Young Texas Artists Launches 41st Season with their Classic Cabaret

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- If the performances at the Young Texas Artists Classic Cabaret were any indication, the 41st Season of the YTA promises to offer a bumper crop of talent come March at the Crighton Theatre in Conroe. This past Thursday night in The Woodlands, was an evening filled with wine, great food, and music, but it was also an opening salvo by Young Texas Artists (YTA) President/CEO Susie Moore-Pokorski, at The Woodlands Country Club, Palmer Course. Each year, she brings in some great talent to entertain her discerning guests who mean so much to the YTA program, and are great backers to seeing that Texas produces the best in the performance divisions that the YTA covers. Of course the Young Texas Artists competition is known across the state, nationally, and even internationally, in sending out talent across the planet, emanating and succeeding from Our Great State, stamped with success that YTA has bestowed upon them.

This year, the Classic Cabaret featured 2024 Silver Medalist, Strings Division, Cellist William Suh; as well as the 1998 Winner, and Internationally renowned Concert Pianist, Petronel Malan.

The YTA celebrated their Classic Cabaret, essentially a mini salon of a wine and champagne mixer, dinner, and wonderful music capping off an incredible evening’s entertainment. It’s an interesting way to get to know some delightful people, music lovers all, dedicated to seeing previous YTA Winners and Medalists, travel the country and world in expressing their music that they studied while living in Texas.

Excitement grows each year as the Sun begins to dip below the tree line, as the night's entertainers ready, and the audience awaits two remarkable individuals whose lives are dedicated to music. The WCC’s Legacy Ballroom lights are dimmed allowing for a cozier atmosphere as the

YTA President/CEO Susie Moore-Pokorski welcomed all who attended, announcing grants from the City of Conroe, The Texas Commission on The Arts, and The Woodlands Diversion, an organization which looks to bring awareness to arts of not only classical music, but other genres of music as well. In addition, the Texas Medical Center Orchestra will feature the YTA winner for a third consecutive year.

“We are always thrilled to showcase our rising stars, giving them the performance experience that is vital to their progress,” said Moore-Pokorski. “We aim to secure more performance opportunities for our emerging artists, along with artistic and financial coaching, which will be YTA’s career development aim this season.”

Moore-Pokorski went on to say that YTA organizers currently anticipates that 70-80 musicians and artists will audition at the historic Crighton Theatre in Conroe in March, and that participants will receive professional critics, context, and other highly valued opportunities. The result of the auditions will have 8 finalists, who will participate in the finalist concert and awards, of which the winners will share $40K in cash rewards. The concert will be held on Saturday, March 14th, at the annual benefit gala, ‘Bach, Beethoven and Barbeque,’ and is always a lovely evening with wonderful classical music on the Crighton stage.

William Suh started his part of the evenings entertainment with several short form works, of course the first being Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Suite No. 3 in C Major, BMV 1009,’ with JSB being a master of the solo cello suite. The prelude opened with a broad arpeggiated gesture allowed by the smooth play of Suh’s arm and wrist movements. For the listener, you get a sense of joy, like being in an open space, enjoying the splendor of the sights, confident in your motions as the music moves you. William’s concentration is absolute when he is at one with his cello, an impressive and expensive century’s old instrument that is worth several hundred thousand dollars. Bach’s No. 3 is a bold piece, energetic, developing with a free flow, not forced, with a wonderful series of motif reinstatements that modulate with key changes that interest the listener. The coda, or ending, is brilliantly done, like a trucker jake-braking his rig to slow down with precision without having to apply the pedal. William’s grace and the beautiful play in his descent skills were excellently done, before returning to the C Major home key. Suh’s talent and the trust others hold in him, allows him to capture Bach’s vision and timeless vitality.

Petronel Malan. Her beauty knows no bounds, and coupled with her soft and aggressive play, she is a powerhouse at the piano. Malan is a world acclaimed concert pianist, a multi-Grammy nominee, and her talent is in demand world-wide. Although born in South Africa, she now calls Texas home, and residing near DFW, she is able to be whisked away at a moment’s notice to all points, world.

Malan played Ludwig van Beethoven’s ‘Sonata No. 14 in c-Sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2,’ better known as Moonlight Sonata, which gained its moniker some years after the composer’s passing. Yet, Beethoven left clues that his inspiration to write No. 14 was from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni,’ one of the most famous operas of all time. The first movement, the Adagio sostenuto, gives no hint of any rippling waters of Lake Lucerne, but is more dreamlike, perhaps a reflection of a life’s happenings built more on conquests than a nurturing relationship that strengthens the inner man. Malan evoked the sadness of its delicate phrasing in her play, and fully understood the sad moonlit nostalgic tranquility that Beethoven imparted in his writing. Petronel easily captured the listeners attention with its close embrace and entrancing nature, using her digits to ever so gently caress the ivories, taking us to a world with forlorn passion and profound innocent beauty.

Suh is still a young artist, and looks at Young Texas Artists as a performance opportunity to start the life of a musician.
“It is crucial to young artists like me,” said Suh, speaking on what the YTA has meant to him. “We are in the midst of jump-starting our careers, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

Both artists played pieces by Florence Price, the first African-American female symphonic composer, whose substantial works were found in a former summer home, and survived. The find has had many classical musicians, Suh and Malan alike, embracing Price’s lost works, which has added another outlet to their repertoires with works lost over 70 years ago.

Petronel spoke on the pieces that require an intense and powerful force on the keys.
“I have to put my body weight on the keys,” said Malan, pointing to her left hand digits. “There is no strength in these fingers.”

The YTA is internationally recognized and has a specific age requirement for their Music Competition; with Classical musicians it is 18–30 years, and with singers it’s 20–32 years old. Held in a three-day competition with eligibility requirements that features four performance divisions: Piano; Strings; Voice; and Winds, brass, percussion, harp, and guitar. The competition culminates in the YTA Finalists' Concert & Awards, which includes a showcase, awards, and a Grand Prize ceremony held in Conroe each year.

The new YTA 2025-26 season is the 41st annual Young Texas Artists Music Competition, helping young classical musicians in Texas launch their careers since the early 1980s. The YTA remains totally committed to bringing the best talent to the forefront, to continue to inspire and captivate their audiences. The new season of promise honors the decades of YTA Gold Medal candidates, and celebrates their legacy and influence in providing a bright future for classical music.

For information and to donate to YTA: youngtexasartists.org

Ruben can be reached at: ruben@montgomerycountynews.net