Concert features Bigfork's Seth Ahnert
The Kalispell Area Music Teachers Association presents its 13th annual Scholarship Alumni Concert Dec. 27 at 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church in Kalispell.
The concert features Bigfork’s Seth Ahnert.
The annual event is a fundraiser for the association’s scholarship fund and features previous music scholarship winners. This year’s concert is dedicated to the memory of Monty Carter, a popular Flathead Valley pianist who was a scholarship recipient in 1987.
For the past 26 years, the association has awarded 255 scholarships totalling $108,000 to college music majors and minors and to high school and grade school students for summer camps. This year’s recipient/performers include Katie Martin, soprano; Amos Chon, cello; and Seth Ahnert, piano.
Jazz pianist Seth Ahnert lives near Seattle, where he teaches percussion and jazz piano at Northwest University and maintains his own private teaching studio. A graduate of Bigfork High School, Ahnert began his musical journey studying classical piano. In 2003 he earned top honors at a piano competition in Billings, with solo performances of Rachmaninoff and Ginastera. His introduction to jazz came later as a drummer and percussionist. He has performed in a variety of jazz groups including the Opus One big band and Don Lawrence Orchestra as well as the Bigfork Summer Playhouse pit orchestra and the Glacier Symphony.
Katie Martin resides in Los Angeles where she is working toward a doctorate in vocal performance at the University of Southern California. A graduate of Flathead High School, Martin earned her bachelor of music in vocal performance with high honors from the University of Montana. Martin has received the encouragement award at the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions and was also a finalist in the 2007 National MTNA competition in Toronto.
She will be performing “Vignettes: Letters from George to Evelyn” (from the private papers of a WWII bride) by Alan Smith and will also collaborate with Chon and Ahnert in works by Lee Hoiby and Gustav Holst.
Born to Korean parents, Amos Chon began playing the cello at age six. He has attended and performed in several master classes and summer music camps. He was invited to tour with the Montana State University Cello Ensemble to China as a soloist in 2005.
In May of 2011, he went on tour to Poland with Southern Adventist University Symphony Orchestra and was invited to play the Rococo Variations as a soloist in four concerts.
Chon will be performing “Arioso” by Bach, part of an unaccompanied Bach cello suite, as well as “Passacaglia” by Handel with his sister Jessica Chon on the violin.
Tickets for the concert are $15 for adults, $8 for students or $35 for a family and are available for purchase at the door or from association teachers.