Program notes from the First Coast Wind Ensemble - now called the First Coast Wind Symphony (edited by admin, 2016) - concert on April 28, 2013, where Arianna Beyer was featured as the winner of the 2013 FCWE Concerto Competition for High School Musicians, are as follows:

“Arianna Beyer, a senior instrumental major at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, principal clarinetist of the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra, and a student of Dr. Lynn Musco, lives in Mount Dora. Arianna has earned many distinguished honors, including: 2013 U.S. Navy High School Concerto Competition Winner, 2013 YoungArts Honorable Mention Winner, 2011 and 2012 First Place Clarinet Winner and the 2012 Overall Winner for the John Philip Sousa National Young Artists’ Solo Competition, First Runner-Up in the U.S. Air Force Band’s 2013 Colonel George S. Howard Young Artist Competition, and placement into the prestigious FMEA All-State Bands/Orchestras and FBA District Bands for each of the last seven years, where she was honored to be appointed Principal/Concert Mistress seven times.

Arianna is also and accomplished jazz musician, having distinguished herself as the 1st tenor saxophone/soloist for the 2013 FSU Tri-State (Florida, Georgia, Alabama) Honors Jazz Ensemble. She is the lead tenor saxophone in the award winning Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

This summer, Arianna will attend Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan as a 2013 Emerson Scholar, having received a full merit scholarship to their orchestra program.

Weber was a German composer, pianist and conductor, and the first cousin of Mozart’s wife Constanze. He wrote his Concertino for Clarinet for Heinrich Bärmann, one of the most accomplished clarinetists of the day. The opening of this single-movement work recalls a plaintive aria from an early nineteenth-century opera with a tragic song for the clarinet. From this starting point, Weber spins increasingly elaborate variations that display the clarinet’s wide-ranging capabilities for both expressivity and virtuosic display. It is a tribute to Weber’s ability that his piece remains a favorite in the standard repertoire.”

Watch the performance here: Concertino for Clarinet (Arianna Beyer, soloist)