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Somewhere between last year and this year, Academy student Jack Neely found his inspiration. 

Driven to succeed after falling short of the standards for the 2024 Academy Concerto Competition, the young cellist went on not only to qualify for the March 2025 event but to win it.  

“I really wanted to come back,” said Neely, a 16-year-old sophomore at Hawken School. “It opened my eyes to what I needed to be doing. It was a push to keep looking at my goals.” 

Whatever it was, it worked. The problems Neely had memorizing the Haydn C-Major Cello Concerto in 2024 vanished in the flurry of practice he realized would be required if he wanted to share the competition stage with his Academy colleagues.   

Also helpful to Neely as he approached the 2025 content: a stint last summer at the Rushmore Music Festival in South Dakota, and lessons with Academy faculty Daniel Pereira, who he described as “so supportive and down to Earth.”  

This time around, “I put in a lot more hours,” Neely said. “I was much more committed. I really wanted to get into the competition.” 

As it turned out, of course, Neely did much more than qualify. He took first place, edging out pianist Max Tian (Rabotkina), who won second prize; and pianist Louis Wang (Russ) and clarinetist Nicholas Garrett (Golovin), who shared third prize. Clarinetist Mari Uchino-Garcia (Golovin) earned an Honorable Mention.  

The jury was composed of three �Ӱ�ԭ�� faculty members, each representing one of the instruments featured in the competition: Andrew Hosler (woodwinds), Eugenia Poustyreva (strings), and Sandra Shapiro (piano).  

For Neely, the “intimate” scale of the Academy competition was a big part of its appeal and of his success. He said playing for a group of his peers and a jury of three made for a “special” day, putting him at ease and helping him focus on his performance.  

He had much the same to say of the Academy itself. Even as he was competing, striving for excellence, Neely said he felt the support of his friends, colleagues, and teachers. 

“I love having music in my life, and I feel the nice thing about �Ӱ�ԭ�� is that it’s very community based,” he said.