Olympia Chamber Orchestra Honors student piano competition winners

The Olympia Chamber Orchestra (OCO) honors Lillia Allen and Chloe Song, winners, Olympia Music Teachers Association (OMTA) annual piano competition. Nickolas Carlson, OCO conductor says he “is very excited about working with these amazing musicians”. Olympia Chamber Orchestra has hosted OMTA competition winners for 12 years. Maestro Carlson also conducts Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #2 in c minor, opus 17, “Little Russian”, and the Richard Strauss “Serenade for Winds”.

The fabulous young pianists manage to find time to chalk up winning performances at many competitions while participating in athletics, serving their communities and playing instruments besides piano. They both take lessons with Dr. Ramona Allen.

Honor student Lilia Allen, 16, is a junior at Olympia High School. She performed with OCO after winning in 2016, also, and won First Prize in the Chopin Competition in 2017, and first prize in the Alliance of Christian Musicians Competition. Lillia is particularly proud of performing a charity benefit concert with her friend Megan to raise funds for “The Water Project”. She plays violin and clarinet, skis, is a varsity gymnast and a proud cookie-baking older sister to three siblings.

Twelve year old Chloe Song is a 6th grader at Washington Middle School. She got an early start on music as child learning piano and violin by five. She’s earned impressive honors in piano competitions: first place 2016 and 2017 OMTA Competitions, Intermediate Division; Silver Medalist, Chopin Northwest 2018 competition; Masterworks Choral Ensemble youth competition, 2017. She plays violin, and is concertmaster and for the Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia, Academy Orchestra. She shares her talents at St. Paul Chong Hasang Catholic Church and still finds time for swimming, tennis, skiing, and biking.

Although Tchaikovsky’s second Symphony isn’t heard as often as his other symphonies, listeners can relax with familiar themes and musical fireworks. Ukrainian folk melodies woven into the themes have inspired the name “Little Russian”.

Richard Strauss, not one of the Strauss’s famous for waltzes, created a lush melodious work in his “Serenade for Winds”. This gem, infrequently heard, uses the whole wind section from the orchestra.