Way to Go! Michael Stevens, E. Islip

Michael Stevens, a sixth-grader at East Islip Middle School, recently beat about 20 students at the middle school, high school and college levels to win a concerto competition at the 2011 Northeast French Horn Festival held at the University of New Hampshire.

Michael performed Camille Saint-Saëns' "Morceau de Concert" and earned a standing ovation from the festival's four judges.

"It made me proud of my work," said Michael, 12, who credited his father David, a band teacher at Herricks Middle School, for getting him interested in the French horn. "I'd been practicing hard for this."

For winning, Michael received a custom-made mouthpiece and two autographed compositions by Vermont composer Lydia Busler-Blais. At the festival he performed in a recital and participated in a master class with French horn soloist Hermann Baumann.

For two years Michael has studied with Sharon Moe, principal horn of the Long Island Philharmonic. He is also first horn in the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York and the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Symphony.

He also recently won a Gretchen Snedeker Memorial Scholarship to attend the New York Summer Music Festival.