First Place, Double Bass Division
Spencer Jensen
Ellis Duo Piano Competition &
National Federation of Music Clubs National Solo Competition
National Federation of Music Clubs
The National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC) offers more than $750,000 in competition and award prizes on the local, state and national level. The Biennial Young Artist and Ellis Duo-Pianists competitions award a total of $77,300 in awards and two years of performance bookings. Additional competitions are sponsored by the Federation in a wide range of categories, including voice, instrumental music, composition, dance, conducting, handicapped and visually impaired, and music therapy.
BYU Student Receives National Award for Double Bass
Spencer Jensen sat behind his double bass quietly rehearsing his musical selections and carefully watching the positioning of his fingers. He had practiced these pieces two or three hours each day for weeks. Jensen had one shot; a national award was hanging in the balance. His audience waited in anticipation for him to begin to play. But his audience wasn’t thousands of people, not even dozens. It was just two–the sound technician and his professor behind the glass in the sound studio.
This audition earned Jensen the National First Place Winner in the Student/Collegiate Audition Awards for the double bass. Students who participate in the audition are required to record themselves playing as though they were in a live performance, with no breaks or do-overs. The recording is then sent to the judges of the competition.
“When I found out I got first place it was surprising but also encouraging. I wasn’t totally expecting to win, but I guess I did,” Jensen said with a laugh.
While it may have been a surprise to Jensen, his teachers and mentors have come to expect great things from him.
“Spencer has been one of the top performance majors to come out of my studio in all my years here at BYU,” said Eric Hansen, associate professor and department chair of string performance. Hansen worked closely with Jensen in preparing him for his live-recording audition in the weeks leading up to it.
Jensen, a native of Layton, Utah, started taking double bass lessons at the age of 12. As his passion for the instrument began to grow, he started making a name for himself by winning local competitions while in high school. Hansen said Jensen’s work ethic and natural aptitude for the double bass are setting him up for a successful career as a musician.
“His confidence grows and his determination to reach the highest realms of the industry deepens with such an award. To him it validates his own efforts and spurs him forward,” Hansen said.
Written by Beto Gonzalez
