Lawrence University Violinist, Horn Quartet Share Top Honors in State Music Competition

APPLETON, WIS. -- Five Lawrence University music students and an Appleton Xavier High School senior shared top honors in the recent annual Neale-Silva Young Artists competition held in Madison.

Violinist Claude Halter and the Lawrence University Hobnob Horn Quartet were named two of five winners in the Wisconsin Public Radio-sponsored competition. It was the fourth time in the past six years that Lawrence music students have won the Neale-Silva competition, which is open to instrumentalists and vocal performers 18-26 years of age who are either from Wisconsin or attend a Wisconsin college.

Appleton's Jacob Ertl, a senior at Xavier and a student in Lawrence Assistant Professor of Music Michael Kim's piano studio, also was named one of the five winners.

Ertl, Halter, a freshman from Vicennes, France, and the members of the horn quartet -- seniors Colleen Perry, Pepperell, Mass., Kris Shaffer, Gurnee, Ill., Anna Skrupky, Turtle Lake, Wis., and Alicia Waite, Fort Collins, Colo., -- each received first-place prizes of $250. In addition, each winner performed March 24 as part of WPR's "Live from the Elvehjem" program.

The Lawrence Hobnob Quartet is also scheduled to perform in two upcoming national competitions. They will compete in the finals of the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition April 27 at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and the semifinals of the 29th Annual Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition May, 10 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.