High School Senior Takes Top Prize in Esther Weil Music Competition

OCEAN CITY – The Esther Weil Music Competition at the Ocean City Music Pier last week (Tuesday, May 17) provided a platform to showcase the high level of musicianship achieved by 20 students from Cape May and Atlantic County high schools.
The top winner—with a $1,000 cash prize–was Jarrett Porter, an 18-year-old baritone from Middle Township High School who will major in opera at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He won for his rendition of “O du mein Holder Abendstern,” an aria from Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhauser.
Second prize of $500 went to Alexander Bui, 17, an 11th grader at Egg Harbor Township High School who received a standing ovation after performing a movement from Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor.
Two winners tied for third place with $250: trombonist Carolyn Thomas, 18, of Holy Spirit High School, and tenor Kameron Ghanavati, 17, an 11th grader at Ocean City High School.
Ocean City Pops Maestro William Scheible, who served as one of three judges, had originally planned to invite only the first-place winner to perform with the Pops orchestra this summer. But the talent that he and the other judges saw moved him to make an announcement to the audience:
“We were so enamored with all four students that I would like to invite each of them to play a concert with the orchestra this summer,” he said.
The other judges were Pam Whitman, a flutist with the Pops orchestra, and Dr. Jack Carr, director of music at the Gamp School in Philadelphia and a vocal coach.
The competition was sponsored by The Friends of the Ocean City Pops, Inc., an all-volunteer organization that supports the Pops. It is named for the late Esther Weil, a patron of the arts. Friends trustee Judy Perkins, who coordinated the event, echoed what many in the audience felt after seeing all of the students perform on stage.
“The level of musicianship was superb,” she said. “I was so impressed with the caliber of their professionalism.”
At one point, former Ocean City Mayor Henry “Bud” Knight, who served as emcee thanked “the parents and grandparents who paid for all the music lessons.”
Pianist Scott Breiner served as accompanist to the students.