Congratulations to Yao Shun
$10,000 Winner of the
2023 Matthew Ruggiero International Woodwind Competition for CLARINET

Yao Shun was born in August 2000. In September 2018, he was admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music with excellent results. He has been studying clarinet under Professor Yuan Yuan, a famous clarinet player, educator and doctoral supervisor of the Central Conservatory of Music. Yao Shun won the first place in the junior clarinet group of the second South China Wind Solo Invitational Competition. In August 2013, he participated in the second "China Wind Cup" national primary and secondary school students' Wind solo performance, won the first prize of clarinet major (Junior Middle School Group) gold medal, and won the Chinese music "Small Golden Bell" award. In 2016, I participated in the summer camp of "Morningside Music Bridge" and performed with the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Zhongshan Concert Hall as a soloist led by Chen Lin, Director of the Conducting Department of the Central Conservatory of Music. In 2017, won the first place in the professional youth group of the National Youth Clarinet Playing Competition; In 2019, he participated in the first Buffet Cup (China) Youth Clarinet Competition and became the youngest player to enter the final of the professional youth group and finally won the Future Award. In 2021, he was recommended for a master's degree in Central Conservatory of Music and won third place in the Professional youth group of the second Buffet Cup (China) Youth Clarinet Competition in the same year. In July of the same year, he performed as chief clarinet of the China Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music in the dedication concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party. Under the baton of Professor Shen Hao, conductor of the China Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music, he successfully performed Mahler's Symphony No. 7 and Resphigi’s Pines of Rome. In April 2023, he performed Bruch Clarinet and Viola Concerto as a soloist in the Symphony Orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music under the baton of Yang Li, professor of the Conducting Department of the Central Conservatory of Music. In July of the same year, he won second place in the professional youth group of the third Buffet Cup (China) Youth Clarinet Competition. In October 2023, he was invited to participate in the 5th Central Conservatory of Music 10.15 Art Festival, "Ancient Echoes" Silk Road Youth Excellent Works concert as a clarinet and bass clarinet player.

Yao Shun has also performed as a soloist in Zhongshan Music Hall, Opera Concert Hall of Central Conservatory of Music and Xinghai Concert Hall many times. During his university years, he was invited by China Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing Contemporary Orchestra, Beijing New Music Symphony Orchestra, and others.

During his studies, Yao has attended masterclasses by Pierre Genisson, Ronald Van Spaendonck, Janet Hilton, Julien Chabod, Osvaldo Lacerda, and Principal of the French National Symphony Orchestra Patrick Messina, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Principal Yao-guang Zhai, Taipei Symphony Orchestra Principal Weileng Chen, Milan Rericha, Massimo Mazzone, and others.

---

APPLY HERE NOW for the
2023 Matthew Ruggiero International Woodwind Competition
for CLARINET

Sponsored by the Boston Woodwind Society,
through a gift of the Henderson Foundation

COMPETITION RULES & DETAILS

• APPLY HERE NOW. Limited to the first 100 received with paid registration fee. You can, and should apply now, and upload your first-round video later to make sure you reserve your spot.


• Eligibility: Clarinetists born after Junbe 30, 1988.
  
  
• Non-refundable Application Fee: USD$100.
  
  
• First Video Upload (no audio-only applications will be accepted) and application are due by June 30, 2023 at 11:59 pm ET. No late applications will be accepted. (Applicants are strongly advised to upload video materials at least several days prior to each deadline.)
  
  
• Repertoire (All accompanied works including the Weber Concerto must be performed with piano accompaniment.)
  • First Round:
    • Brahms Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2
    • Debussy Première Rhapsodie
    • Upload video by June 30, 2023 at 11:59 pm ET
    • Results of the First Round will be announced on or soon after July 21, 2023.
      
      
  • Semifinal Round:
    • Muczynski Time Pieces, Op. 43
      (available for purchase here)
      
    • Tiberiu Olah Sonata for Clarinet Solo
      (available for purchase here)
      
    • Upload video by September 30, 2023 at 11:59 pm ET
    • Results of the Semifinal Round will be announced on or soon after October 15, 2023.
      
      
  • Final Round:
    • Weber Concerto No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 74
    • Upload by December 7, 2023 at 11:59 pm ET
    • Results of the Final Round will be announced on or soon after December 21, 2023.
      
