As we finalize preparations for the Spring Music Festival on April 24th, it is our pleasure to introduce you to our adjudicators for this year. We are delighted to have some of our own instructors this year as well as three musicians from our community.  This entire group enjoys bringing music to the community as performers in addition to supporting young musicians in their journey towards skill mastery.

Join me in welcoming three musicians from our community:

Josie Kost

Josie Kost – Piano Adjudicator

Josie received her undergraduate degree in flute performance from Wheaton College and completed her masters degree and artist diploma at Duquesne University. She started Suzuki training in 2010 and have certifications in both flute and piano. Piano was her first instrument, and then she started flute two years later.

Dawn Paulus – Strings Adjudicator

Dawn has a Cello Performance degree from Duquesne University. She performs with various groups around Pittsburgh, including Three Rivers String Quartet, and works at Resonance Violins in Mt. Lebanon.

Joe Williams – Winds Adjudicator

Joe has a Music Education degree from Temple University and is a former High School and Middle School Band Director. Joe has extensive performance experience on trombone in the Pittsburgh area.

We are delighted to have 7 team members adjudicating our festival this year:

 Skylar Bunk – Piano and Voice Adjudicator

Performance experiences create special memories and milestones. To help you get to know our adjudicators, we included a few memories here:

Skylar –
Although I have been fortunate enough to participate in quite a few meaningful performances, the one I would like to share took place a few years ago during the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Singing City Concert. This was a beautiful experience that featured thousands of singers performing some incredible pieces of music — an incredible production to be a part of.  It was personally meaningful for a few reasons. First, it began my working and personal relationships with Dr. Robert Page, a friend and mentor. It also allowed me to perform a portion of one of my favorite works (Mahler, Symphony No 2) on a very grand scale. These, coupled with the opportunities I had in preparing some of the choristers, made this a memorable performance and a milestone in my musical journey.

Christin –
Mine would have to be my master’s piano recital that I gave in April of 2017. This was the most challenging repertoire I had ever worked on, and the largest volume of music (60 minutes) I had ever played for one performance. And I had to learn and memorize it all in less than a year! I felt so happy to finally share all of my hard work with my friends and family members in the audience. It was especially meaningful to me because my high school piano teacher came to the recital to surprise me. It was just an amazing day!

Josie –
There are so many performances that are special for different reasons. One of the most unique concerts I’ve played was in 2016 in the orchestra for the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh at the Carrie Furnace in Homestead. Some of my favorite performances were the holiday concerts with the Pittsburgh Camerata under the direction of Rebecca Rollett. Rebecca has an amazing gift of finding lesser known holiday pieces and weaving together unique and cohesive programs that told the Christmas story in a way that was new and fresh each year. She would create the interludes to link the pieces together and create instrumental arrangement to accompany the chamber choir. Looking back on the concerts I’ve played, my favorites all seem to be the ones where I am collaborating with voices, whether that be chamber orchestra accompanying a chorus, a church program, or working with many talented vocalists and instrumentalists at Pittsburgh Festival Opera during the summers.