Honor Frisco, a sophomore from Palos Verdes Estates, California, has been playing violin and piano for over 10 years. At a young age, he received several awards at highly competitive events, including First Place State Winner of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT) Contemporary Competition, Silver medalist in the Southern California Junior Bach Festival Complete Works Competition, and First Place awards for both violin and piano in the open solo category of the Southwestern Youth Music Festival. At the age of 10, Honor participated in the Advanced Suzuki Institute’s summer program and was selected to perform in the Honors Recital at Stanford University, making his violin solo debut.
Throughout middle school, Honor participated in several violin and piano competitions and won First Prize in the Music Teachers Association of California (MTAC) Orange County West Branch Piano Solo Competition, Bronze medal in the CAPMT Sonata-Sonatina Piano Festival, and First Prize in the MTAC Scholarship Auditions for violin.
In 2020, Honor was selected as a winner of the MTAC Artist of the Future Competition and awarded the opportunity to be a featured piano soloist with the Beach Cities Symphony Orchestra when they return to their concert performances. As a high school student, he has won numerous other music competitions including First Prize in the American Protégé International Competition of Romantic Music for violin and Second Prize for piano, First Prize in the Great Composers Competition: The Art of Strings for violin, Second Prize in the Great Composers Competition: Artist of the Year for piano, Third Place in the Enkor International Music Competition for piano, Absolute First Prize in the Canadian International Music Competition for violin.
Recently, Honor competed in the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition and received the Judge’s Distinction Award. He also won First Place (Regional) and Second Place (State Finals) of the CAPMT Violin Concerto Competition, First Place in the MTAC VOCE Solo Violin Competition (Regional), and Second Place in the American Youth Musician Union’s Music Talent Competition for violin.
Honor has studied both violin and piano at the Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles, where he served as concertmaster of the Colburn String Ensemble. He has also served as concertmaster of the Palos Verdes School District Advanced Ensemble and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, he performed regularly as a soloist with the Palos Verdes Regional Symphony Orchestra Chamber Group.
This year, Honor was chosen as a member of Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra (NYO2) of the United States of America. He looks forward to traveling to New York this summer to participate in the program. He will be back in New York in December 2021 to perform both violin and piano at Carnegie Hall in the American Protégé’s winners recital, and he was selected to perform at the Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium in the American Protégé’s Summer Gala in 2022.
In addition to his music achievements, Honor maintains excellent grades in all subjects and is a member of the French National Honor Society and the Tri-M Music Honor Society. He also received The President’s Volunteer Service Award, Gold Level in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64, 1st mvt (time: 12:15)
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, 1st mvt (time: 7:51)