THE 2025 WELLESLEY SYMPHONY MICHAEL H WELLES YOUNG SOLOIST COMPETITION
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Application Deadline is noon on Friday, October 17, 2025
Auditions will be held on SUNDAY, November 9, 2025, between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm at the Dana Hall School of Music, 103 Grove Street, Wellesley.
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The winner of the annual Wellesley Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition will receive a $500 honorarium and will perform a movement from the audition piece for the WSO concert, 2:00 pm Sunday, March 22, 2026, at MassBay Community College in Wellesley (location subject to change).
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Directions to Dana Hall School from 95/128: Grove Street is a left turn off Rt 16W (Washington St) just before the Wellesley Square shopping area. The Dana Hall School of Music building is a blue residential-appearing building with a front porch on the right-hand side of Grove Street.
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APPLY EARLY! This competition is usually filled before the application deadline. If your application is not acknowledged by email within a week, please contact Carol Davidson.
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PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE A LOCAL COMPETITION. The applicant must be a Massachusetts resident or studying with a teacher or attending school or taking part in a music program in the Boston area.
Complete this application and submit as instructed. There is no application fee. If you have questions, please contact Carol Davidson at carol.davidson@comcast.net.
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Competition rules:
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Contestants must be 18 or under and still in high school or younger in March 2026.
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All orchestral instruments including piano are eligible.
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The audition piece must be one movement of a standard concerto or single-movement work, with orchestral accompaniment; 10 minutes .
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Playing from memory is encouraged but not required.
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The Applicant’s music teacher must support this audition.
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Applicants are required to provide an accompanist. If not known at this time, please enter "TBD" for accompanist name. It is best to find an accompanist early on and submit your time constraints with your accompanist in mind—do so as early as possible. Finding an accompanist at the last minute can result in schedule issues that cannot be addressed then.
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Plan to arrive early enough to warm up. You will be given a practice room for this purpose.
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If you are unavoidably late on the day of the audition, call (508) 631-0548 - Carol Davidson's cell phone.
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2024 YOUNG SOLOIST COMPETITION WINNER - Maggie Bai
Maggie Bai, currently aged 13, is an 8th grader in Oak Hill Middle School. She started taking piano lessons at the age of four and is a pianist of extraordinary promise. She currently studies with Angel Ramon Rivera and Kanako Nishikawa. Maggie is enrolled at the New England Conservatory (NEC) and is a selected member of the Chamber Music Intensive Performance Seminar (CHIPS). She participates in piano seminars with Konstantinos Papadakis, and studies chamber music with Laura Blustein, Kee Kim, and Yandi Chen.
Maggie's musical achievements include First Prize in the 2021 Steinway Society Piano Competition, the 2022 International Young Artists Competition (NLPA), and the 2024 XV Chopin International Piano Competition. She has also won prizes at the 2023 Steinway Society Piano Competition, 2023 Concord Orchestra Young Artists Concerto Competition, and 2024 Brockton Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition. She has performed solo recitals at NEC Williams Hall and Concord Center
Maggie’s passion for music extends beyond concerts and competitions. She is an avid accompanist for the New World Opera Choir and often volunteers in service events with her talent in music. She founded “TuneInclusive”, a non-profit organization that aims to provide free
classical music concerts to marginalized student bodies. TuneInclusive has hosted 4 concerts so far with the Access to Arts Programs and Youth Leadership Forum at Partners for Youth with Disabilities, and the Special Needs Arts Program (SNAP).