La Sierra to showcase six artists in 57th Annual Concerto Concert

The freshman music performance major will play the Adagio movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Concerto for Piano in E Flat Major” during the 57^th Annual Concerto Concert on Sat., April 18 at 8:15 p.m. The program will also showcase the talents of five other competition contenders who will give performances on clarinet, violin and cello. The La Sierra University Orchestra under direction of Dean Anderson will accompany the musicians. The performance will be held in Hole Memorial Auditorium.

Following the intermission, Marcia Specht Guy’s three children, all La Sierra alums, will present Jenson with a $3,000 check after which he will perform the Beethoven concerto. Marcia Specht in 1951 was the first La Sierra student invited to perform as a soloist with the La Sierra College Orchestra, then directed by Alfred Walters. She performed the first movement of Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 1.” Specht later graduated from the Loma Linda University School of Nursing and married La Sierra College alum Fritz Guy who in 1990 served as La Sierra University’s first president. Fritz Guy currently serves as a research professor of philosophical theology in La Sierra’s H.M.S. Richards Divinity School.

After Marcia Specht Guy’s death in 2006, her family and friends established the Marcia Specht Guy Prize in honor of her memory and to encourage student performance of classical music. The prize is awarded each year to the winner of the music department’s annual concerto competition.

Jenson began studying music at age 4, and at age 6 performed a Mozart piano concerto with the La Mirada Symphony Orchestra. Jenson later won a scholarship to attend the Colburn School for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, and also studied at the Idyllwild Arts Academy. He has performed extensively as a soloist and collaborator. His numerous competition placements include being named a winner of the 2012 Idyllwild Arts Concerto Competition and placing in the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight in 2012 and 2013. Two years ago he appeared on NPR’s “From the Top.” As a young composer, Jenson’s works have been played by many artists including Grammy-nominated Tony Arnold, the Ethel String Quartet and others. 

La Sierra music students and concerto competition participants Meggie Evans, clarinet, Yiming Cheng, clarinet, Elena Kim, violin, Victoria Belliard, violin and Xavier Wilson, cello will also perform portions of concertos and other works during the Concerto Concert, respectively by composers Louis Spohr, Claude Debussy, Henryk Wieniawski, Camille Saint-Saens, and Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky.

The 57^th Annual Concerto Concert is free and is part of La Sierra University’s alumni weekend events. For further information call 951-785-2036, email music@lasierra.edu or visit lasierra.edu/music. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside.