For Immediate Release						January 18, 1996
 
Hartland's Williams Wins National Cello Competition in Oakland
 
 
APPLETON, WIS. -  Charlotte Williams, a junior at Lawrence University, received
first-place honors in the 18-21 year-old-age group at the fifth national Grace
Vamos Cello Competition Jan. 13-14 in Oakland, Calif.  A three-member panel of
judges selected Williams over Reynard Rott, a senior at The Juilliard School,
for the $2,000 top prize.  They were the only two cellists who advanced to the
final round of the two-day competition. 

Williams, a 1993 graduate of Hartland Arrowhead High School, and the daughter
of Barry and Philippa Williams, Hartland, was selected for the national
competition from an audition tape she submitted last November.  During the
finals round of the competition, she performed Shostakovich's Concerto No. 1,
Op. 107 and Bach's entire Suite No. 6 in D Major.

"It was exciting," said Williams, whose grandmother, Carol Williams of
Hartford, accompanied her on the West Coast trip.  "I was nervous, but more of
an excited nervous than a scared nervous.  I played up to my potential and
because of that, I would have been happy whatever the outcome.  Of course, it's
nice to win."

"This was a very strong performance on her part," said Janet Anthony, associate
professor of music at Lawrence and Willliams' teacher.  "I'm delighted  for
her.  She's developing beautifully as a player.  It couldn't have happened to a
nicer person."     

Williams, who began playing the cello when she was five years old, has
performed as a soloist with the Milwaukee Civic Symphony, the Concord Chamber
Orchestra in Milwaukee and the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra.  She's been a prize-
winner in the Corpus Christi, Texas, Competition as well as the cello
competition of the 1992 National Society of Arts and Letters in Phoenix, Ariz.



Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 414/832-6590