At Cerritos Center and Elsewhere, "Yamaha Cares"

BUENA PARK, CA (April 9, 2004) — Teenage flute sensation Anna Choi was the proud recipient of a $1,000 Yamaha Scholarship on March 18, 2004 at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in Cerritos, CA. The award, presented as part of the sixth annual Performing Arts Scholarship Presentation by the Friends of Arts Education at the Cerritos Center, was part of the new Yamaha corporate giving program known as "Yamaha Cares." In addition to receiving a Yamaha Scholarship, young Anna Choi had the chance to rehearse with Yamaha artist David Benoit and the Asia America Youth Orchestra.

Yamaha Cares uses charitable donations, product donations and hands-on help to promote education, arts, health and human services and community development in the areas where Yamaha employees live and work, and to spread the gift of music to people throughout America. Other recent Yamaha Cares initiatives have included the donation of a Disklavier grand piano to a young woman in Cobden, IL in cooperation with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Metro St. Louis, and the assistance of more than 50 employees at the Special Olympics Southern California Fall Games in November, 2003.

Choi was one of seven scholarship recipients at the Cerritos celebration, which was highlighted by the appearance of Los Angeles Opera mezzo soprano Suzanna Guzmán and the music of Yamaha artist David Benoit's Asia America Youth Orchestra. Before an audience of more than 500, Choi performed the first movement of Mozart's "Flute Concerto in G Major" with their accompaniment.

Benoit, a longtime Yamaha artist and founder of the Asia America Youth Orchestra, took a special pride in the occasion. "It is my great pleasure to present The Asia America Youth Orchestra as part of the Cerritos Friends of the Arts 2004 scholarship program," he said earlier. "The primary mission of the orchestra is to give young talented musicians an opportunity to perform with a full symphony orchestra made up of their peers."

Choi has received Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA)'s "Most Promising Orchestral Musician" award and has won numerous trophies from the Southwestern Youth Music Festival. She has been a principal flutist in the Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra for three years, a principal flutist in the OCHSA Chamber Orchestra and the Wind Ensemble and a member of the OCHSA Flute Ensemble and Woodwind Quintet. She has been selected for the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association, and has participated with Torrance Youth Chamber Music for two years. Choi is the concerto competition winner of the Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra and the OCHSA Chamber Orchestra. She won the Brentwood-Westwood Concerto Competition and plans to perform solo with them in May.

For more information on Yamaha Cares, write Yamaha Corporation of America, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.