Five University of North Georgia (UNG) students placed in the 2024 annual Concerto/Aria Competition in UNG's Department of Music with solo performances awarded to two competitors.

The top five places went to CJ Yeager (euphonium), Lucymarie Dalton (euphonium), Jennifer Mandzyuk (soprano), Atira Murawski (trombone), and Rob Amoss (trombone).

Yeager will have a solo performance with the UNG Wind Ensemble this spring as a result of his first-place standing. He is a freshman from Dallas, Georgia, who is pursuing a degree in music education, with aspirations of working with high school students while continuing to perform.

"This experience is valuable in a few ways. It's great soloistic experience as well as great practice in preparing for huge auditions, which is an important life skill regardless," he said. "Having performances like these also help to open other future career avenues, such as if I wanted to pursue a solo career or career in performance. Everyone gave incredible performances and great demonstrations of the talent, skill and sheer hard work shared by the students in our department."

Dalton hails from Commerce, Georgia, and is also a freshman studying music education.

"I went into the concerto competition prepared for anything. While other competitors in the tuba/euphonium studio here at UNG had had several semesters of private instruction with Dr. Adam Frey, I was just finishing my first," she said. "I'd hoped to place from the start, but I certainly didn't expect to — especially not second place. I would have been happy no matter how the scores turned out. It would be a positive learning experience regardless."

Mandzyuk, a Cumming, Georgia, resident, was the only vocalist to make the top six spots. She, too, is pursuing a degree in music education. Mandzyuk is a junior and sings soprano. She will perform with Sinfonietta in the spring.

Murawski is a senior from Oakwood, Georgia, pursuing a degree in music education. Amoss is a senior from Gainesville, Georgia pursuing a degree in musical arts.

The Concerto/Aria Competition was created by Dr. Esther Morgan-Ellis in 2018 and has been held annually since its inception under her direction. The event was judged by external judges.

"It creates an opportunity for one or more of the very strongest performers to appear as a soloist with one of the major ensembles," Morgan-Ellis, a professor of music, said. "It was really a collaboration between me and Dr. Ashley Jarrell, associate professor of music and director of bands. The promise to students who compete is that they will get to perform either with the band (Wind Ensemble) or the orchestra (Sinfonietta), depending on what is appropriate for the piece that they want to play."

Previous winners have all been low brass players and have all come from the band division.

"Our low brass faculty have been really enthusiastic about this competition, and they always encourage their students to participate. They also are strong studios that recruit really good students," Morgan-Ellis said.

Morgan-Ellis encourages students to participate for the experience.

"It's good for anybody to participate because you get the experience of performing on stage in a reasonably high-pressure situation and, if you want to get better at performing, you have to do it more frequently," she said. "If you put yourself in those kinds of situations, the better you will get at handling them and performing well."