A dozen high school students took to the stage at St. John’s Lutheran Ministries on Jan. 14 to participate in the 2025 Music Competition, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Hemet. Curt Welshon, a Rotarian since 2012, served as Rotary Chair for the competition. He has served many roles at the club including president from 2014-2016 and again in 2018. The Hemet chapter has been hosting a club-level music competition for five years with a break during COVID.
The competition was open to all high school students in the Hemet and San Jacinto school districts. The Rotary Club of Hemet provided cash awards of $200 for first place, $100 for second place and $50 for third place in each of the three categories: piano, instrumental and vocal.
Pianist Aster Byrd attends Idyllwild Arts Academy and will move on to the District finals on March 22 at the University of Redlands. The top Instrumentalist, who played the flute, was Shirley Yy and she also attends Idyllwild Arts Academy; she will attend the District finals on March 15. Vocalist Sunny Duane was awarded first place and will compete in the District finals on March 8; she is a student at Tahquitz High School in Hemet.
“A big shout out to St. John’s Lutheran on Columbia to offer up their facility to allow Rotary to have the event,” Welshon said. “Linda Krupa did a great job assisting me with organizing the judges. She was a big help.”
A few areas of focus the judges were looking at were tone quality, technique, interpretation, and general effect stage presence. All three of them were volunteers who were asked by Rotarian Krupa to participate this year. They were Sylvia Alonzo, a club member who enjoys community involvement; Tina Batchelder-Schwab, who works for the Hemet Unified School District as a Performing Arts Coordinator, has a master’s in music education, a Bachelor of Music Education in performing opera and has directed many musicals; and Alexander Yepremian, General Manager of the Historic Hemet Theatre, who has a rich background in performing arts and made significant contributions to both Broadway and the luxury cruise industry.
Welshon said the number of entries varies every year. He depends on local teachers distributing the information to their students and the passion of each student to perform. He was in communication with the local choir and band directors as well as private tutors who expressed interest.
“I send many reminders to those on my distribution lists, encouraging students to express themselves, show off their talent and just maybe win money,” he said. “I depend heavily on the teachers to encourage their students to show off their individual passion with playing their instrument or vocal skills.”
Along with the winning artists, there were four guitarists, a bass player and a violinist as well as another flautist and two other singers.
“It was a night to remember, and these students performed very well,” Welshon said. “Rotary also gave out $25 participation checks to those contestants that did not place.”
Aside from performing, students went through an interview process where some students suggested they were looking to become professional musicians, while a couple of others showed interest in real estate and mechanical engineering.
Rotary has 61 clubs in District 5330 which covers Indio to Running Springs to Riverside to Temecula and Murrieta and all cities in between. Not all 61 clubs participate in the music competition, but about 15 have active club chair members that take on the responsibility of putting together the music competition.
At the local Rotary Club level, contestants were required to perform a piece that best demonstrates their talent and musicality. Performances were recommended to be approximately 5-7 minutes in length but could be longer. At the District finals, pianists and instrumentalists must play at least one piece of classical music and singers must perform songs from musical theater and/or classical music. A second piece of music can be the contestant’s choice. However, judges will not accept songs from the country-western, popular, jazz and Christian music genres at the finals.
Additionally, pieces must be memorized, and the music score may be requested to be provided to the judges. The entire performance should not exceed 12 minutes for pianists and instrumentalists. Generally, vocal performances should be about two minutes shorter. Rotary Club of Hemet will also pay the finalists’ entry fee for the District-level competition.
For more information about Rotary Club of Hemet, please visit www.hemetrotary.org.
