After a year without live performances, the Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra will present its Young Artist Concert at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 15 at the Willmar Education & Arts Center.

Judges of the annual Young Artist competition have selected Rachel Lanning, from Willmar, and Greta Hulterstrum, from Litchfield, as the 2021 winners. The two musicians will each receive a scholarship and perform on stage with the orchestra.

The orchestra will open the program with “The Abduction from the Seraglio: Overture” by Mozart. The opera premiered in Vienna on July 16, 1782, when Mozart was 26 years old. He wrote in a letter to his father: “My opera was given yesterday with great applause for the third time.” In this piece, Mozart used instruments unusual for the time, including a piccolo and triangles.

To close the program, the orchestra will play Haydn’s Symphony No. 104, also known as the “London Symphony”. The work was composed in London where Hayden had lived, and it premiered on May 4, 1795, under Haydn’s direction. final symphony.

In 2020, the Young Artists Concert was canceled due to COVID-19. Safety and social distancing measures will be in place during the live performance on Saturday.

To ensure the musicians are spaced six feet apart, the size of the orchestra will be smaller and the concert will be played for a limited audience with reserved seating.

Tickets are free, but everyone must have a ticket, which is available at Whitney Music, 913 Highway 71 NE, Willmar. Those who want tickets by email should call 320-214-9433.

As a classically trained singer, Rachel Lanning said she was “delighted” to sing with the Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra.

Willmar High School student will perform the aria “Son Pietosa, Son Bonina” by Joseph Haydn.

“It’s the icing on the cake to sing with an orchestra,” said Lanning, who had a long and successful academic career in the arts. She recently played the main role in the musical “Anastasia”.

“I love acting,” she said.

Lanning, daughter of David and Margaret Lanning, studies vocal music with Cheryl Schmidt and is involved in a number of fine arts pursuits including drama, choir, violin and voice lessons, and speaking.

After graduating this spring, Lanning said she plans to attend Concordia College in Moorhead and major in teaching choral music with a minor in theater performance.

His ideal career would be to follow in the footsteps of his Willmar Senior High School choir director, Neal Haugen. Her goal is to be a choir director in high school or college and participate in the school’s theater program.

Lanning said being exposed to influential teachers with a passion for music and acting fueled her desire to provide the same experience to others.

While grateful for the scholarship, Lanning said the highlight of being named a young artist winner is having the opportunity to sing with an orchestra. “I’m thrilled,” she said.

Greta Hulterstrum, a junior from Litchfield High School, has been playing the flute since sixth grade. Although she “immediately fell in love with the flute,” it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most activities that she fell in love with the instrument.

With nothing else to do for the past year, Hulterstrum has spent up to six hours a day playing his flute.

“I’m grateful for the pandemic,” she said in a recent interview with the West Central Tribune. Having all this uninterrupted time to devote to music gave him the opportunity to take his skills to the next level.

If the pandemic hadn’t happened, Hulterstrum said, she “wouldn’t be the same player” and wouldn’t be considering a career as a professional musician.

Can she imagine life without a flute? “Not at all. That’s all I do when I get home from school,” she said.

Hulterstrum, the daughter of John and Katie Hulterstrum, is currently studying flute with Bethany Gonella, and previously studied with Yvonne Rammel. She was a member of the Minnesota Music Educators Association’s All-State Symphonic Band 2020/2021 and received the Best at Site award for solo and ensemble competition in 2019.

Hulterstrum said she was delighted to be selected as one of the winners of this year’s Young Artists Competition and is “very thrilled to have the opportunity” to perform with the Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra.

She will play Chaminade’s Concertino with the orchestra.

Hulterstrum said she hopes to return to performing with the Prairie Winds Concert Band in Willmar and will audition this summer for a position with the Minnesota Youth Symphony or the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony.

She hasn’t decided where she will go to college after graduating from high school next year, but said she plans to pursue a career as a performer and give private lessons .