Culver City Cellist Wins Music Competition

Cellist William Ellzey of Culver City earned top honors at the fourth annual Music Guild Competition, where six high school seniors competed for Westmont music scholarships March 5. Ellzey won the Guild Scholarship, receiving up to $10,000 in annual music scholarship funds (up to $40,000 over four years) to study at Westmont. Significant music scholarships were given to the other contestants: flutist Marissa Condie of Santa Barbara, cellist Marlena Gonzalez of Los Angeles, soprano Nyajima Tut of Minneapolis, pianist Christina Yang of Diamond Bar and oboist Bethany Yew of San Marino.

Ellzey, who performed “Concerto in D minor” by Édouard Lalo and “Cello Suite No. 1” by Johann Sebastian Bach, is a senior at Southern California Christian Academy. He has performed with the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra, the Culver City High School orchestra, First Baptist Culver City String Quartet and various ensembles through the Los Angeles Junior Chamber Music program. He also plays piano and hopes to major in cello performance in college.

“All six finalists are marvelous young musicians and each performed beautifully,” Shasberger said. “Everyone in attendance was blessed by the grace and expressiveness of the performances. We hope these six musicians will continue performing together at Westmont, forming life-long friendships in their musical journey.”

Last year, Jonathan Wong, who won the Guild Scholarship, and finalists Sierra Farrar, Merckx Dascomb, Kennedy Hahn, Kathryn Ogata and Mirah Ray all enrolled at Westmont.

This year’s judges were Grey Brothers, professor of music, Steve Butler, professor of music and music department chair, Steve Hodson, professor of music, Han Soo Kim, assistant professor of music, and Shasberger.

While the judges deliberated, the audience enjoyed music by Westmont students Isaac Kay (violin), Mirah Ray (violin), Katrina Whitman (viola), Chyna Charbonneau (oboe), Erik Fauss (viola), Aaron Wilk (piano), Lalia Mangione (violin), Sierra Farrar (violin) and Wynston Hamann (cello).

Condie, a home-schooled student who also takes classes at Santa Barbara City College, has been involved in music for the past eight years, playing a variety of instruments, including piano and piccolo.  She has performed with the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony for the past two years. While continuing to perform in college, Marissa plans to double major in history and chemistry.

Gonzalez, who will graduate from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts this spring, performed with the Renaissance Arts Academy Orchestra and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Orchestra, where she is principal cellist. She will major in music performance in college.

Tut, a native of Sudan who attended high school in Iowa, has appeared in leading roles in several musical productions and participated in the Iowa All-State Choir. She plans on majoring in vocal performance with an interest in opera.

Yang intends to major in piano performance with the dream of completing graduate study in piano to prepare for an active career as a performer and teacher. She also plays viola and has been home-schooled for her high school education.

Yew, who has played oboe for seven years, will graduate this spring from San Marino High School.  She has performed with the Pasadena Youth Symphony and San Marino High School Orchestra’s for the past four years. Yew, who also plays the guitar, piano, and studies voice, intends to continue performing in college while majoring in kinesiology.

The Guild Scholarship program is funded by The Guild for Music at Westmont. For information about becoming a Guild member or any aspect of this competition, please contact the Westmont Music Office at (805) 565-6040.