Senior Andrew Stevens won the famed Berta Rojas Grand Prize at the MGI Myrna Sislen Youth Guitar Competition on March 16. This competition has run for 17 years, and Stevens has officially been added to the list of talented winners for the Grand Prize.
The Marlow Guitar Institution (MGI) holds an annual competition for guitar players of all levels. There are three divisions, with three performances each, all with first place winners, but the person who shows the most consistency and general artistry for the whole competition wins the Berta Rojas Grand Prize. For the first time, a Stone Bridge student has taken home this prestigious prize.
“The competition this year was bigger than usual, so I was a little nervous on Friday, the first day of the competition,” Stevens said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to have to see where this goes.’ But with the performances I did on Saturday and Sunday, I felt really confident that I had a shot at winning the division prize, but did not expect the grand prize.”
Stevens had spent months working and perfecting his chosen piece, “Tarantella” by Johann Kaspar Mertz, a lively romantic style piece inspired by Italian folk dances, and a piece composed for the competition, “A Grin Without a Cat” by Olga Amelkina-Vera.
“[The competition] is a yearly thing, and this one I started preparing for since June of last year, because it happened around the same time,” Stevens said. “So I just prepare for it little by little, but around January, I start really focusing on refining my skills.”
Stevens was introduced to this competition by his private guitar teacher and has competed in it for many years. For him, it is not the possibility of winning that keeps bringing him back, but the joy of taking the stage after months of focused practice.
“[I love] the experience of performing,” Stevens said. “It is a fun performance to just learn from. And also, I find it fun to compete, just to put my skills to the test in a higher pressure situation.”
After winning the competition, this year, once Stevens finished playing his pieces, the judges of the contest, Dr. An Tran, Dr. Celil Refik Kaya, and Ms. Laura Snowden, gave him valuable advice and feedback.
“This year, being the first year that I won [the Berta Rojas Grand Prize], it was interesting to see the advice they gave the winner,” Stevens said. “[The judges] gave a lot of advice on how you can do better, because usually the advice is, ‘This is why you didn’t win.’ But this year it was, ‘This is how you can do better and become a better artist.’”
All the hard work that Stevens has put into this competition and his pieces has paid off in a major way, winning an award that distinguishes him from all Bulldogs. His talent,attitude, and effort has brought him a success that the whole school community can celebrate.
“I always try,” Stevens said. “I didn’t win my first couple years; and it’s the first year I actually won it, so you’re not going to win immediately unless you’re crazy good at guitar. But just try! It’s a fun experience, you do learn a lot from it, so just try it. Why not?”
