Coastal Concerts awards $4,500 in student scholarships

Three area high school students selected from among a dozen competing applicants have received $1,500 each from Coastal Concerts to help them pursue their music education. With three scholarships awarded for the first time, the annual amount is the highest offered by Coastal Concerts since it inaugurated the program in 2006.

The recipients, Conor McAvinue, a sophomore at Archmere Academy; Charlotte Priest, a senior at Caesar Rodney High School; and Marius Sander, a senior at St. Thomas More Academy, were chosen based on a rigorous assessment of their talent, academic achievement, community service and teacher recommendations.

McAvinue has played viola for two years and violin for 12. He is planning to use his scholarship to attend a summer camp for advanced musicians. His goal is to play viola professionally in a touring national or international orchestra. In addition to participation in the Delaware and Philadelphia youth orchestras, McAvinue has performed with the Wilmington Community Orchestra, and is a member of the advanced chamber group at the Music School of Delaware.

A two-time winner of the Delaware Concerto Competition for Young Musicians, he has performed in Europe, at the Lincoln Center, the Kimmel Center and the Peabody Conservatory. He also maintains a near perfect academic average.

Priest, who is also a flutist, has played piano since she was 5 years old. She is planning to use her scholarship to pursue her college degree in early education while giving private piano lessons. In addition to participation in the Symphonic Band and Pit Orchestra at Caesar Rodney, she has been selected for the Kent County Honors and All State Bands and is also a perennial selection as All State Instrumentalist. She has successfully auditioned for the Guild Auditions, Competitions and Marathons and the Delaware Governor’s School for Excellence, proving that her teachers were correct when they said she was “born to play music.” Priest is a member of the National Honor Society.

Sander, who was awarded a Coastal Concerts scholarship in 2014 for his artistry on the violin, has won again, but this time for his excellence on the alto saxophone. In furtherance of his goal to become a classical alto saxophonist, Sander plans to use his scholarship to defray costs for private coaching sessions with master instructors and accompanists. Although biology will be his major field of study in college, he intends to compete in concerto competitions and to train and perform with quartets and smaller ensembles.

He has been a member of the All State Senior and Junior Concert and Jazz Bands, a winner of the Wilmington Community Orchestra Concerto Competition for Young Musicians, and recipient of the Artistic Excellence Young People’s Scholarship. Sander, who maintains a 4.0 grade point average, has also earned the Governor’s Volunteer Award for Community Service.

Coastal Concerts is a nonprofit organization promoting classical music appreciation in central Delmarva. To date, the organization has awarded $21,000 in student scholarships to 22 talented young musicians. These scholarships are part of an outreach program that also includes free public events, performance of classical music at underserved venues, donation of used but playable musical instruments to local schools, and in-school visits by world-class professional musicians.

To encourage student attendance at Coastal Concerts’ $30-per-ticket regular season, admission is free for ages 10 to 18 years, and one adult per youth. Discounted tickets are also available for students 19 years and older with a valid school ID. For further information, go to coastalconcerts.org.