Students from the University of North Georgia competed at the South East Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference this month, with one student placing in a solo competition and a quartet advancing to the final round of a chamber ensemble competition.
Sophomore music education major CJ Yeager placed second in the Student Euphonium Solo Competition, earning a $100 prize.
“It was my first experience really doing a euphonium competition like this, so I was very happy to be able to compete,” Yeager said.
For the preliminary round, he performed movements one, four and five of the unaccompanied etude “Proverbs” by Lynn Blake John for a private panel of judges.
In the final round, he performed “Etude No. 1” from Kevin Day’s 5 Advanced Studies for Euphonium, Volume 1 and “Golden Hour” by Kate Nishimura for a public audience, using a piano accompanist provided by the conference.
“The scariest part was with your pianist, you only get a 15-minute rehearsal, then you have to do the performance,” Yeager said. “It was very gratifying, but definitely a crazy experience for sure. No matter how much you prepare, it still kind of shocks you that…‘Oh my gosh, I’m here at the conference, and I compete tomorrow.”
Yeager placed second behind Sullivan Tucker, a freshman music education major from the University of Kentucky, who received a $250 cash prize. Kris Stottlemire, a junior music major from Florida State University, placed third.
“It definitely made me realize that first place was within reach,” Yeager said.
Adam Frey, UNG professor and director of instrumental studies, tutors Yeager on euphonium.
“It’s really gratifying when the students work hard and then their hard work is recognized with success,” Frey said. “That’s certainly what happened in this case for CJ.”
Frey also serves as an advisor to the Woofer Quartet, a volunteer tuba and euphonium ensemble, alongside UNG Lecturer Michael Brown.
The quartet, which includes Yeager, sophomore music major Briar Dalton, junior music major Cooper Sandefur and senior music major Peter Pontes, advanced to the final round of the Chamber Music Competition at the conference.
Although the ensemble did not place in the final round, Frey said the achievement is notable, given the size of UNG’s music program compared with many of the competing schools.
“It’s really impressive for a boutique program like UNG to have that much success when they’re competing against graduate programs and music programs that are three, four, eight times as big as ours,” he said.
Pontes, a tuba player in the quartet, hopes the group’s success will help show off the talent within the low brass department at UNG, something he says is often overlooked.
“Being able to take this ensemble to the conference and make it to the final round, I hope has planted a seed in the music department’s head that these students are talented, hard-working and have the potential to be competitive with a lot of these big schools,” Pontes said.
