camera or videorecording device may be blocking someone else's view of the stage. Please set up tripods in the BACK of the hall.
• Camera sounds should be silenced during performances. It may sound far-fetched, but shutter "clicks" have been picked up on MYSO concert audio recordings. Also, your camera's "beeps" could be distracting to performers or your neighbors in the audience.

• Allow plenty of time to park, find the correct location and get tickets if needed. (To avoid the often long lines at the ticket booth, we would highly recommend purchasing your tickets in advance, which generally means you'll get them at a discount too!)
• Enter the concert hall quietly and in an orderly fashion.
• Know that box offices (especially those which are run by the performance facilities) generally close one half hour after the concert's starting time. If you plan to arrive late to a concert because your child is performing later or if you know you must be late for some other reason, you may be left without tickets! Plan to get your tickets in advance--or better yet, come for the whole concert!
• If you are arriving late, please enter only during breaks in the music. Waiting until a piece ends is ideal; during the applause is even better.
• Stay for the entire concert. More than one group is performing on each of our Winter Concerts, and each deserves an audience and your courteous attention. Having younger MYSO students hear more advanced groups is a wonderful educational experience. Blocks of seats will be reserved in the concert halls for students so they can be seated and hear the remainder of the concert.


• applauding when the concertmaster enters
• applauding when the conductor enters
• applauding after a piece is over. To avoid applauding at an inappropriate time in the music, wait for the conductor to acknowledge the audience before applauding. Sometimes this seems like a long time, but the conductor may be waiting for the sound to fade away. Enjoy the final notes of the piece with him or her by waiting to applaud until he or she turns around.
• You may "participate" only when the conductor or master of ceremonies asks you to (e.g., clapping to the beat); however...
• ...it is probably not a good idea to hoot, boo, whistle, or stamp feet in the concert hall.
• We strongly encourage WILD applause and shouts of bravo at the end of a piece (remembering, though, not between movements of multi-movement works)!


Thank you! We hope remembering these tips will ensure EVERYONE'S enjoyment of these concert events and help make the concert experience for all our participating MYSO students the best it can be!

MYSO welcomes Aaron Apaza to its full-time administrative staff!

Written by Michelle Hoffman | 28 January 2013

MYSO is delighted to announce that Aaron Apaza has joined the MYSO administrative staff as Executive Assistant. Aaron will be coordinating and training MYSO’s many volunteers as well as assisting the administrative staff and the committees of MYSO’s Board of Directors. Some of you may know Aaron already as he has been an instructor, coach and judge for MYSO.

Before joining the staff of MYSO, Aaron served as Acting Assistant Principal bassoon with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for the 2011-12 season. He developed a love of music early in life, spending two years at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan studying with Barrick Stees, Assistant Principal bassoon of the Cleveland Orchestra. In 2001, Aaron was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and as part of that honor, played a movement of the Gordon Jacob bassoon concerto at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. After Interlochen, Aaron moved to Philadelphia to attend the Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of Bernard Garfield, retired Principal bassoon of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He then continued his studies at Yale University's School of Music where he received instruction from Frank Morelli, bassoon soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Upon the completion of his studies at Yale, Aaron was invited to join the New World Symphony in Miami, where he played under music director Michael Tilson Thomas. In 2010, he joined the Colorado Symphony as Acting Assistant Principal bassoon for the 2010-2011 season. In addition, Aaron has played with the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Delaware Symphony, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, among others.

Aaron has an interesting set of experiences which make him uniquely qualified to join us in this new role. He has administrative experience at both the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale University, where he supported the Deputy Dean, human resources and benefits coordinator and development department. He also has served as a binding technician for the Curtis Institute and has experience in billing and bookkeeping. 

When he's not working at MYSO or playing the bassoon, Aaron enjoys cooking, discovering local restaurants, and watching British period costume dramas.

We are thrilled that he has decided to join our team at MYSO and look forward to the skills and experience he will bring to our organization.

