For the eight aspiring orchestral musicians who’ve been selected by the jury, Monday’s final round is an opportunity to show off their skills and compete for a top prize of $7,000.

Earlier this week, 30 musicians between the ages of 16 and 24 auditioned for a jury consisting primarily of NAC Orchestra musicians. Behind closed doors backstage at the NAC, this jury heard the music students perform challenging excerpts from orchestral repertoire, as well as solo repertoire such as concertos or sonatas, and then selected the eight who made the strongest impression. These eight promising young performers are now polishing their repertoire, and on Monday, May 7th, they will compete before the jury and a live audience in the NAC Studio at 3:00pm. This is a free, non-ticketed event, open to members of the public.

The eight finalists for 2012 are:

• Riccardo Nazario del Castello, trombone
• Lara Deutsch, flute
• Aidan Dugan, oboe
• Nicholas Galuban, clarinet
• Darren Hicks, bassoon
• Antoine Malette-Chénier, harp
• Graham McVeety, flute
• Christian Paquette, flute

The top prize, the NAC Orchestra Bursary, is $7,000, but the runners-up won’t walk away with nothing. Also up for grabs are the Harold Crabtree Foundation Award of $5,000, the Friends of the NAC Orchestra Award of $3,000, the NAC Orchestra Vic Pomer Award of $2,000, and the Piccolo Prix of $1,000. Beginning this year, the NAC Orchestra Special Prize for excerpts has been raised from $750 to $1,000. Competitors who do not receive an award may receive one of three Honourable Mentions, which comes with a cheque for $225.

For more information about the competition, please visit nac-cna.ca/en/education/training/bursarycompetition.