Dallas Symphony Orchestra announces 2023 Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition winners

Jack Roueche, 16, takes First Prize
performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1

Twenty-Second Annual Competition for Young Performers on
Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass and Piano Held Sunday, April 2, 2023

DALLAS, TX (April 4, 2023)—The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) announces the winners of the twenty-second annual Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition, which took place on Sunday, April 2, 2023, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. Jack Roueche, 16, from Dallas, Texas, took home first prize and an award of $5,000 with his performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Roueche will perform the work with the Dallas Symphony as part of the annual Teen Concert on June 9, 2023.

Jack Roueche, 16, was born in Houston, Texas, but has called Dallas home for the past ten years. Jack began taking piano lessons at the age of five and then studied with Stephen Nielson for several years beginning in 2017. In late 2022, he commenced his studies with Dr. Alex McDonald and Mrs. Marcy McDonald in Plano. Over the past several years, Jack has placed at the Dallas Piano Solo Competition and the Concerto Division of the Dallas Symphonic Festival. Most recently, Jack won first place in the Concerto I division at the 2023 Baylor/Waco Piano Competition. Jack is currently a sophomore at The School for Talented and Gifted in Dallas. Jack enjoys spending time with family, friends and his three rescue dogs. He also loves to travel and is looking forward to his first European adventure this summer.

Second Prize and $3,500 was awarded to Stephen Chang from Southlake, Texas. Chang played Bartok’s Viola Concerto. Stephen Chang is an eleventh-grade homeschooler. He studies with Ronald Houston and is an assistant principal in the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra. Some of his other musical activities include listening to Korean music, playing the piano, composing music, and teaching violin. Outside of music, Stephen enjoys competing in speech and debate, speedcubing, and eating good food.

Third Prize and $2,000 was awarded to Matthew Averyt, 18. Averyt played Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Matthew Averyt is a freshman studying with Dr. Amir Eldan at the University of Michigan, where he serves as co-principal cellist of the University Philharmonia Orchestra. He began studying Suzuki cello at age 11 with Ryan Murphy, section cellist of the Phoenix Symphony. Matthew has participated four years in TMEA All-State Orchestras and seven years in All-Region Orchestras. He served as the principal cellist of the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio (YOSA) Philharmonic for four years. In the summer of 2018, he toured Spain and the Canary Islands with the YOSA Philharmonic. Matthew won the 2019/2020 YOSA Concerto Competition and is scheduled to solo with the San Antonio Philharmonic in April 2023. In fall 2020, he was named a finalist in the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition. He received the SMH Undergraduate Performing Arts award in May 2020 and the Leonard Bernstein Musicianship award in May 2021. In spring 2022, he won third prize in the Junior Tuesday Musical Club Competition. Matthew has made appearances at the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) Summer Music Institute, Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), Center Stage Strings at the University of Michigan, and the Hunter International Music Festival, working with cellists including Catherine Lehr Ramos, Rachel Young, Mark Kosower, Dr. Horacio Contreras, Leo Singer, and Christine Lamprea. Matthew has performed in master classes for Marilyn de Oliveira, Kenneth Freudigman, Christine Lamprea, Andrei Ionita, Bion Tsang, Astrid Schween, Ani Aznavoorian, and David Finckel. Matthew has also played piano since age five.

