CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNER: NICHOLAS BENTZ

Nicholas Bentz is a recent graduate of the Charleston County School of the Arts, from where he won the third annual David and Karen Stahl Memorial College Scholarship of $2,500, the top award in the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League's annual scholarship competition. He now studies at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. As a double major, Nicholas studies violin under Herbert Greenberg, a PRISMA guest artist, and musical composition under Kevin Puts. Nicholas received a bursary from the Busenhart Morgan - Evans Foundation from the UK to attend PRISMA.

At the age of six, Nicholas started his career in music with the violin, and later added musical composition and voice to his repertoire. In the past, he has studied violin under Yuriy Bekker, concertmaster for the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. According to Nicholas, Bekker has taught him a Russian system that hones technique.

Since working with Bekker, Nicholas has worked Greenberg through scholarships with the Summer Study Award Program during the Aspen Music Festival. During the summers of 2009, 2011 and 2012, Nicholas performed with the Aspen Opera Theatre Company for the productions of "Don Giovanni," "Falstaff" and "Sweeney Todd," respectively. In 2010 and 2011, he performed with the Santa Fe Ballet Company as a member of the Aspen Concert Orchestra. He was chosen as a finalist to compete in the prestigious Dorothy DeLay Fellowship Competition.

Nicholas has also taken music composition for six years under Irina Pevzner and Dr. Yiorgos Vassilandonakis at the College of Charleston. Nicholas then decided to major in voice at the School of the Arts to learn more about his craft.

As a violinist, he would have most loved to hear Jascha Heifetz. "His ability to blend both the technical perfection and the emotional perfection is just amazing," Nicholas said. Some of his favourite composers include Gustav Mahler, Erich Korngold and Olivier Messiaen.