At 2 p.m. on Sunday, January 19, an expectant crowd of Deerfield students, faculty, and parents gathered in the concert hall for the annual Senior Concerto Competition. Seven seniors competed for the chance to perform a solo with the Deerfield Orchestra in the Homegrown Concert this spring.
The four judges included the Visual and Performing Arts Chair, Catriona Hynds, Director of Music Tom Bergeron, and Choral Director Michael Pfitzer. As for the final judge, the music program selected a fresh set of ears to help with the judging process, with Head of School Dr. John Austin as an honorary judge. From a hat, the competitors drew numbers at random that would correspond to their order in the concert.
Accompanied by Piano Studio Director Yu Mei-Wei the seniors performed a variety of pieces ranging from Copland to Mendelssohn to Mozart. Many audience members enjoyed the performace. Lucia Kinder ’28 watched the Senior Concerto, and she remarked, “As an audience member, I was really blown away by how distinct each of their styles were. She said, “If they didn’t have distinct enough styles, they could all blend together and kind of sound the same, but each person was so unique to themselves.”
Out of the competing musicians, two seniors rose to the top to gain their titles as winners of the Senior Concerto Competition. “Coming to a decision was hard,” Dr. Austin said. In the end, the two winning musicians were Sophie Petronzio ’25 and Yoonsa Lee ’25. (Yoonsa is the Scroll’s Co-Managing Editor)
Lee leads the Deerfield Academy Orchestra as principal violist and regularly appears in concerts playing solos or in quartets. However, she only first picked up the viola in her freshman year. “When I first entered the chamber music program, I had only played violin before,” Lee reflected, “Mr. Berner, the violin and viola teacher, thought it would be a good fit for me to try a viola. I didn’t expect it to carry me as far as it has.” Daphne Huang ‘25, another one of the competitors, commented on Yoonsa’s switch from violin to viola: “I think she’s a great violist and I think her sound fits the viola very, very well. It’s very warm, wide, so it gets a sunny vibe to the sound. And I think she has gorgeous, gorgeous tone.” Although the range of pieces for the viola is much more narrow than those for the violin, Lee has made the most of available viola pieces, one of them being Max Bruch’s “Romanze,” which she performed for the competition.
Casted as the lead role in Alice by Heart last year and regularly performing in choral music performances, Petronizo has played a large role in the Deerfield’s performing arts scene. The piece Petronizo sang, “Laurie’s Song,” by Aaron Copland, resonated with her because it was about a girl graduating from high school and realizing the many opportunities ahead of her. “I’m a senior, getting to come back and realize how meaningful all of this has been,” Sophie said. Reflecting on her vocal journey at Deerfield, Sophie said that “I’ve been singing my whole life, but as far as classical [singing] and trying to take it more seriously, I would say that started my sophomore year of high school.” Sophie had previously sung in choirs, mostly singing pop or spiritual music, but never had taken vocal lessons sang musical theatre, or classical until arriving at Deerfield. “With pop music, it’s not something that you really are going to get emotional singing from,” she described. “But with classical music, there’s always such a definite goal in the way that every single note is placed, the length of a note, the type of chord just being played. Emotionally, I believe that classical music goes deeper.”