2015 NYS Concerto Competition Winner Announced

This season's Winter Concert will feature Eric Hirsch, flute, in a performance of the Georges Hue Fantaisie for Flute and Orchestra.

Flutist Eric Hirsch was born in Germany in 1999 and moved to the U.S. with his mother as a baby. He lived in a household filled with music. At the age of five, he started violin lessons with his mother and spent afternoons on his grandfather’s lap listening to him play jazz at the piano. By eight years old, Eric had little interest in the violin and began his exclusive study of the flute with his grandmother, flutist Ann Forbes.

As Eric progressed, his grandmother brought him to play for her teacher, flutist and composer Gary Schocker. In Mr. Schocker, Eric found the musical example and inspiration he needed to dedicate himself to the flute. He now studies we

kly with his teacher, Wendy Stern, in addition to regular study with Mr. Schocker in NYC. Both Ms. Stern and Mr. Schocker are former students of the great flutist and teacher Julius Baker.

Eric is an eleventh grade student at Weston High School in Connecticut where he is principal flute of the wind ensemble under the direction of Mr. Steve Fasoli. He is a seasoned participant in the Western Region band/orchestra festivals and played in the CT All-State Festival in 2015. Eric earned the position of alternate flute with the New York Youth Symphony in September 2015.

Eric toured Germany with NYS in the summer of 2014 and spent the summer of 2015 at the Tanglewood Flute Institute where he studied with Linda Toote. He is a regular participant in masterclasses with Mr. Schocker and recently played in a class with Bart Feller of the New Jersey Symphony.

In February of 2015, Eric was a blue ribbon winner at the New York Flute Club Young Musicians Contest. In November 2015, he won first runner-up in the Danbury Symphony Concerto Competition and in January of 2016, he placed second in the Musical Club of Hartford High School Competition and performed at the winners recital in Hartford later that month.

Eric plays on an antique Powell flute that belonged to his grandmother.

The Norwalk Youth Symphony Winter Concert will take place on Sunday February 28, 2016 at 3PM at the Norwalk Concert Hall at City Hall, 125 East Avenue, Norwalk CT.