Masters Percussion Student Angela Lara Cabrera Named Winner of 2024-2025 USO Concerto Competition

Congratulations to School of Music masters student and percussionist Angela Lara Cabrera, winner of the 2024-25 University Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition held Thursday, November 7, 2024. She will perform the Concerto for Vibraphone and Strings by Emmaneul Séjourné with the University Symphony Orchestra in Ted Mann Concert Hall on April 30, 2025. She is a student of Fernando Meza.

 

Honorable mention was given to Huiyin Tan (DMA, voice), student of John De Haan.

 

The USO Concerto Competition is an annual competition for full-time graduate and undergraduate music majors at the University of Minnesota to have an opportunity to perform their prepared concerto alongside a live orchestra. 

 

The 2024-25 competition featured 21 School of Music students and was adjudicated by Ernesto Estigarribbia Mussi (Assistant Professor of Conducting and University Orchestra conductor, Vanderbilt University) and Ho Yin Kwok (Assistant Professor in Conducting and Orchestra, Ithaca College). Special thanks to Sari Baker and the Ted Mann Concert Hall staff for their support in hosting the competition.

 

The Colombian born percussionist Angela Lara Cabrera, acclaimed for her “musical poetry, virtuosity, and professionalism” (Banrep, Bogotá 2022), has been recognized for her versatility and musicianship among classical and latin percussion. As a percussionist from an early age, she has experienced music from a wide variety of ensembles, genres, and traditions, including chamber groups, orchestras, and big bands. Graduated from the Conservatory of the National University of Colombia, she has performed in the most emblematic halls in Europe and South America, such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Elbphilharmonie, and the Concertgebouw, acting as principal percussionist of the Young Philharmonic of Colombia. She was a double winner at the Young Soloists Concerts Series in Colombia, the Musicians Club of Women competition held in Chicago, the MN Marimba Competition, and an invited soloist of the TCU Symphony Orchestra. Currently, she is finishing her master’s degree in performance at the University of Minnesota, working under Professor Fernando Meza.