Left to right: Ms. Lisa Abel, Soprano, Steven Kerstein, Conductor & Musical Director, Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra and Yumi Man, Violinist.

BURBANK, Calif.--The winners of this year's second annual Hennings-Fischer Foundation and Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra's Young Artists' Competition are Lisa Abel, soprano and Yumi Man, violinist.

Ms. Abel and Ms. Man won out over 50 initial competitors in two days of preliminary competition to make it to the finals where they competed against four other sopranos and three other instrumentalists on Saturday evening, March 29th at the Hall of Liberty, Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills.

Ms. Abel of La Canada-Flintridge won the vocal competition singing Mozart's Deh vieni, nan tardar from The Marriage of Figaro and Puchinni's Quando m'en vo from La Boheme.
Ms. Man, of La Cresenta and the youngest competing finalist at 15 years of age, won playing Henryk Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor.

Each winner receives a honorarium of $500 and will perform with the Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra at their summer concert, Sunday, August 10, 6:30 p.m. at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank.
The judges of the competition were Mr. Fung Ho, conductor, Olympia Philharmonic, Mr. Barry Brisk, conductor, Beach Cities Symphony, Ms. Arlette Cardenes, conductor, Culver City Chamber Orchestra and Ms. Patricia Shanks, Opera Coach.

Awards were presented by Maestro Steven Kerstein of the Burbank Philharmonic, Dr. Nickolaos Koutouratsas, president, Hennings-Fischer Foundation and Ms. Lynda Willner, president, Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra.

A hearty congratulations to each of the finalists for the competition, which included:

Lisa Abel, Soprano, Ruslan Bryukov, Cello
Heather Calvete, Soprano
Achilleas Liarmakeopoulos, Trombone
Yumi Man, Violin
Joyce McCoy, Soprano
Susannah Murray, Soprano
Shira Renee Thomas, Soprano
Rok Zgnonc, Violin