MYSO honors Ron Melby

Written by Michelle Hoffman | 24 January 2013

At MYSO's annual gala Founders Concert on January 20, we paid tribute to those who shaped and formed the MYSO organization in its early days without whose vision MYSO--now in its 57^th season--would not exist. One of those early and very influential educators--Mr. Ron Melby--is still working with our young people today. With Carter Simmons, Mr. Melby is the Music Director of MYSO’s Philharmonia, and has recently announced his retirement from MYSO after nearly 48 years as a MYSO conductor. We were delighted that Mr. Melby and his family--including daughter Lynn Trinkl, also a MYSO conductor, and grandson Nathan, a member of MYSO's String Orchestra--could be at this concert in which MYSO staff--and the Senior Symphony--celebrated him and his years of service to generations of young musicians. We will be honoring Mr. Melby at additional concert presentations this spring.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1963, Mr. Melby was immediately hired by the West Allis School District as an orchestra director in the district’s K-8 schools. One year later, at age 25, Mr. Melby was recruited by MYSO’s (then Music For Youth or “MFY”) founder Milton Weber to conduct the organization’s third orchestra (the precursor to today’s Sinfonia) then known as “Orchestra III,” or the “Training Orchestra,” which Mr. Melby describes as “an absolutely beautiful chamber orchestra.” In the 1985-86 season, he began conducting Orchestra II, now known as MYSO’s Philharmonia. Soon after beginning his career in West Allis, Mr. Melby became the orchestra director at Nathan Hale High School where he taught until his retirement in 1995.                                                            

Known as an extremely hardworking yet supportive taskmaster during the early years, Mr. Melby rattled off the names of dozens of MYSO alumni describing them as, “each so special in their own unique ways; I’ve seen so many of them grow so fast both as musicians and as people.” One such alumna is MYSO’s new Executive Director Linda Edelstein: “I had the honor of working with Mr. Melby while at Nathan Hale High School and in MFY. His dedication to excellence, coupled with his devotion to his students, make him a wonderful teacher and mentor. I fondly recall the many rehearsals he led of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. It was his passion for education that instilled in me my life-long commitment to a career in music. I was beyond delighted to join MYSO and find Mr. Melby still teaching and mentoring the students today in the same selfless way he always has done. Thank you, Mr. Melby, for all you have taught to me and the thousands of students before and after me!”

Above: Music for Youth Training Orchestra, Ronald Melby Director, 1967-68 season

Mr. Melby’s deep commitment to educating young people is exemplified by his devotion and dedication to teaching. “My first major interaction with Ron Melby was in late summer, 1988, shortly after I started working at MYSO,” says Fran Richman, MYSO Executive Director from 1988-2012. “We were holding auditions, and Ron’s audition room quickly became horrendously behind schedule. I was concerned that there might be a major parent uprising over the long waits. But as soon as I discovered that the issue was that Mr. Melby was simply doing what he always does—teaching!—and that each student was getting not just an audition but also a full-scale lesson in the ways to improve upon everything, it was very easy to say to parents, ‘Just pretend it’s your son or daughter in there. Surely you’d want your child to reap the benefit of those wonderful years of experience, right?’ After that, no complaints!”

“Ron Melby has been vital to the success of the MYSO program,” says Carter Simmons. “He has always demanded high musical standards and brings to the podium a thorough knowledge of how to teach each instrument. He has shaped the very important role of MYSO’s second symphony orchestra and its importance to the organization and has played a pivotal role in Philharmonia’s success. He has been helpful to the entire MYSO staff, and so supportive to me as a conductor and as a friend.”

When asked to discuss his favorite moments of his career, Mr. Melby cites performances like Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Greensleeves Fantasy and performing with then “Orchestra III” at the State Orchestra Convention in Oshkosh. Mr. Melby said with a laugh, “I worked that group of kids really hard, maybe a little too hard.”

In typical Mr. Melby fashion, when asked to talk about himself and his own accomplishments as a music educator, his response was to praise everyone else he has worked with through MFY and MYSO including Milton Weber, Bernie Stepner, Margery Deutsch, Fran Richman and Carter Simmons.

A result of his great love of nature and “roughing it,” one of his favorite parts of his role as a MFY and MYSO Orchestra Director was seventeen years of planning, conducting and teaching at MFY’s Summer Camp at Camp Indian Sands at Tuttle Lake in Northern Wisconsin. With guest artists, orchestra rehearsals, sectionals and chamber music experiences, “the MFY staff “kept the kids busy and playing sun up to sun down.”

MYSO owes a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. Melby for 48 years of shaping the lives of literally thousands—generations—of musicians and for his tireless efforts and boundless enthusiasm for youth and music.

Above: Playathon 2010—for the first time, three generations of one family perform on a single MYSO concert. Mr. Melby, his daughter Lynn Trinkl, also a MYSO conductor and Lynn’s son Nathan, a member of MYSO’s String Orchestra.

Above: Mr. Melby teaching at MFY Camp in the late 80s.