Northern Minnesota is home to a vibrant orchestral scene, where community ensembles not only bring world-class music to the region but also provide opportunities for young musicians to shine. Each year the Heartland Symphony Orchestra fosters musical talent through its annual competitions, which alternate between a composer competition and a youth concerto competition. This year’s focus was on young performers, and the winners will take the stage with the orchestra this weekend in Little Falls and Brainerd.
The college division winner is soprano singer and Bemidji State student Hailee Colgrove, and the youth winner is piano player Zayn Nimis-Ibrehim from Bemidji.
Heartland Symphony Orchestra Music Director and Conductor Ryan Webber told Area Voices on the KAXE Morning Show that the judges for the competition look for applicants' performance skills. This year they expanded the application pool to anyone north of St. Cloud in Minnesota and were blown away by the level of talent.
Colgrove performed music from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart and Nimis-Ibrehim performed the first movement of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. As competition winners, they will perform those pieces with the Heartland Symphony Orchestra this weekend.
For Colgrove, this marks her debut performing as a soloist with an orchestra, while for Nimis-Ibrehim it is the first time performing with a full orchestra beyond just strings.
“Obviously in any of these things that there's a lot of preparation that goes into it,” Nimis-Ibrehim said. “It definitely requires a lot of time learning it, but also just keeping it at a level that it can be performed at.”
“The most important part of any of these competitions is just practice, practice, practice," Colgrove added. "I was grateful that I already had a couple pieces ready to go.”
Both performers joined rehearsals with the Heartland Symphony Orchestra to prepare for their performances — on March 22 in Little Falls at the Charles D Martin Auditorium and March 23 in Brainerd at the Gichi-ziibi Center for the Arts.
Nimis-Ibrehim said it can be intimidating jumping into performing with a new group of people, but the orchestra has been very welcoming to him.
“It's not easy, but it's really rewarding,” Nimis-Ibrehim said. “And it's fun to have new people playing with you, hearing new sounds.”
Beginnings
Colgrove said music has been a part of her life since she can remember. She began performing in middle school and is now following her passions in college.
“I kind of just grew to fall in love with what I was doing and now I'm pursuing that,” Colgrove said.
Nimis-Ibrehim was also surrounded by music growing up. His uncle was a pianist, and his mother tried to get him to play as well. But it wasn’t until summer camp at the Concordia Language Villages that he experimented on the piano.
“This counselor there who did music, and he kind of helped me out, and I thought he was really cool,” Nimis-Ibrehim said. “It kind of inspired me to start.”
Additional music
Along with the pieces the two winning soloists will be playing, the Heartland Symphony Orchestra will feature a world premiere of Ian T. Jones piece Film Music for an Exit, inspired by Radiohead. They will also perform an arrangement of Florence Piece’s Adoration and Jean Sibelius’ Karelia Suite.
Like other Heartland Symphony Orchestra performances, this concert is free to attend. The Brainerd concert will also be streamed live on their website.
“We just encourage people to come out support this fine orchestra, but more importantly, support both of our amazing soloists," Webber said. "I think they're really going to be blown away by the talent they hear and see on the stage.”
Tell us about upcoming arts events where you live in Northern Minnesota by emailing psa@kaxe.org.
Area Voices is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
