After the final note was played for the judges, one winner emerged from the field of 16 young musicians to claim La Sierra University’s $3,500 Marcia Specht-Guy prize.
Violinist Pablo Sanchez, a second-year Performer’s Certificate student from Mexico won this year’s annual concerto competition by playing sections of Johannes Brahms’ “Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77.” He started learning the richly arduous and varied piece last summer, chosen in part because it is a favorite of his father’s. The elder Sanchez teaches history and piano and plays double bass in the orchestra at the Seventh-day Adventist University of Montemorelos in Nuevo León, Mexico.
On Saturday, April 27, Pablo will perform the full Brahms work, a nearly 40-minute piece, with the La Sierra University Orchestra as the featured artist for the 61st Annual Choral and Concerto Concert. The program will be held at 8:15 p.m. at the La Sierra University Church and will include the university chorale, chamber singers and Loma Linda University Church Sanctuary Choir under Ariel Quintana, the university orchestra directed by Dean Anderson, and guest conductor Miguel Campos Neto.
To win the concerto, Sanchez faced stiff competition from 15 other talented musicians. It was the largest group of concerto contest participants in recent years. The contenders played portions of their selected concertos on their respective instruments for a panel of three professional musicians – Ana Maria Maldonado, principal cellist with the San Bernardino Symphony, Mike Zonshine, former principal trumpet with the Honolulu Symphony, and Alpin Hong, international concert solo pianist.
The judges rated the students on tone, stage presence, intonation, rhythmic clarity, on unique and tasteful musical interpretations, and on their ability to memorize the music accurately.
Sanchez now aims for acceptance into a major symphony orchestra, a goal he is on his way to achieving. He has won fellowships to the prestigious Aspen Music Festival and Rocky Ridge Summer Festival, studied with leading classical artists, won awards and competition placements, and served as concertmaster for university and festival orchestras. This year he landed a position as a substitute violinist with the New World Symphony Orchestra co-founded by eminent conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.
Sanchez was raised in Mexico by his father, Pedro Sanchez, and his violinist mother, Ma Elena Sanchez who also teaches and performs music at the University of Montemorelos. His two older sisters play piano and cello. Despite the nearly 1,500-mile separation, he continues to draw from the strength of his parents and siblings and those who have known him from the beginning.
“My greatest influences have always been both my family and parents with their example and support,” he says, “also the community where I grew up.”
Sanchez earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 2015 from Andrews University in Michigan, also an Adventist school. While there he studied with Carla Trynchuk and studied one summer in California with Lyndon Taylor, a former La Sierra violin instructor and current Los Angeles Philharmonic principal second violinist. At the behest of Taylor, Sanchez next enrolled in the Performer’s Certificate program at La Sierra under the tutelage of Director of String Studies Jason Uyeyama who also performs with the LA Phil, Camerata Pacifica and other major groups.
The performer’s certificate program focuses exclusively on preparation for employment as a chamber, orchestral or solo musician. The schedule allows Sanchez additional time to better his skills and prepare for auditions which increases his earning potential. “A lot of people should know about my teacher and the program,” he said. “This program is very helpful to figuring out what you’re doing and what you want to do. And while you’re doing it, you’re getting very good at the instrument.”
Tickets for the Choral and Concerto Concert are $5 students, $10 seniors, and $15 general admission. For further information call 951-785-2036 or email music@lasierra.edu. The La Sierra University Church is located a 4937 Sierra Vista Ave, Riverside.