Even after five years, Evelyn Meiwes can still vividly recall all the little details of her first time performing as a soloist with the Utah Symphony.
It had taken the violinist three auditions to land a spot in the symphony’s annual Salute to Youth concert. To distract herself while awaiting the results, she and her older sister, Dora Meiwes, had gone to a nearby library and playground. And eventually the good news came: Both sisters had earned a spot in the 60th annual Salute to Youth Concert.
Evelyn Meiwes remembers being blown away by the sound of the professional orchestra behind her as she played Edouard Lalo’s “Symphonie espagnole.” She was 12 — the youngest performer of the night — but she was surprisingly not all that nervous. Instead, she felt confident. And when she came off the stage, it felt like the best performance of the piece she’d ever done.
Now, Meiwes is 17 and the West High School senior is returning to Salute to Youth for the third and final time. Her sister is flying in from college to see her perform, and her parents will be there.
Like the first time around, Meiwes isn’t really feeling the nerves — at least for now.
As the 64th annual Salute to Youth concert falls on the night before Thanksgiving, the teenager is mostly feeling a sense of gratitude for the opportunity.
“Even though it’s the last time, it doesn’t really feel that way — I’m just excited to do the performance,” she said over a Zoom call. “It’s just a great way to come together with family and friends.”
Wednesday’s concert marks a welcome return for Meiwes. But for even younger performers like 13-year-old Aristotle Stokes and 8-year-old Natalie Sun, the 64th annual Salute to Youth concert, sponsored by the Deseret News, is an exciting debut.
In total, seven young musicians will take the Abravanel Hall stage Wednesday night.
Regardless of age or instrument, they have at least this much in common: They’ve worked really hard, and they’re ready to perform.
An 8-year-old pianist makes an exciting debut
Natalie Sun, a third grader at the Challenger School, was still in her burgundy school uniform when she hopped on FaceTime early Monday evening to chat with the Deseret News about Salute to Youth.
The 8-year-old, who has been playing since she was 4, is the youngest performer this time around, and she’s one of the youngest — if not the youngest — artist in the program’s 64-year history. Even as a third grader, she recognizes the significance of it all.
“I feel so excited and really awesome. At first I thought it was a dream — it’s like I had 10 different ice cream flavors at lunch,” she said.
On Wednesday night, she’ll be performing Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 24 — a challenging piece she said took her six months to practice. In preparation for her Salute to Youth debut, Natalie traveled down to Brigham Young University for weekly lessons with music professor Jihea Hong-Park. She practiced a minimum of 2.5 hours daily, running through the concerto 10 times a day.
Her preparation was more important than the outcome, she said.
“I kept telling myself that you just need to practice a lot and practice hard and give your best at the audition, no matter the result,” she said.
As she talks about Salute to Youth, Natalie is surrounded by family. Her mother, holding the phone, was her first piano teacher. Her younger brother, whom she enjoys singing and playing basketball with, sits by her side. And her father, who didn’t study music but recognizes the talent in his 8-year-old, is walking around in the background.
He’s visibly excited about his daughter making her Utah Symphony debut. He recalled standing outside Abravanel Hall with his wife listening to Natalie perform in the final round of the monthslong blind audition process for Salute to Youth.
Although he’s not trained in music, he’s heard his daughter practice countless times. And in that moment, he believed the performance was one of his daughter’s best. He turned to his wife, whose radiant smile said it all.
Natalie’s family was fairly emotional when they found out she made the cut — although her dad, who was the first one to receive the congratulations email, did initially have a little fun with the news by stoically telling them the results had come in and it shouldn’t be expected that an 8-year-old would get in on the first try.
Performing a solo with the Utah Symphony is a daunting undertaking at any age, let alone for a third grader. But Natalie says she loves the stage and performs well under pressure.
“I think I’m ready,” she said.
Inspiring a younger generation
Aristotle Stokes, a 13-year-old at Churchill Junior High in Millcreek, is feeling some nerves for Wednesday.
Like Sun, Wednesday will mark his Utah Symphony debut — and it’s not a moment he’s taking lightly.
“It’s kind of scary, because there’s a lot of pressure for me to play right,” said Stokes, who is a full scholarship student at the Gifted Music School in Salt Lake City. “Because I auditioned into that ... and I think there’s expectations of me to perform well, so it’s a little bit scary.”
But the eighth grader, who has been playing the bass since he was 6, said he was “quite happy” to be selected as a Salute to Youth finalist — and a bit surprised because he’s one of the youngest performers of the night.
Stokes typically practices around three hours a day. He’ll be performing Dragonetti’s Concerto in A Major, a piece he’s excited to play because it showcases the bass — an instrument that very rarely gets a shining moment in the orchestra, he said.
He hopes his performance will get other kids excited about the bass and possibly inspire them to pick up the instrument — a purpose he wants to carry on as he sets his sights on pursuing music professionally one day.
Salute to Youth tradition
Meiwes knows firsthand how inspiring a Salute to Youth concert can be. Living just a few minutes from Abravanel Hall, she’s sat in the audience several times and listened to the Utah Symphony — which she said is “such an important part of the culture here in Salt Lake.”
And she’s watched many kids take the stage over the years and get their shining moment as a Salute to Youth soloist.
“The fun part is just watching someone play a piece you’ve never heard and to leave falling in love with it and being like, ‘That was such beautiful music. I want to go listen to it again,’” she said.