The Wine Country Music Awards are coming to Wilson Creek Winery on November 5th.
There is a wide variety of entries in both music styles and age....here is some info on one of the youngest:
Nicole LeBaron is currently 8 years old. She is a classically-trained pianist and singer of opera arias. Her singing repertoire includes other genres, including classical crossover.
Nicole was born on July 30, 2009 in Plainview, New York. At age 2, her family moved to San Diego, California. She began taking tap dancing and ballet lessons shortly thereafter. Her introductory piano lessons began from infancy with her mother, Karine LeBaron.
Nicole also started drawing and painting at age 3.
Upon turning 4, she started ice skating lessons and started entering several competitions held in San Diego and Pasadena, CA, taking first place in her age group. Her piano studies continued, and she entered several competitions. She was awarded first place in a Mozart competition in San Diego. Even at this age, Nicole was playing a very advanced repertoire. She was the youngest pianist to ever take an examination for the RCM (Royal Conservatory Music), winning a center award for the highest mark for her level. She was then invited to perform in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California Alfred Newman Recital Hall.Started taking piano lessons at age 4 with Karina Burch.
At age 5, Nicole was accepted as a student at the John Perry Academy of Music, taking studies with Mina Perry. In the summer of 2016 she was invited to John Perry’s Summer Festival, attending Master Classes with distinguished professors and pianists Andrew Park, Janet Favreau, and more.
Still at age 6, she was the youngest student who attended Mr. Perry’s Summer Festival. On March 18, 2017 Nicole performed a recital along with other students of Mina Perry at the Steinway Piano Gallery in Pasadena, where she performed works by Chopin, Moszowski and Schubert. In her studies, she learned to play works by Prokofiev, Mozart, Beethoven, among others, which included a Haydn Piano Concerto in D Major and Bach’s French Suite No. 2 in C minor.
When Nicole turned 7, her attention began to shift towards opera arias as her parents would listen to Mozart opera music, including the ‘Queen of the Night Aria’ from the Magic Flute. She began taking voice lessons with Mr. Sal Giglio in Temecula, CA at MIracle Voice Lessons. Edward Francis. Nicole performed a Clementi Sonatina there at the Cypress Recital Hall at the California State University in Northridge, CA (CSUN).
Nicole LeBaron is able to sing Arias in German, French, Italian, and English.
You can see her perform here: https://youtu.be/a07nj7yHwFo