THE ARTHUR FRASER COMPETITION
The Symphony League has long been active in the development of talented young musicians. The collaboration of the Symphony League and The University of South Carolina School of Music through the annual Southeastern Piano Festival reinforces and increases opportunities for talented musicians. The first place winner of the Southeastern Piano Festival is referred to as the "Southeastern Piano Festival and Arthur Fraser International Concerto Competition Winner."
2010 saw two winners sharing first place -- Naomi Causby and Micah McLaurin. Both of them happen to be from South Carolina! One or both of them performs with the South Carolina Philharmonic on Saturday, April 30, 2011. The concert also features the Youth Orchestra, which will play one piece. Since there was a tie for first place, there was not a second-place competitor chosen. The third place winner is rising eighth grader, Nicholas Biniaz-Harris. He appears with the Philharmonic at a date to be announced. The Symphony League sponsors the performance of the first-prize winners.
FIRST PLACE
Micah McLaurin, son of David and Karen McLaurin, is a home-schooled 9th grader from Charleston, SC. He was the second prize winner of the 2008 IIYM International Piano Competition and has performed with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and the Youth Orchestra of the Low Country (YOLOW). He has appeared in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and was the youngest ever to perform in the International Piano Series at the College of Charleston. He has also performed in Music Fest Perugia, in Perugia and Spoleto, Italy. A former student of Marsha Gerber, he currently studies with Enrique Graf at the Charleston Academy of Music.
Naomi Causby, daughter of Tom and Suzie Causby, is a tenth-grader at Irmo High School in Columbia, SC. In addition to her award in Music Club Scholarship Auditions, she has participated successfully in MTNA Junior, SCMTA District and State, SC Federation of Music Clubs, and Columbia Music Teachers Scholarship Auditions, and has appeared three times on SCETV. She has attended the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, studying under Ani Gogova and Ruthanne Schempf, and the Southeastern Piano Festival, receiving an honorable mention in the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition. Recently, she was a finalist in The Blount-Slawson Young Artists Competition, received third prize in the Burgos International Competition (Spain), and performed with the Greenville Young Artist Orchestra. She currently studies with Marina Lomazov and Joseph Rackers.
THIRD PLACE
Nicolas Biniaz Harris, son of Susan Biniaz and Robert Harris, is an eighth-grader at Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C. He has received first prize honors in the Levine School of Music's Cogen Concerto Competition and Marlin-Engel Solo Competition. He has played several times in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater as a winner of the American Fine Arts Festival. He has performed on the Waterford Concert Series and at several concerts of the Rock Creek Chamber Players. He studies with Irena Orlov at the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C.