Beethoven – Egmont Overture
Beethoven – Piano Concerto #1 1st movement
Vanessa Yu, soloist (2023 prize-winner)
Bruch – Violin Concerto #1, 3rd movement
Sora Sato-Mound, soloist (2022 prize-winner)
Haydn – Symphony #104 “London”
Named one of CBC Music's top 30 emerging musicians under 30, Toronto-based pianist Vanessa Yu is establishing herself as a sensitive and vibrant musician. As the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Pacific Rim International Music Festival, she was invited to perform at Carnegie’s Weill Hall in New York City.
Vanessa has presented solo and chamber programs for series including the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra’s New Generation Artist Celebration, Confluence Concerts, and Thursdays at Noon at the University of Toronto. Most recently, Vanessa gave solo recitals for the International Holland Music Sessions in the Netherlands and the Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation in Canada. Other performances have taken her to Italy, Germany, the United States, and across Canada to venues including the Pyatt Hall of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall in Calgary.
Garnering awards in Canada and beyond, Vanessa has received top prizes at the Chicago, Città di San Donà di Piave, Elevato, and Aegio international competitions, as well as the Steinway, CMC national, and OMFA provincial competitions. Recently, she was the youngest contestant and prizewinner at both the 2023 Ann & Charles Eisemann International Young Artists Competition and the 2022 Thousand Islands International Piano Competition.
Sora studies the violin in the studio of Professor Atis Bankas at the Phil and Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists on a full scholarship. Most recently, he won the second place as well as the Best Interpretation of Belgian Composers Prize at the Kocian International Violin Competition in the Czech Republic, in May 2023.
Sora has been an awardee of: the Gold Medal at the Vienna International Music Competition in 2023; the Russian Composer’s Award at the Unionville Music Competition in December 2022; the second prize in ENKOR International Violin Competition in the Summer of 2022; the second prize at the Oakville Chamber Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition in May 2022, and a winner of the Taylor Academy Concerto Competition; a winner of the Unionville Music Competition Concerto Category. He performed as a soloist with a Glen Gould School Chamber Orchestra, led by Professor Bankas on April 5, 2022, Canadian Sinfonietta in March 2020, and Gould Strings Quartette annually. Sora performed in master classes and concerts at Music Niagara Festival, 2023.
Sora is a passionate young composer: his arrangement of Myroslav Skoryk’s Hutsul Triptych for Symphony Orchestra for three violins was premiered in Niagara On The Lake to a critical acclaim, himself as a first violinist of a violin trio. Sora is scheduled to perform as a soloist with Oakville Chamber Orchestra on October 1, 2023. Sora appeared in an episode of the TVO program, Backyard Beats, CBC program, The Bestest Day Ever with My Best Friend, and he was featured in the inaugural episode of Not-So-Late-Show.
