Arlington Park bugler is YouTube contest finalist
Jean Laurenz, bugler for Arlington Park, is among 12 finalists for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra.
If she is selected as one of the trumpeters in the orchestra, Laurenz, a graduate of Prospect High School and Northwestern University, will receive a weeklong trip to Sydney, Australia, in March. This will include a performance at the Sydney Opera House under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, music director of the San Francisco Symphony. The March 20 concert will be live streamed on YouTube.
The deadline for voting is midnight tonight, Friday, Dec. 17, at youtube.com/symphony. Winners will be announced Jan. 11.
"If I win the final round it brings together everything I love classical music, traveling and performing onstage with an orchestra," said Laurenz. "I could meet musicians from all over the world, including some of the greatest."
Just being one of 12 finalists has been a thrill, she said. And the musician feels she is friends with other finalists in the trumpet category already through YouTube and Facebook.
Laurenz graduated from Northwestern in May and is a part-time music teacher at an Evanston elementary school while also teaching private lessons. She also is in a group called North Shore Brass, which should have a page on Facebook soon. The group plays at churches and weddings.
May 6 will mark the start of her fourth season as the Arlington Park bugler.