YOUTH AWARDED SCHOLARSHIP AND PERFORMANCE AWARDS

The recent performances of the Friday Musicale Chorus and winners of the Four Year College Competition were a blend of several generations of Friday Musicale performers. The program is the annual benefit for the support of the College Scholarship Fund for high school seniors from Greater Jacksonville who plan to be music majors in college. The Chorus, directed by Cathy Murphy Giddens, consists of a generational gathering of members who sang, with a wide range of vocal gems from English Folk Songs to Gershwin.

Seth Bowser, pianist and 2005 College Competition winner opened the student section of the program. He recently received a B.A degree in Music in three years instead of four and was the student of Mary Lou Wesley Kronsick and William Schirmer at Jacksonville University. He will continue on to graduate school. Other active competition winners, Micah Clark, cellist, a sophomore at Wheaton College and John Henry Kreuer, violinist, a freshman at the Eastman School of Music, could not perform due to conflicts with their college schedules.

Scholarship auditions were held for graduating seniors, the organization's newest generation of musicians, on April 26th. John Urban, pianist, a senior at Trinity Christian Academy and a student of Vicki Stake, was the winner out of seven contestants. He plans to attend Moody Bible Institute. Also awarded a four year scholarship was Rebecca Boone, who was the winner in the premier of the Friday Musicale Competition for Voice. She is a senior at Douglas Anderson School for the Arts, studies with Jeff Clayton, and will attend Hillsong International College.

The Murchison Lane Musical Arts Center, located on May Street to the rear of the Oak Street building, a gift from Mrs. Helen Lane last year, was used for auditions for vocalists. The room of the Victorian mansion rang with the operatic arias and gems from the classical repertoire while the instrumentalists performed on the concert grand or with cello, trumpet and French horn in the main auditorium.

At the competition, Performance Awards are given to students selected by the judges for outstanding performance. The winners received a cash prize but do not play at the benefit concert.

This year the Performance Awards were presented to Keith Griffis, French horn, a student of Kevin Reid, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra principal horn player. He has been accepted at Florida State University. Katherine Polk, soprano, who has studied with Rebecca Holbrook-Loar and with J. Mark Scott at Douglas Anderson. She will attend Stetson University. Both Performance Award winners are seniors at Fleming Island High School.

The College Scholarship Competition is administered by the Friday Musicale Philanthropic Committee, composed of the organization's past presidents. Competition winners receive a tuition grant for four years provided they remain music majors and maintain a 3.0 average.

The month of May marked the close of Friday Musicale's 118th concert series of musical offerings that were enjoyed by several thousand of Jacksonville's classical music lovers.

A TREASURE OF CLASSICAL CDS AVAILABLE FOR SALE

     For the benefit of the Philanthropic Committee of Friday Musicale, a large collection of classical CDs has been contributed.  These will be offered for sale at $10.00 each.  They are all in excellent condition.  Included are solo and orchestral recordings, vocal  and instrumental soloists and chorus ensembles. Please call the Friday Musicale Office at 355-7584 for further information.