Issue date: 3/5/07 Section: News

Chris Dickey, senior music performance major, plays Euphonium during the third annual Peck music competition on Saturday afternoon at Tarble Arts Center. (Brandon Campbell/The Daily Eastern News)

Christopher Dickey, a senior music performance major, won the third annual Peck Music Competition.

Dickey won by playing the euphonium. He has been involved with music for 12 years and this was his third time being involved with the Peck Music Competition. He placed third the first year he tried out.

Dickey enjoyed preparing for this competition because of the music.

The best part of preparing for this competition was "when the music got better and better," Dickey said.

The competition started out with 17 students vying for the coveted title competition winner.

The competition is named after Alex Peck, a resident of Charleston and supporter of Eastern's Music Department.

The competition is only open to Eastern students. The students performed 10-minute sets each. The number of contestants was then reduced down to six based on the morning performances.

There were three judges at this competition: Dawn Harris, visiting lecturer in voice at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Randall Reyman, director of jazz activities and coordinator of brass at Millikin University; and Christos Tsitsaros, associate professor of piano pedagogy at the U of I.

The six finalists came back that afternoon to perform a second time. After each contestant performed, the judges deliberated during an intermission and came back with the names of the winner and the two runners up.

The winner of the competition was awarded $1,000, second place won $500 and third place won $250.

The winner of last year's Peck Music Competition, Dane Thomas, a senior music education with a vocal emphasis major, finished in second place.

Thomas said he prepared for this competition by taking voice lessons once a week.

A lot of rehearsal time goes into a competition like this, he said.

"To do a 10-minute set, you need at least a month to practice," Thomas said.

Students are drawn to a competition like this because of its atmosphere.

"The best part of being in the competition is supporting my friends and colleagues to do their best. Everyone in the music department is very supportive and it makes competitions like the Peck Competition become a fun atmosphere instead of a cut-throat competitive atmosphere," Thomas said.

Third place went to grad student and saxophonist Kyle Slemmer, a music performance major. This was the first time he had entered the contest.

Since all three finalists will be graduating, they will not be able to compete in next year's Peck Music Competition.

Peck said he enjoyed the performances.

"I thought the performances were excellent through and through. It would be hard to pick a winner," Peck said.

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