Larry Garrett Youth Symphony Concerto Competition
The annual Larry Garrett Concerto Competition takes place in January each year and is open to musicians participating in the Youth Symphony. Five professional musicians serve as the jury. The winner will receive a cash prize of $500 and will perform with the Youth Symphony at one of the two season concerts. Family and friends are welcome to hear the contestants share their musicianship. (Prior winners may not participate to give others this yearly opportunity.)
Larry Garrett served as conductor of the Salem Youth Symphony for 20 years and is the orchestra director at North Salem High School. Before moving to Salem in 1997, Mr. Garrett taught band/orchestra at the secondary level in Lubbock, Texas, for sixteen years. Under his direction, the Hutchinson Junior High Symphony Orchestra was selected as Texas’ top junior high orchestra in 1984, 1986, and 1988 by the Texas Music Educators Association.
As a French hornist, Mr. Garrett performed in the El Paso and Lubbock Symphony Orchestras and served as the brass coach for the Lubbock Youth Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Garrett and his wife, Jennifer, have two children, Benjamin and Barry, both Salem Youth Symphony alumni.
The tradition of an annual concerto competition began in the first seasons of the Salem Junior Symphony. In April, 1956, cellist John Gibbens and pianist Ron Potts performed the first concertos with the (then) Salem Junior Symphony. A variety of instruments are represented by the concerto winners in those first four decades. Larry Garrett supervised this annual concerto competition open to Youth Symphony members from 1998-2017.
In 2018, Lynn Nelson, Salem Junior Symphony 1960-1964, and wife Gail graciously sponsored the newly-named competition honoring Larry Garrett’s 20 seasons as conductor of the Youth Symphony. Since then, the Larry Garrett Concerto Competition has been under the direction of Musical Director, Jon Harris-Clippinger.
2024 Youth Symphony Concerto Competition Performance Application form
YOUTH SYMPHONY CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNERS
Competition Winners during Larry Garrett’s 20 Seasons
1998 Toshihiro Kosak, trumpet
1999 Nelly Kovalev, violin
2000 Duet: Barry Garrett, clarinet and Jesus Cruz, flute
2001 Megan West, oboe; Tatiana Miller, violin
2002 Andy Vo, piano
2003 Melissa Thayer, viola
2004 Trevor Robinson, bass; Travis Nutsch, cello
2005 Bryce Schmidt, trumpet
2006 Joey Howe, cello
2007 Sean O’Neal, violin
2008 Patricia Cardona, flute
2009 Emily Potter, flute
2010 Andrew Ponec, cello
2011 Zachary Gulaboff-Davis, piano
2012 Sierra Schmeltzer, flute
2013 Sarah Kim, violin
2014 Hyrum Kohler, viola; Christian Miller, piano
2015 Erik Hammerquist, cello
2016 Marah Christenson, flute; Damon Zavala, viola
2017 Duet: Ishaan Sethi and Samuel Hayes, clarinet
Competition Winners under the direction of Jon Harris-Clippinger
2018 Israel Perez, flute
2019 Ned Harlan, trombone
2020 Teddy Zhang, bassoon (read more)
2021 Caden Harris-Clippinger (cello) & Matthew Zheng (violin) (read more)
2022 Sam Bertholf, piano (read more)
2023 Katie Anderson, piano (read more)
2024 Nicholas Peterson-Hunt, trumpet (read more)