Byron Hester Competition Hall of Fame



2011    Keren Schweitzer

2010    Joanna Martin

2009    Cobus du Toit

2008    Hilary Abigana

2007    Juliana Overmier

2006    Rachel Taratoot Ciraldo

2005    Hye Sung Choe

2004    Kim Hudson

2003    Leonard Garrison

2002    Lisa Jaklitsch

































Contact Information

bh_comp@houstonfluteclub.org

I really enjoyed competing and playing in the Byron Hester Memorial Flute competition.  It was a great experience! The adjudicators comments were very insightful and I learned a lot from all the fantastic workshops at Flute Fest 2010!

Joanna Martin, 2010 Winner

Competitions

Congratulations to the 2011 Byron Hester Competition Winner!

Flutist Keren Schweitzer  has appeared on several occasions with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has played chamber music with its members and is currently an LA Philharmonic teaching artist. She has performed with Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and was a founding member of the award winning Ariana Duo (flute and harp). She will perform this August at the National Flute Association annual convention in Charlotte, NC with her husband, cellist Jason Lippmann, as part of the Full Spectrum recital series. She is the first place winner of the Byron Hester Flute Competition 2011, was the winner of the 2010 National Flute Association Convention Performer’s Competition, First Prize at the 1997 Flute Talk Competition, a finalist in the 2000 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and while a student, she won concerto competitions at both the Manhattan School of Music and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Also a published writer, her articles on music have appeared in Symphony magazine, The Paris New Music Review and Salon Arts magazine. She has appeared at the Spoleto, Caramoor, and Bowdoin Music Festivals and with the Verbier Festival Orchestra. Keren is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Cincinnati Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music where she received a doctorate in music performance. Keren grew up in Houston, where she was a student of Byron Hester and attended Bellaire High School.  Her other principal teachers include Jeanne Baxtresser, Linda Chesis, and Bradley Garner. Keren currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband and two young children.
 

Byron Hester Competition: -- March 10, 2012

Application Deadline:  Postmarked January 13, 2012

Final round participants announced: February 3rd, 2012.


Click on the links below for the Rules and Entry Form.

Thank you for your interest and good luck!!!


Byron Hester Competition Rules

Byron Hester Competition Application Form


Teachers: Please post this flyer -- Byron Hester Competition Flyer

Byron Hester

(1925 – 1995)


Born in 1925 in Electra, Texas, Flutist Byron Hester was principal flutist of the Houston Symphony Orchestra for forty years. At the time of his death in 1995, he was Professor Emeritus of the University of Houston's School of Music, having been on the faculty for 39 years.  Having lost his flute to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in the first Kamikaze attack of World War II, he then traveled to New York City to study with Georges Barrere at The Julliard School.  After two years of study, he transferred to the Curtis Institute of Music.  Following the model set by his teacher at Curtis, William Kincaid, the combination of teaching college-age flutists and playing in a major symphony orchestra kept him in touch with the essence of the technique of playing the instrument and the obligation of passing on his knowledge to younger aspiring talents.  He also taught privately students of all ages and backgrounds, from pre-teens to senior citizens, from jazzers to astronauts. 

“The Byron Hester Competition is one of the few competitions that gives you an opportunity to perform at a major event after you've walked away with the first prize. This is essential in helping you make the transition from being a student to establishing yourself as a professional flutist. Being able to perform at such a prestigious event as the Houston Flute Festival with world renowned guest artists, is an opportunity that I could only have dreamed about!”

Cobus Du Toit, 2009 Byron Hester Competition Winner