• April 11, 2019

    USC freshman places first in flute competition

    Phoebe Chen Upper St. Clair High School freshman Phoebe Chen has been named the first-place winner of the Central Ohio Flute Association (COFA) Competition, Junior Division. She performed Henri Büsser: Prelude et Scherzo, Op. 35 and Georg Philipp Telemann: Fantasia No. 1 in A Major on April 6, 2019, at the Ohio State University School of Music.

    Phoebe plays flute and piccolo in the Upper St. Clair High School Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble, led by Mr. Don Pickell. She currently studies privately with Julie McGough.

    A member of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, Phoebe was selected for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 1 Honors Band and accepted into the 2019 Slippery Rock University Honors Flute Ensemble. She is also a performer at The Consummate Flutist held at Carnegie Mellon University and has performed in masterclasses with Alberto Almarza, Marianne Gedigian and Soo-Kyung Park.

    Phoebe was also selected to perform in the National Flute Association’s High School Flute Choir, a national competition for students in grades 9-12. She will perform at the 47th Annual NFA Convention on Aug. 4, 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The convention will include 17 competitions and honors Lifetime Achievement Award recipients Susan Milan and Emerson DeFord. For information regarding NFA annual convention, visit www.nfaonline.org.

    The COFA competition was held in conjunction with the association’s 36th annual festival, which also included a flute choir showcase concert, presentations, flute workshops, an exhibit hall, and a guest artist recital and masterclass with Aaron Goldman, the principal flute of the National Symphony Orchestra.

    For more information regarding COFA and its annual festival, competition and events, visit org.osu.edu/cofa/.