POTSDAM — Eight musicians will compete Saturday at the seventh annual James and Katherine Andrews Young Artist Instrumental Competition hosted by the Orchestra of Northern New York.

The competition is open to high school students from St. Lawrence, Lewis, Jefferson, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Warren and Hamilton counties.

It is one of the few competitions in the nation that awards both cash prizes — $500 for first place, $300 for the runner-up and $150 for third place — as well as a chance to play with a professional orchestra. The first place winner will perform his or her winning piece with the orchestra as part of the March 8 and 9 “Peter and the Wolf” concert at SUNY Potsdam’s Hosmer Hall. All winners receive two complementary concert tickets.

This year’s contestants: Musashi Happo of Hammond Central School on clarinet; Sabrina Johnson of Colton-Pierrepont Central School on trumpet; Noah Landers of Carthage Central High School on piano; Julia Murray of Saranac Lake High School on flute; Andrea Peters of Beaver River Central School, Beaver Falls, on violin; Jacob Anneler Zehr of Carthage Central High School on piano, Gabriella Zehr of Lowville, who is home-schooled, on violin and Abigail Zehr of Beaver River Central on French horn.

Saturday’s competition, held in Hosmer Hall at SUNY Potsdam and open to the public, begins at 9:15 a.m. The winner will be announced by noon. Admission is free.

Competitors must choose a classical concerto from an approved list and prepare and perform the piece from memory. The performers will receive feedback from a panel of professional musicians.

Previous winners of the competition have been Lillia J. Woolschlager of Croghan in 2011 and 2012; Nicole Moody of Lake Clear in 2010; Andrew Horwitz of Canton in 2009, Benjamin Hull of Madrid in 2008 and Nicholas Hartman of Potsdam in 2007 who played fourth horn in the orchestra’s two performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in October.

For more information about the orchestra, concert tickets and the young artist competition, go to the organization’s website at www.onny.org.

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