Two Cairn Students Perform at Carnegie Hall, Prepare for Cairn Concert

Rebekah Stiles and Micah Leary made their solo debuts at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Saturday, January 26, 2019, after winning the first round of the Crescendo International Music Competition. Rebekah performed Liszt’s Transcendental Etude No. 5 in B-Flat, Feux Follets; Micah performed Rachmaninoff’s Etude tableau No. 6 in A Minor. Both pianists are in their third year of the undergraduate piano performance program at Cairn University and study under the chair of keyboard studies, Kenneth Borrmann.
The first round of the Crescendo Competition was held in November at numerous locations around the world, including Cairn University. The School of Music was asked to host the competition based on it’s All-Steinway School status and close proximity to both Philadelphia and New York. Rebekah Stiles and Micah Leary received the two highest scores in the first round of the competition, which qualified them to perform in the second round winner’s recital at at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.
In addition to winning the first round of the Crescendo Competition, Rebekah and Micah have also won Cairn’s Outstanding Young Christian Artist Competition and will perform with the Cairn Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, April 7. Rebekah will perform the Ravel Piano Concerto in G Minor and Micah will perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor. Mallory McCollum, soprano, was the winner of the Aria division of the competition and will be featured on the program performing Csárdás from Strauss’s Die Fledermaus.
Don’t miss your opportunity to hear these incredible students perform at Cairn University under the direction of Thomas Hong. The program will open with a famous overture, whose opening horn quartet solo was taken to write the hymn, “My Jesus, as Thou wilt!” Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” symphony will round off the afternoon.
Purchase tickets today at cairn.edu/tickets.

Abbie Mulhern is the music recruitment and events coordinator in the School of Music at Cairn University. She can be reached at [email protected].