Dean Lesley Cormack of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta announced Saturday evening the three winners of the 2012 Strauss Foundation Music Awards for Advanced Study in Austria. The announcement was made at the annual Johann Strauss Ball sponsored by the foundation, the Faculty of Arts, and the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies. Profits from the ball are used to help fund the scholarship program. The annual ball has been held since 1976 and featured performances by University of Alberta students.
This year's award recipients were the University of Alberta music students Hyejin Lee, Christina LeRose, and Carmen Specht. Ms Lee is an undergraduate organ performance student who plans to study organ in Vienna under the direction of Craig Humber. Ms Lee will have the opportunity to play on historic instruments in a number of different Viennese churches. Christina LeRose is a second-year doctoral student concentrating in piano performance. After studying last Summer at the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden bei Wien, Ms LeRose plans to attend the Internationale Sommerakademie at the Mozarteum in Salzburg in Summer, 2012. Carmen Specht is a graduate of the undergraduate music program at Lethbridge University who now studies at the University of Alberta. She plans to attend this summer's Schubert Institute.
For more information on the Strauss Foundation and the annual Johann Strauss Ball, see www.johannstrauss.ca