Virtuosi Concerts’ Young Artist Program exists to promote young classical musicians in Manitoba.

Sadly, due to the COVID pandemic, our planned 2020-2021 nine-concert series had to be drastically pared down to just four performances this season.

Four young Manitoba classical music students were selected to open Virtuosi’s In Camera Sessions online concerts. We thank all auditionees for their patience as we worked to transition our series online and for submitting remarkable audition videos within a very tight deadline. We hope to present many more of you as we transition back to “normalcy” in the coming year.

Audition judge, Anna Scheider, commented on listening to the audition videos saying:

“Congratulations to everyone who submitted a video, especially under these unique circumstances! Every single one of you was considered as a serious candidate and I thoroughly enjoyed watching each of your performances. The decision-making process for competitions and auditions is so subjective, and I find it helpful to remember that one person's opinion means very little in the overall span of your career. Even though competitions are set up to award someone over another person, there really are no "winners" in music. The only true victory is sharing your art with someone, and all of you have accomplished that. Well done and I hope you all continue to put beautiful music into the world!”

The Winners of the 2020-2021 Virtuosi Concerts Young Artist Program Auditions are:

Seanne Buenafe, piano
River Sawchyn, violin
Fan-En Chiang, piano
Anna Schwartz, piano

Virtuosi Concerts’ 2020-21 virtual online season was made possible by the “Safe at Home Manitoba” program.

If you would like more information on the Young Artist Program, please contact:
Andrew S. Thomson, Executive Director at vcigeneralmanager@gmail.com.