Northwest to host second annual Sonatina-Sonata Festival for young students

Northwest Missouri State University’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts is hosting its second annual Sonatina-Sonata Festival, giving pre-college students an opportunity to perform on a university campus, receive feedback from music faculty and potentially win awards and scholarships.

The festival includes an Honors Recital at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in the Charles Johnson Theater at the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building. The recital, which is free and open to the public, will feature piano repertoire performed by select students in grades four through 12.

Students interested in performing can audition by video submission, which will be reviewed by Northwest music faculty and recital judges Dr. Anthony Olson and Dr. Jiwon Choi.

Students must submit their audition video by Monday, Jan. 1. Click here for more information about auditions.

Dr. Slawomir Dobrzański

The recital performances will provide students with the opportunity to receive performance awards and cash prizes. Additionally, high school juniors and seniors can compete for Northwest piano scholarships.

Guest pianist Dr. Slawomir Dobrzański, a professor of piano at Kansas State University, will select award winners and perform an evening recital at the festival.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Dobrzański has performed in more than 20 countries in Asia, Europe, North America and South America. He has released several critically acclaimed world-premiere recordings of piano music by Maria Szymanowska, Antoni Kątski, Wiktor Łabuński, Károly Aggházy and Feliks Roderyk Łabuński. He also is an author of the first biography of Maria Szymanowska in the English language, published by the Polish Music Center at the University of Southern California. Originally from Wrocław, Poland, Dobrzański is a graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland, and the University of Connecticut.

The registration period for the Sonatina-Sonata Festival arrives after Northwest’s Bach Family Festival, which used a similar format in September while encouraging piano students to study and perform works by J.S. Bach. Northwest plans to continue the annual events to give piano students opportunities to perform in an environment that is different from state and regional competitions.

For more information about the festival or audition requirements, contact Olson at aolson@nwmissouri.edu.