Music students excel in video competition of N.C. Music Teachers Association

Nine students and two alumni of the School of Music at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) won awards in the recent video competition of the North Carolina Music Teachers Association (NCMTA). Musicians competed in the Senior Division for those 15-18 years of age and the Young Artist Division for those 19-26.

“Competitions like the NCMTA offer a valuable benchmarking opportunity for our student-artists,” said Interim Dean of Music Saxton Rose. “We congratulate all of the students who were successful and our faculty-artists who have mentored them.”

Musicians from UNCSA who won their state competitions will advance to the video competition of the 10-state Southern Division of the Music Teachers National Association. They include:

• Elijah Barclift, horn, in the Senior Brass competition. He is a high school sophomore from Greensboro who studies with Maria Serkin;
• Norris Blackburn in the Senior Piano competition. He is a high school junior from Winston-Salem who studies with Dmitri Shteinberg;

• Roni Shitrit, violin, in the Senior Strings competition. She is a second-year undergraduate from Israel who studies with Ida Bieler;
• Monet Jowers, horn, in the Young Artist Brass competition. From Kernersville, she is a 2020 high school graduate who studied with Serkin. Jowers is currently a Kenan Music Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill; and
• Owen Dodds, who earned a Bachelor of Music in 2018 and a high school diploma in 2014 as a student of Clifton Matthews and Shteinberg. From Winston-Salem, he has a master’s degree from Boston University and is pursuing an Artist Diploma at Mannes College of Music at The New School in New York City.

Other students who were recognized at the state competition include:

• Heather Blake, alternate in Senior Strings. A high school senior from Floyd, Virginia, she studies with Bieler;
• Cellist Sydney Urmston, honorable mention in Senior Strings. A high school senior from Mebane, she studies with Brooks Whitehouse;
• Morgan Hunkele, alternate in Young Artist Piano. A 2017 UNCSA high school graduate from Concord, she is a fourth-year undergraduate who studies with Shteinberg;
• Violinist Raphael Papo, alternate in Young Artist Strings. A third-year undergraduate from England, he studies with Bieler; and
• Violinists Marta Djovoric and Julian Smart, both students of Bieler, honorable mentions in Young Artist Strings. From Austria, Djovoric is a third-year undergraduate. Smart, from Banner Elk, is a fourth-year undergraduate who earned a high school diploma from UNCSA in 2015.

The North Carolina Music Teachers Association is an affiliate of the Music Teachers National Association.

Contact Media Relations

Get the best news, performance and alumni stories from UNCSA.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTERS