Winners Announced - 25th Annual Competition
1st Prize Winner, Harold Fang, with Competition Name Sponsor, Richard Record
The top two winners of the 25th annual Richard Record Rising Stars Concerto Competition have been named!
1st Prize - $2,250 Jan and Tom Brock Award
Harold Fang, 14 y.o., Maple Grove, MN
Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor, 1st mvmt.
2nd Prize - $1,500 Jane Saline Memorial Award
Jane Story, 18 y.o., Stevens Point, WI
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor, 1st mvmt.
3rd Prize - $1,000 Jay and Dawn Jaehnke Award
William Feng, 15 y.o., Plymouth, MN
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3, 1st mvmt.
$500 John Bolstad Honorable Mention
Cordelia Momo Fredrickson, 16 y.o., Madison, WI
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, 3rd mvmt.
$500 Bill Koutsky Honorable mention
Noah Greenstein-Sheppard, 17 y.o., Minneapolis, MN
Chopin Piano Concerto No. 3, 3rd mvmt.
$100 Friends of the Symphony Honorable Mention
Christian Garner, 16 y.o., Minnetonka, MN
Bohme Trumpet Concerto, 1st mvmt.
Harold Fang is a 14-year-old freshman at Wayzata High School in Plymouth, MN. He had lived in Wisconsin (Eau Claire) for six years before moving to Minnesota (Maple Grove) in 2016. He started learning piano at six and is currently a student at Rubinstein Music Academy under Dr. Denis Evstuhin, an award-winning, internationally acclaimed pianist. Harold won the Minnesota Golden Valley Orchestra Young Artist Competition in the spring of 2024 and made his first orchestral debut as a soloist.
In that summer, he became the 1st Prize winner in the Wisconsin Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition. And he played as a piano soloist under Maestro Nobuyoshi Yasuda in September 2024. His past accomplishments include being 1st Place in the Minnesota PianoFun Competition and a finalist in the Northwestern Piano Solo Festival in 2023.
In addition to his passion for piano, Harold enjoys many other activities such as scouting, history, math, baseball, cello, tennis, and cooking.
Richard Record Rising Stars Concerto Competition 2025 Sponsors
Richard Record, Jan and Tom Brock, Jane Saline Memorial, Jay and Dawn Jaehnke, John Bolstad, Bill Koutsky, and Anonymous Friends of the Symphony.
Violinist Jane Story, 18, is a high school senior from Stevens Point, Wisconsin. She began violin studies at age four and currently studies with Dr. Anna Cromwell of the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point.
Since her solo orchestral debut at age twelve with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Jane has also appeared as a soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra, Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra, Civic Symphony of Green Bay, Birch Creek Symphony, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra, Central Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra, and American Suzuki Institute Advanced Chamber Orchestra. In March 2025, she will be a featured soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra on a set of youth concerts, and present a recital on the Salon se Lève concert series in Minneapolis. Jane has also appeared on NPR’s From the Top as a 2023 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist, presented a recital on WPR’s The Midday, and performed at the Wisconsin Governor’s Residence, Wisconsin State of Education Address, Madison Symphony Orchestra League Spring Luncheon, and Minnesota Orchestra Pre-Concert Performances.
Jane is the grand prize winner of the 2024 Minnesota Orchestra YPSCA’s Concerto Competition and the 2023 Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Audrey G. Baird Stars of Tomorrow Competition, and second prize winner and recipient of the Steenbock Youth Music
Award of the 2024 Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Bolz Young Artist Competition: The Final Forte, broadcast live on PBS Wisconsin and WPR. Other awards include first prize in the Schubert Club Scholarship Competition (2024), Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition (2024), Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras Concerto Competition (2024), Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra Jenkins Family Concerto Competition (2023), Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition (2022), and Civic Symphony of Green Bay Miroslav Pansky Concerto Competition (2021); second prize and Jane Saline Memorial Award in the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra Rising Stars Concerto Competition; and finalist in Minnesota Orchestra YPSCA’s Concerto Competition (2023) and The Final Forte (2022).
As a chamber musician, Jane has been a member of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras’ Pondrom Honors Piano Quartet or String Quartet since 2022. As a member of the Pondrom String Quartet, she won the Silver Medal and BIPOC prize at the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition (2023) and an honorable mention at the Chicago National Chamber Music Competition (2023). She also appeared on WPR’s The Midday with the Pondrom Quartet in both 2024 and 2023. She has been a member of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras’ Youth Orchestra for three seasons, where she currently serves as concertmaster. In the summers of 2024 and 2023, she attended Center Stage Strings at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Danielle Belen.
In addition to violin, Jane is currently in her fifth year of piano studies with Rachel Snyder Turney. Outside of music, she enjoys math, movies, musical theatre, and poetry. She plans to pursue an undergraduate degree in violin performance in the fall of 2025.