      
• Video Recording Uploading Procedure and Requirements
  • Please read carefully the Uploading Procedure and Video Requirements
  • By applying, you consent that your video recordings may be used and disseminated online, all or in part, at the sole discretion of Boston Woodwind Society for its marketing purposes with no fees or royalties due to you. You retain all other rights and responsibilities associated with your video recordings.
    
    

NOTE: Boston Woodwind Society may not be held responsible for applicant's inability to enter and submit required online application or to upload high-quality video recordings as required.

 

---

Congratulations to Asha Kline
$10,000 Winner of the
2022 Matthew Ruggiero International Woodwind Competition for BASSOON

Asha Kline, from Ellicott City, Maryland, is in her third year of undergraduate studies at the Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of Daniel Matsukawa. She began her musical studies on the clarinet at age nine and discovered her real passion, the bassoon, a year later in 2013. An avid orchestral musician, Kline was a Tanglewood Music Center fellow in the summer of 2022. She has also participated in other orchestrally focused festivals such as the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland (2022), Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra (2020, 2021), and Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute (2018, 2019). In 2022, she was appointed assistant principal of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and will begin playing with them in January. Kline has appeared as soloist with orchestra as a two-time winner of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra’s concerto competition (2020, 2018) and the Columbia Orchestra Young Artist Competition (2017). In January 2023, she will compete as one of ten semifinalists of the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition in Tucson, AZ. Kline has performed in masterclasses with esteemed bassoonists including Sophie Dervaux, Carlo Colombo, Richard Svoboda, Benjamin Kamins, William Short, and Judith LeClair. Previous teachers include Fei Xie, Harrison Miller, Schuyler Jackson, and Monica Schwartz. When not practicing or making reeds, she can be found obsessing over a jigsaw puzzle

---

2022 Matthew Ruggiero International Woodwind Competition
for BASSOON

Sponsored by the Boston Woodwind Society,
through a gift of the Henderson Foundation

COMPETITION RULES & DETAILS

• APPLY HERE NOW. Limited to the first 100 received with paid registration fee.


• Eligibility: Bassoonists born after May 31, 1987.
  
  
• Non-refundable Application Fee: USD$100.
  
  
• First Video Upload (no audio applications accepted) is due by May 31, 2022 at 11:59 pm ET. No late applications will be accepted. (Applicants are strongly advised to upload video materials at least several days prior to each deadline.)
  
  
• Results of the First Round will be announced on or soon after June 23, 2022.
  
  
• Repertoire
  • First Round:
    • Weber Concerto in F Major, Op. 75 (complete; any edition; play with piano)
    • Upload video by May 31, 2022 at 11:59 pm ET
      
      
  • Semifinal Round:
    • Amanda Harberg Sonata for Bassoon and Piano (complete)
      • Contact the composer directly at amanda.harberg@gmail.com to obtain the sheet music.)
      • The composer agrees to supply the music to competitors privately with the agreement and understanding that you will not publicly perform or post the piece until after September 1, 2022.
      • A pre-recorded piano accompaniment that you may use for practice purposes or in your video is available here: 1st movement, 2nd movement, 3rd movement.
      • The world premiere performance is available HERE.
        
    • Upload video by September 15, 2022 at 11:59 pm ET
    • Approximately 3 to 10 people may be chosen to move to Final round. The actual number chosen will be based on the final decision of judges.
      
      
  • Final Round:
    • John Williams Concerto "The Five Sacred Trees" (complete; Hal Leonard; must play with piano)
    • Upload by December 15, 2022 at 11:59 pm ET
      
      
• Video Recording Uploading Procedure and Requirements
  • Please read carefully the Uploading Procedure and Video Requirements
  • By applying, you consent that your video recordings may be used and disseminated online, all or in part, at the sole discretion of Boston Woodwind Society for its marketing purposes with no fees or royalties due to you. You retain all other rights and responsibilities associated with your video recordings.
    
    

NOTE: Boston Woodwind Society may not be held responsible for applicant's inability to enter and submit required online application or to upload high-quality video recordings as required.

