The James Yannatos Concerto Competition, named in honor of HRO’s Music Director Emeritus, is held annually to select a soloist to perform a concerto with the orchestra in one of its concerts. The competition is only open to members of HRO, however, musicians outside of HRO who play non-orchestral instruments (piano, saxophone, guitar, etc.) are also welcome and encouraged to apply.
The winner of the James Yannatos Concerto Competition will play with HRO within one of the concerts of HRO’s current season, in Sanders Theatre.
All candidates must be prepared to play the entire concerto of their choosing. Judges may ask candidates to play any portion of their selected concerto.
Any piece for soloist and orchestra is permitted, although HRO reserves the right to disqualify any concerto for logistical reasons (e.g. length of the piece or instrumentation).
The application for the 2024-25 season is now closed.
Audition times are difficult to reschedule. If you are absolutely unable to make your audition time, please reach out to the HRO as soon as possible to work out a solution.
Warm-up rooms will be available 1+ hours before each audition (or 30 minutes for the 9:00am audition).
All pianists will use the same piano. For all candidates, an accompanist is advisable but not required; each candidate is responsible for arranging their own accompanist for their audition if desired. Music must be memorized, and each soloist is required to provide three scores of their concerto for the judges.
Please contact hro@hrorchestra.org with any questions or concerns about the concerto competition.
Past Winners
2024-2025: Calvin Alexander, violin
2023-2024: Joshua Cai, viola & Paloma So, violin
2022-2023: Lucas Amory, piano
2021-2022: Kevin Miura, violin
2020-2021: Cancelled due to COVID
2019-2020: Cancelled due to COVID
2018-2019: Alex Zhou, violin
2017-2018: Brian Zhao, cello
2016-2017: Audrey Chen, cello
2015-2016: Jacob Tilton, saxophone
