What does it take to win the Ron W. Ianni Memorial Scholarship in Music Performance competition?

First, you must earn the top mark in your instrument category in the December juries to qualify. And second, you will need to have technical mastery of the repertoire you’re performing and be comfortable playing in front of an audience.

All the students who performed in this competition Friday played with confidence and authority. At the conclusion, adjudicators Nicholas Papador and Bruce J.G. Kotowich selected violinist Alice Zacharias as the winner.

Zacharias is a third-year Bachelor of Music student with a minor in history. For this competition she played the first movement of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto Op.14, accompanied by pianist Lorna Cameron-Price. Her violin instructor Lillian Scheirich is also the concert master of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra.

Zacharias started playing the violin when she was four years old and studied under Irene Tandberg while in high school. She also played in ensembles at the Young Artists Pre College Academy and Forest City School for Talent Education in London.

“I was exposed to a lot of chamber music,” says Zacharias. “My experience playing in chamber groups through middle and high school gave me lots. Learning how to perform for an audience and playing through whatever happens live is a skill I started to develop because of chamber music.”

She says she practises late at night or first thing in the morning.

“I start with scales and practise with a metronome,” Zacahrias says. “I like to listen to a performance of a piece I’m learning. It’s a process of trial and error.”

Now, she says she’s learning to express emotion through music.

“Often, I’ll sing along with playing as I’m learning to internalize the music. The piece must become a part of you.”

Zacharias admits it was a bit nerve-racking to be the first performer taking the stage in the Ianni competition.

Besides Zacharias, competitors included:

• Joshua Dunkley, classical voice
• Yu-Jin Kwon, classical piano
• Madeline Abanid, jazz voice
• Dreya Whited, jazz clarinet
• Joseph Maceroni, percussion
• Calvin Sulja, jazz bass

The scholarship is open to full-time students enrolled in a music program and was established by Mina Grossman-Ianni and the School of Music in 2005.

Watch an excerpt of Zacharias’s performance: