Abington Junior High Student Showcased in Worldwide Music Livestream

Collin Parker-Szekely resumed his pandemic-delayed performance schedule for Spring 2022 with a masterful appearance at The Philadelphia International Music Festival’s Winners’ Circle Concert with members of The Philadelphia Orchestra in an event that was livestreamed across the globe from the Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, PA on Sunday, March 27, 2022.

The concert showcased finalists and winners of recent PIMF Concerto Competitions, and was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Along with the six featured young musicians, Juliette Kang, First Associate Concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra; John Koen, Cello, The Philadelphia Orchestra; Grammy-nominated pianist, Mark Livshits also performed at the concert.

Collin, now 15 and a student at Abington Junior High School, won PIMF’s Concerto Competition last summer. He dazzled the in-person and online audience with his performance of “Larghetto calmato – Poco più mosso, e con passione” of Edward MacDowell’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 23.

“Competitions are a great way to see where you stand in terms of other people your age,” Collin explains. “It also gives you a lot of opportunities to perform, and to handle a lot of under-pressure situations, that everybody needs to know to deal with.”

Collin is also a gifted cellist, and having two instruments to focus on helped him to muster motivation for a suddenly empty performance calendar during the Covid-19 restrictions. “Working on my music became one of the most important things to me with so much shut down,” he recalls. “I know my practice got a lot more productive.”

It certainly helped him vault to the top of a very competitive field when PIMF held its first in-person music camp and festival in two years last June. Collin focused on keyboard studies there, but as a cellist he’s a member of the Symphony Orchestra of the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County. His performance with Dr. Mark Livshits at PIMF’s Winners’ Circle Concert is on PIMF’s YouTube channel.

The Concerto Competition is part of a host of online programs by PIMF, which is currently enrolling dedicated young musicians from around the world as well as the Philadelphia area for its 25th Anniversary Summer Camp and Festival at the Valley Forge Military Academy and College in June and July, 2022. Limited openings are available in most programs.

ABOUT The Philadelphia International Music Festival:

The Philadelphia International Music Festival (PIMF) is a resident summer music program directed by Kimberly Fisher, Principal Second Violin of The Philadelphia Orchestra, offering student musicians from around the world the unique opportunity of spending up to four weeks immersed in music education and performance training with members of the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra.

For more information on PIMF, visit philadelphiamusicfestival.org, call (856) 875-6816, “like” the Philadelphia International Music Camp & Festival on Facebook, follow @pimfmusiccamp on Instagram and Twitter, and visit the Philadelphia International Music Festival YouTube Channel for performance videos from previous festival seasons.