The 2023 Woodlands Concert Band Soloist Competition

The final concert of the season for the Woodlands Concert Band was held Sunday, June 25, 2023. The  top three place winners of the 5^th concerto competition for area high school students were featured on the concert. Coincidentally, all three of the winners play clarinet and dazzled the audience with their musical mastery.

Winners for 2023 are:

• 3^rd Place: Molly Koglin – Dulles High School, Fort Bend ISD
• 2^nd Place: Katherine Hwang – Dulles High School, Fort Bend ISD
• 1^st Place: Dalton Schulz – Bridgeland High School, Cypress Fairbanks ISD

The competition is open to any high school student in Montgomery, Harris, and Fort Bend Counties. The solos selected must have a wind band accompaniment. Students upload their performance to YouTube with a private link. A panel of five judges evaluate the videos and select five finalists from the submissions. Those finalists perform a live audition and up to three winners are selected to perform with the band. Cash prizes of $300, $500, and $1,000 are given to the winners who perform their solos with the band accompanying them.

Listen to the 1^st place finisher Dalton Schulz play Solo de Concours by André Messager.

The Woodlands Concert Band would like to thank the Chatfield Music Lending Library for lending us the music for Solo de Concours, without which this performance would not have been possible.

Chatfield, Minnesota is home to one of the oldest community bands in America. They are unique in the world of having a mission of preserving our band heritage. They have over 50,000 titles, many permanently out-of-print for decades, some for over a century. The accompaniment we used has been out-of-print for at least 30 years, and this was the only place where we were able to find the music to accompany Dalton Schulz.