Concert

Winners of the annual Northwestern State University Concerto Competition will be featured in a performance by the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra Monday, March 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall.
 
Dr. Douglas Bakenhus is music director of the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony. Tickets are $10. Northwestern State University, BPCC@NSU and Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts students are admitted free with a current student I.D.
 
The concert will showcase Ramon Edgardo Barralaga Ventura of San Pedro Sula, Honduras and Ronald Rodriguez of Cartagena, Colombia, on piano and Jonathan Andino of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on violin. Ventura and Rodriguez are students of Associate Professor of Piano Dr. Francis Yang. Andino is a student of Associate Professor of Violin/Viola Dr. Andrej Kurti.
 
The orchestra will perform “The Barber of Seville Overture” by Gioacchino Rossini; “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A Minor” by Edvard Greig featuring Ventura; “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F” by George Gershwin featuring Rodriguez; “Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso” by Camille Saint Saens featuring Andino with Kurti as guest conductor and “Symphony No. 2 in D major” by Jean Sibelius.
 
Andino began his music studies at age 13 at the Victoriano Lopez School of Music in San Pedro Sula starting with the violin as his main instrument. After graduating, he won his first competition organized by the German-Honduran society in San Predo Sula. First prize in the competition was a three-week trip to Duisburg, Germany for master classes at the Robert Schumann Conservatory and with other noted German music faculty. While a student at Northwestern State, Andino won the Rapides Symphony Concerto Competition and participated in the McCutcheon Honors Recital. He will perform with the Rapides Symphony on March 18.
 
            Barralaga began studying music when he was eight years old, playing the drums, piano and the guitar. At the age of 14 years old he began studies at the Victoriano Lopez School of Music in San Pedro Sula, one of the most prestigious music schools in Honduras and Central America. In 2014, Barralaga participated in the Masterworks Festival in Winona Lake, Indiana. He transferred to Northwestern State last year to major in music performance and education.
 
Rodriguez, a Cartagena, Colombia, native started playing piano at the age of eight and performs classical and jazz piano. At the age of 11, Rodriguez started playing with local jazz groups in Cartagena and was part of the Cartagena Caribe Big Band. Rodriguez is completing his bachelor's degree in music performance He was one of the winners of the Red River Radio Young Artists competition in 2015. He also has been selected to perform two years in a row at the McCutcheon's Honors Recital.