Neeraja Aravindan, a senior at High School South, is a winner of the Westminster Conservatory’s Concerto Competition. She will perform the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 19 with the Westminster Community Orchestra, conducted by Ruth Ochs, at the Westminster Conservatory Showcase on Sunday, March 22, at 3 p.m. in Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall on the campus of Princeton University. Tickets are $15.
Participants in the competition are nominated by faculty members. The winners are selected after each nominee performs for a panel of judges. Winners receive the opportunity to perform a piece or movement with the Westminster Community Orchestra during its showcase concert.
Aravindan, 17, is enrolled in the pre-collegiate Young Artists Program at Westminster Conservatory, where she is currently a student of Galina Prilutskaya. She has received numerous awards from notable organizations such as the certificate of excellence from the International American Fine Arts Festival, high honors from the New Jersey Music Teachers Association, and a certificate from Music Fest.
She received the Dr. H. Korkina Scholarship of Westminster Conservatory in 2012 for piano studies. Aravindan has performed at the Nicholas Music Center at Rutgers University, the Princeton University Chapel, and the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, among other music halls. Aravindan performed a chamber arrangement of Beethoven’s Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2013. She was a finalist in the senior category of the Princeton Festival Piano Competition in 2014. She has participated in several chamber ensembles in central New Jersey and enjoys collaborating to perform both contemporary and classical music.
Aravindan lives in West Windsor with her mother, Shubha Aravindan, and her father, Aravind Narasimhan.
Westminster Conservatory Showcase, Westminster Conservatory, Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University. Sunday, March 22, 3 p.m. The program features ensembles from the Westminster Conservatory of Music including the Westminster Community Orchestra, Westminster Conservatory Children’s Choir, and the Trenton Children’s Choir. $15. 609-258-9220. www.rider.edu/arts.
