Davis High student wins concerto competition, chance to play at Mondavi

By Anna Sturla,
HUB Editor-in-Chief

Jacqueline Liu didn’t think she would win.

“I signed up for fun, originally,” Liu, a soft-spoken Davis High junior, said. “I just wanted to play it to see how well I could do.”

As she wrote her name on a sign-up sheet for the Davis High Concerto Competition, Liu hoped to win chance to play the piano solo in a concerto by Rachmaninoff.

The Davis High Concerto Competition, which occurred Jan. 9 at the Brunelle Theatre on the Davis High campus, placed Davis High students in front of music professors from UC Davis to compete for the coveted solo, to be performed by the Davis High Symphony Orchestra at the Wennberg Concert.

Liu had little reason to be nervous, however. She is the piano concert master—the equivalent of first chair—for the Davis High Baroque Ensemble.

Still, she only focuses on how she performed in the concerto competition, remembering little of the audience’s reaction after she finished performing.

“I know there’s a lot I still have to work on, but I felt I had given the best performance that I could possibly do,” Liu said.

Liu won a small monetary prize, but she is more excited for the chance to play the concerto, a personal favorite, “with a full symphony” behind her.

Liu will perform with the Davis High Symphony Orchestra at the 2013 Wennberg Music Festival on Saturday, March 23rd, at 3:00 p.m. at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts on the UC Davis campus. Tickets will become available in February at the Mondavi “box office, online or by calling: 866-754-2787” according to the Davis Schools Orchestral Music Association website.