---

Congratulations to Katherine Weintraub
winner of the
2019 Matthew Ruggiero International Woodwind Competition for SAXOPHONE

Dr. Katherine Weintraub (a native of Sarasota, Florida) is a decorated performer and passionate educator. Known for her sensitive musicianship, Dr. Weintraub champions the standard repertoire of the saxophone, in addition to contemporary music and creative transcriptions of borrowed works. She has been praised by composer, Libby Larson for her “technical brilliance” and her “uncanny ability to communicate the music directly to the heart of the listener”. Dr. Weintraub is currently a private studio instructor and freelance performer residing in Tampa, Florida. She serves as the Adjunct Professor of Saxophone at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida and Warner University in Lake Wales, Florida, as well as an instructor at several public schools in the Tampa Bay Area. Dr. Weintraub has given guest artist recitals and masterclasses at universities nationwide including the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of Miami, and others. She has also commissioned and premiered several new works for the saxophone, two of which she premiered in the summer of 2018 at the World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb, Croatia. From 2016-2018, Dr. Weintraub served as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Saxophone at Florida State University. As a soloist, she has been featured with the Florida State University Wind Orchestra, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, and the Flint Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Weintraub received her Doctorate of Musical Arts (with Performer’s Certificate) from the Eastman School of Music (where she studied with Dr. Chien-Kwan Lin), and her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music from the University of Michigan (where she studied with Donald Sinta). While a graduate student, she was the winner of international competitions such as the 2014 International Saxophone Symposium and Competition, and the 2013 International William C. Byrd Young Artist Competition. Dr. Weintraub is a Selmer performing artist and performs exclusively on Selmer-Paris saxophones.

---

Congratulations to Stuart Breczinski
winner of the
2018 Matthew Ruggiero International Woodwind Competition for OBOE

Stuart Breczinski is a New York-based oboist, improviser, composer, and educator whose early interest in making unusual sounds on the oboe has developed into a passion for creating and sharing innovative audio with audiences of all backgrounds. A proponent of chamber and contemporary music, Breczinski is a member of the City of Tomorrow, a woodwind quintet dedicated to the promotion and performance of contemporary works, and of Ensemble Mélange, a virtuosic sextet whose repertoire spans a myriad of genres. He performs regularly as a chamber musician with NOVUS NY, the Talea Ensemble, and Contemporaneous, and he has also performed with Bang on a Can, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, and Signal. He received an honorable mention at the 2015 IDRS Gillet-Fox International Competition, and from 2012-2014 he was the oboist with Ensemble ACJW (now Ensemble Connect), a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.

---

Congratulations to Ivan Javier Valbuena Paez
winner of the
2017 Matthew Ruggiero International Woodwind Competition for CLARINET

View Ivan's final round video HERE.

Ivan was born in Bogotá and began his studies at the age of 8 years in Batuta Foundation and the Wind Band System of Cundinamarca, Colombia. He has performed solo recitals in Colombia and the United States, including the auditorium Olavs Roots of the National University, Oriol Rangel Hall, Luis Angel Arango Concert Hall, Leon de Greiff Auditorium, Cristobal Colon Auditorium, Teresa Cuervo of National Museum, Pickman Hall at Cambridge, MA, Hall of Americas in Washington D.C., and Jessen Auditorium at UT Austin, TX. He has performed in masterclasses with many renowned professors such as Hector Pinzon, Robert De Gennaro, Berrod Philippe, Timothy Perry, Jonathan Cohler, Michael Webster, Jorge Montilla, Jonathan Gunn, Stephen Williamson, Joaquin Valdepeñas, Ixi Cheng, among others. Ivan is the winner of the 2014 Harold Wright Memorial Clarinet Merit Award competition of the Boston Woodwind Society; the 2013 Concerto Competition and 2014 Honors Competition of the Longy School of Music of Bard College; first prize of the Soloist Competition of the Orchestra Collegium Music at the National University of Colombia; the Young Artists series at the Bibliotheca Luis Angel Arango; first prize of the Young Performers Competition of Bogotá Philharmonic (invited to perform as soloist); the Competition “Clarinetistas Bogotanos” 2010; and second prize of the National Music Performance Competition in Bogotá. He is currently clarinetist of the YOA Orchestra of the Americas since 2010, and he a member of the music training program YOA Global Leaders, performing and teaching in Panamá, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and Chicago. Ivan earned his Bachelor degree at the Conservatory of Music of the National University of Colombia, then studied clarinet performance with Jonathan Cohler - clarinet at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and received his Masters of Music from the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA with Jorge Montilla. He is currently pursuing a DMA at The University of Texas at Austin and is a Clarinet Assistant Instructor there as well.

 

---

Congratulations to Katarzyna Zdybel-Nam
winner of the
2016 Matthew Ruggiero International Woodwind Competition for BASSOON