NYFC Competition 2025 Winners
The 2025 NYFC Competition was held on March 30, 2025 at the Allen-Stevenson School in NYC. We thank competition coordinator Kaoru Hinata and the judges (Sue Ann Kahn, Dominique Kim, Sarah Shin, Jan Vinci, and Patricia Zuber). Congratulations to the winners, who will appear in concert on Sunday, April 27:
1st prize: Kyrese Washington
2nd prize: Emily DeNucci
3rd prize: Frederick Branson
Special thanks to Phil Unger and the Flute Center of New York for sponsoring the first prize.
Kyrese Washington (first prize) is a performing composer currently studying with Valerie Coleman at the Manhattan School of Music. They were awarded first prize at the 2024 Rochester Flute Association Emerging Artist competition, where they performed the New York premiere of their composition poem for flute and piano. Other recent performances have included guest artist appearances at the Flutistry Boston Flute Fair, the Raleigh Flute Fair, and the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention.
A native of Raleigh, NC, Kyrese Washington was a winner of the 2023 Raleigh Area Flute Association Young Artist Competition and the 2022 Raleigh Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Washington was a Presser Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where they earned their bachelor’s degree in flute performance, studying with Erika Boysen and Tim Hagen. They won the Student Artist Concerto Competition at UNC, participated in the NFA Young Artist Mentorship Program, and were principal flutist of Appalachia: A Southeastern Wind Symphony.
Kyrese Washington began composing in seventh grade and gave their first premiere in eighth grade with their middle school band. Since then, their compositions have been performed across the USA, including in Tennessee, New Mexico, Virginia, and Massachusetts. Their international debut occurred in Oslo, Norway with the premiere of Sonatine des Larmes performed by euphoniumist Bente Illevoid and commissioned by Katherine Needleman’s Fund for Music.
Emily DeNucci (second prize), age 18, attends the Curtis Institute of Music, studying flute performance with Jeffrey Khaner. Her previous teachers include Greig Shearer and Sonora Slocum. She has participated in masterclasses with Marina Piccinini, Julien Beaudiment, Carol Wincenc, Michael Kofler, and Marco Granados. In December 2023, Ms. DeNucci was invited to play principal flute for the New York String Orchestra Seminar, which included two performances at Carnegie Hall. This past summer, she was a member of the National Repertory Orchestra. In previous summers, she participated in NYO-USA, Curtis on Tour, Curtis Summerfest, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Ms. DeNucci won first prize in the New Jersey Young Artist Competition and the Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia Collegiate Competition (2024), won second prize in the National Flute Association Orchestral Audition & Masterclass Competition (2023), and was a co-winner of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition (2021) and had the opportunity to solo with the orchestra that December.
Freddy Branson (third prize) is a sophomore at the Peabody Institute, where he is studying for his BM in flute performance under Marina Piccinini. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, he began flute at age three in the Suzuki method under the tutelage of Kate Bergen, later moving to Alan Hardy. Freddy Branson has been awarded many scholarships and prizes, most recently winning first prize in the MPIMC International Concerto Competition. Other highlights include performing at Musikverein in Vienna after winning first prize in the Grand Prize Virtuoso International Competition, performing at the Melbourne Recital Centre after winning the State Prize for the Australian “Strike A Chord” Chamber Music Competition, and being selected for the Melbourne Youth Orchestra’s European tour.
Past winners:
A list of past NYFC Competition winners can be found here. More about these idividuals can be accessed via the "details" link on that page for NYFC Competitions 2014 and later. We are in the process of compiling a more complete roster of past winners and their achievements. Past winners are urged to send biographical materials and photos to the Club's archivist for inclusion in the archives.
