Third year DMA flutist Alyssa Schwartz, student of WVU's Professor Nina Assimakopoulos, has won first prize in the 2017 Golden Classical Music Awards International Music Competition and second prize in the 2017 Concert Artists International Virtuoso Competition. Taking top places in both of these prestigious competitions will result in Schwartz giving her debut performance at Carnegie Hall on Nov. 4 when she will perform the famously virtuosic "Carnival of Venice" by Giulio Briccialdi, and her return performance on Nov. 7, when she will perform "Il Pastore Sviezzero" by Pietro Morlacchi.
These awards follow her recent debut this past July at the Wiener Saal Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria as a result of winning first prize in the 2017 Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competition, where she performed a work entitled "Asphyxia" by Nicole Chamberlain, which she had given its world premiere in 2016 as a result of winning First Prize in that year's Oklahoma Flute Society Collegiate Competition.
Schwartz is also a founding member of BETA Quartet, a professional chamber ensemble made up of WVU graduate students and alumna. The ensemble participated as a semi-finalist in the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, won first prize in the 2017 Kentucky Flute Society Quartet Competition, and won first prize in the 2016 WV MTNA Chamber Winds Competition. BETA also released their debut album in September and will be hosting a release party and giving a performance on October 29.
For more information visit Alyssa Schwartz's website.