2009 - 2010 Featured Artists

YAO horn player Megan Sackett is a sixteen-year-old junior at Riverside High School. She began her music career in sixth grade playing the trumpet and just one year later decided to take on the French horn. Thanks to Jeff Purtle, she quickly progressed as a budding horn student and soon learned to love the French horn. In eighth grade she made it into the Junior All-State Band and has continued the All-State tradition ever since. She also has been a part of the Greenville All-County band for the past four years. She played in the Philharmonic during her eighth and ninth grade years and joined the Young Artist Orchestra just last year. Megan is currently a member of the Riverside High School Marching Band as a section leader and a principle player of the Riverside High School Concert Band. She recently decided to move studios to study with Anneka Zuehlke. She attended the Performing Arts institute in Pennsylvania for six weeks over the past summer where she continued her studies with Ms. Zuehlke.  “Along with my teachers, Mr. Styles, Mr. Vrieze, Jeff Purtle, Anneka Zuehlke, Dr. and Mrs. Robinson, I would like to thank my parents for all of the support they have given me in music and everything I do.”

 YAO violinist, Beth Uhimchuk will be performing Beethoven’s Romance No.2 in F major with the Philharmonic Orchestra. Beth is the daughter of George and Sally Uhimchuk and is a senior at Wade Hampton High School and the Fine Arts Center, where she studies chamber music with John Ravnan and music theory with Dr. Jon Grier.  She also studies violin privately with Deirdre Hutton, Adjunct Professor of Violin at Furman University, and has done so for six years.  Beth has attended several music camps including the North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Program in 2006 and Indiana University's Summer String Academy in 2008.  In both 2007 and 2008 she was a finalist in the Clemson Concerto Competition.  She participated in the Carolina Youth Symphony for two years, and performed at Carnegie Hall as a member of the orchestra.  Beth has been a member of the South Carolina All-State and Regional Orchestras since 2004, and will serve the upcoming 2010 All-State as Assistant Concert Master.  Currently Beth is Concert Master of the Young Artists Orchestra, of which she has been a member for three years, and a chamber music coach for the A.R.M.E.S. program.  She hopes to major in violin performance in college

YAO violinist Sara Beam, age fifteen, is a homeschooled sophomore. At age 9, Sara began private violin lessons under Joanna Mulfinger Lebo. Sara has been a member of GCYO for four years, three of which were with the Philharmonic, where she served as concertmistress for two years. In addition, Sara appeared as soloist with the Philharmonic in the spring of 2008, performing Massenet’s Meditation from “Thais”. She received an outstanding musician award for the 2007-2008 orchestra cycle. Sara has attended several music camps at BJU for both violin and piano, where she has played in the honors recitals and concerts; she also received a Certificate of Honor for outstanding musical achievement at piano camp in 2008. The Greenville Women’s Music Club Scholarship Competition awarded Sara 2nd place in 2007 and 1st place in both 2008 and 2009. In 2008, she won 1st place in the Wesleyan University Competition. In the spring of 2009, Sara placed 2nd in the Crescent Music Club Competition. Her most recent accomplishment was winning the Clemson Concerto Competition in August. As a result, she performed the first movement of Samuel Barber’s violin concerto with the Clemson Symphony. Sara hopes to continue her music studies at BJU and later on attend a music conservatory. She enjoys playing the piano in both accompanying and performing and plays in the orchestra and handbell choir at her local church.