Una Wins Concerto Competition Two Years In A Row

Mar. 02, 2018

Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@39680a.com, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033

Vanessa Borelly Vega,

UNA Department of Music

FLORENCE, Ala.-Mary Barnes, a junior at the University of North Alabama, is the latest winner of the Tau Beta Sigma Concerto Competition.

The competition was created to honor outstanding student musicians on the collegiate level. The award guarantees Barnes additional scholarship money and a personal invitation to perform at the district convention April 14, 2018 in Charleston, South Carolina.

"It feels incredible," Barnes said. "Sometimes as a musician who isn't first chair in their respective ensembles, it can be hard to feel like you're making progress. Having that recognition that I'm becoming a better flute player every semester has helped me realize how far I've come since I came to UNA," she said.

This is a back-to-back win for the UNA Department of Music in this competition, with Wade Dillingham, saxophonist, bringing home the top prize last year.

"It would be really cool to have our chapter win two years in a row, and I wanted do something outside of my comfort zone. I've never entered a musical competition before and I've never had to professionally record myself."

Barnes is double majoring in Music Education and History, with plans to help future generations of students as either a band director or history teacher. She is in the studio of Dr. Whitney O'Neal.

For more information about music performance and music education programs at UNA: 39680a.com/music

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH ALABAMA

The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate and graduate degree programsthrough the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business,Education and Human Sciences, and the Anderson College of Nursing.Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Tuscumbia, Sheffield and Muscle Shoals. UNA also operates arenownedcollegiate athletic program in NCAA Division II's Gulf South Conference.The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age or national origin.

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