Honorable Mention and $500 was awarded to Matthew Scott, 15, from Lewisville, Texas. Scott played Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Matthew Scottis a student of Gabriel Sanchez. He began formal piano training at age four and has developed his skills through master classes with Vladimir Viardo, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Joyce Yang, Anton Nel, Baruch Meir, Phoenix Park- Kim, Alexandre Moutouzkine, Pascal Nemirovski, Asaf Zohar, Jose Ramon Mendez, Igor Resnianski, and other distinguished pianists. He has received awards in solo piano competitions, including First Prize, 2018 Steinway Junior Piano Competition; Grand Prize, 2019 Carmel Klavier International Piano Competition; Second Place, 2020 Vernell Gregg Concerto Competition; Second Place, 2021 Chopin Avenue; First Place, 2021 Dallas Piano Solo; Silver Medal, 2021 Seattle Bach Festival; Grand Prize, 2022 Piano League International; 2021 and 2022 Piano Texas International Festival & Academy, Concerto Competition winner; Second Prize, 2022 Weatherford College International Piano Competition; Gold Medal, 2022 Seattle International Piano Competition; Third Prize, 2023 Juanita Miller Concerto Competition. Matthew made his orchestral debut with the Fort Worth Symphony in June 2021, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. He received the honor of performing Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Las Colinas Symphony in June 2022. Matthew is a member of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, GDYO Wind Symphony, Chamber Music International Youth Ambassadors, and enjoys collaborating with chamber music groups and jazz musicians. He is a student of the Worship Academy at his church and develops music sets with the worship team. In his free time as a homeschooled student, he shares piano music at memory care and assisted living centers across Texas. He hopes to someday use his talents professionally to help memory care patients by restoring musical memories. Matthew also likes learning new languages, Python coding, mixed martial arts training (first degree black belt), exploring the outdoors, studying geography, and completing all varieties of puzzles.

Finalists Vincent Garcia-Hettinger, Hannah Jeong, Steven Lu and Ben Peckham were awarded $250.

Finalists at the Dallas Symphony’s 2023 Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition were selected through recorded submissions that were screened by a committee of DSO musicians. The winners were determined by a panel of judges that included Emmanuelle Boisvert, Associate Concertmaster (Robert E. & Jean Ann Titus Family Chair); Jeffrey Hood, Cello (Greg & Kim Hext Chair); Gabriel Sanchez, Keyboard (Classical) (Jeanne R. Johnson Chair).

Established in 2001 by Harrell, the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition is open to students ages 8-18 who live or go to school in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico or Louisiana. The purpose of the competition is to identify and encourage the highest level of musical talent in the South Central United States. Past winners have gone on to study music at such prominent institutions as the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges Rita Sue & Alan Gold and Itske & Anthony Stern for their endowed gifts in support of the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition.

Further support for the 2023 Lynn Harrell Competition was provided by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra League, Rebecca Vanyo, Roberta Corbett and Tom Corbett (in memoriam).

ABOUT THE DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of Music Director Fabio Luisi, presents more than 150 orchestra concerts at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, one of the world’s top-rated concert halls. As the largest performing arts organization in the Southwest, the DSO is committed to inspiring the broadest possible audience with distinctive classical programs, inventive pops concerts and innovative multi-media presentations. As part of its commitment to the community, the orchestra reaches more than 243,000 adults and children annually through performances, educational programs and community outreach initiatives. The orchestra offers more than 200 outdoor chamber concerts in neighborhoods throughout Dallas each year, as well as continuing online music lessons to more than 700 students as part of its Young Strings and Young Musicians programs.

The Dallas Symphony has used digital and broadcast media to share music beyond its geographic boundaries and has become a leader among American orchestras in digital distribution. In 2021, the DSO presented a three-concert broadcast series with Bloomberg Media, reaching over 5 million viewers globally. In October 2021, PBS stations across the country began airing One Symphony, Two Orchestras, a program that documented the historic May 2021performance of Mahler’s First Symphony, a Luisi-led collaboration between the DSO and musicians from The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in. That program was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in May 2022. The DSO also captures and streams concert performances for distribution online through its Next Stage Digital Concert Series, Presented by PNC
Bank. Programs are available on the DSO’s website at watch.dallassymphony.org.

The DSO has a tradition dating back to 1900 and is a cornerstone of the unique, 118-acre Arts District in Downtown Dallas that is home to multiple performing arts venues, museums and parks – the largest district of its kind in the nation. The DSO is supported, in part, by funds from the Office of Arts & Culture, City of Dallas.

Media Contact:

Denise McGovern, d.mcgovern@dalsym.com, 214.871.4024