Annandale Lions Club supports young musicians

Several talented youths were recognized Feb. 25 at the Annandale Lions Club’s annual Bland Music Scholarship Competition at the United Baptist Church of Annandale.

Samantha Rose Williams, 17, a student at T.C. Williams High School, cinched the first-place prize in the vocal contest by singing “Your Daddy’s Son” from “Ragtime.” Charlotte Victoria Lewis, 15, of Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County, was the second-place winner, and South Lakes High School student Catherine Aidan Mason La Valley, 16, took third place.

In the instrumental competition, pianist Seung Joon Rhie, 15, of McLean High School, was the first-place winner; Kyeong-Eun, 18, of Langley High School, won second place, and flautist Chloe Falkenheim, 14, of Yorktown High School was the third-place winner.

First-place winners in both categories receive $100 from the Lions Club. Second-place winners receive $75, and third-place winners receive $50. The two top winners in each category will perform in a regional competition March 18 in Fairfax. Winners of that event will advance to a district-level competition and the state finals.

“We think youth holds the key to our future, and music is a discipline that is valuable for so many other areas, like mathematics,” says Gene Boucher, who has chaired the Bland competition for the Annandale Lions Club for 34 years. This is the club’s 64th year in the Bland competition.

The competition is named for African-American composer James Allen Bland (1854-1911), who wrote “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” which was the official state song of Virginia until 1997.