13-YEAR-OLD VIOLINIST MARIÉ ROSSANO WINS MOR'S DAVID TONKONOGUI MEMORIAL AWARD

Rossano Will Perform at MOR's May 12 Concert at Benaroya Hall

SEATTLE, WA - February 5, 2008 - Music of Remembrance has announced that 13-year-old Woodinville resident Marié Rossano was selected as the 2008 winner of the David Tonkonogui Memorial Award. Rossano, a violinist, wins a cash award of $500 to support her musical studies, and will perform Ernest Bloch's Nigun at MOR's spring concert on May 12, 2008. Her performance will be the prelude to an historic evening: the world premiere of Paul Schoenfield's Ghetto Songs, a new MOR commission sung by baritone Morgan Smith and soprano Anya Matanovic, with A Contemporary Theatre's Kurt Beattie narrating.

Said Mina Miller, MOR's artistic director, "Marié's performance was truly moving. It was hard to believe a young child was performing. She played the Bloch Nigun and the Shostakovich violin concerto cadenza with soul and maturity. She has an amazing talent." Jason Lu, a student of Seattle Symphony violinist Leonid Keylin gained an honorable mention, performing Franz Waxman's Carmen Fantasie: "It's a piece few violinists can play," said Miller.

A Seattle-based chamber music organization, MOR's mission is to ensure that the voices of musical witness to the Holocaust are heard in performance and through recordings. In 2005, Music of Remembrance established the David Tonkonogui Memorial Award in memory of Seattle Symphony cellist David Tonkonogui (1958-2003). Applicants audition with a musical piece related to the Holocaust and provide a written statement about their connection to the work.

Rossano wrote about her audition piece: "When I play the Nigun, I am trying to bring out the many aspects of Jewish life before the Holocaust…." In her statement, she described varying sections of music as being proud, hopeful, harsh, happy, and restless. The Nigun is the second movement of Baal Shem (Three Pictures of Chassidic Life), composed in 1923 for violin and piano.

One of the Seattle Chamber Music Society's Emerging Artists, Rossano is no stranger to the stage: after winning the Seattle Symphony Young Artists Invitational, she made her debut with the Seattle Symphony in October 2007, and performed with them again at their Holiday Musical Salute concert. Previously, she has played with Philharmonia Northwest, Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra, Bainbridge Symphony, and the Federal Way Symphony.

Fluent in Japanese, Rossano is an eighth-grader at Woodinville Montessori School. She started violin at age 3-1/2 with the late Yuko Honda, then studied with the late Kent Coleman. An active musician at the Academy of Music Northwest and in the AMN Academy Chamber Orchestra, she now studies with Simon James, Seattle Symphony's second assistant concertmaster.

About the David Tonkonogui Memorial Award:
MOR established this youth musician award in 2005, to honor late Seattle Symphony cellist David Tonkonogui's life, music, and in particular, his work as a music teacher. All Seattle-area youth musicians with a demonstrated interest in performing music related to the Holocaust are invited to apply. The honor includes a cash award of $500 to support continuing musical studies, and an invitation to perform at an MOR concert. Cellist Julian Schwarz was the first winner, followed by violinist Jocelyn Chang in 2006.

About Music of Remembrance
Music of Remembrance (MOR) fills a unique spiritual and cultural role in Seattle and throughout the United States by remembering Holocaust musicians and their art through musical performances, educational activities, musical recordings and commissions of new works. Now celebrating its tenth season, MOR has presented two major concerts at Seattle's Benaroya Hall each year since 1998, marking the anniversary of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) each fall and Holocaust Remembrance Day each spring. More information available at: www.musicofremembrance.org.