To the uninitiated, one of the most puzzling aspects of classical-music culture is its emphasis on competitions, in which young musicians are graded like athletes on their ability to successfully complete certain tasks. Adjudicators do take interpretive factors into consideration, but more often the emphasis is on the technical aspects of performance: precise fingering, solid rhythm, and a pleasing tone.

But it’s not all about the pursuit of perfection. What, from the outside, might look like a brutal boot camp for musicians also has a softer and more social side—or so says pianist Natalie Lo, whose extensive list of prizes and awards belies the fact that she’s only beginning her career, having graduated from UBC just last year.

“First of all, you get a lot of performance experience,” Lo says, in a telephone interview from her Richmond home. “I find that if you don’t enter the competition scene, it’s hard to get as much exposure as you do—and I’ve also come out of the competition circuit with a lot of amazing friends. If there’s anything I find the most enjoyable about competitions, it’s meeting people. I met my best friend at a competition, and we’ve been friends for, like, 10 years now.”

A three-time winner of the Clef Concerto Competition, Lo will join 13-year-old William Lin, who won the event’s junior division in 2016, and the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra for the latter’s season finale this weekend. It’s a chance to see a pair of rising stars in performance—and to honour a musical tradition that dates back to the late 1940s, but that was in danger of extinction until the VMO and its music director, Ken Hsieh, stepped in to save the day.

“I really would have hated to see that tradition of the concerto competition go away,” Hsieh says, noting that the annual event, initiated by Burnaby’s now-defunct Clef Society, has played an important role in nurturing young musicians from all over B.C.

“Some of them are now really big names, such as Jonathan Crow, who is concertmaster with the Toronto Symphony,” he explains. “There was Jon Kimura Parker; there was Jamie Parker, there was Avan Yu… Back in the day, you never thought these people would be so famous today, so it’s really kind of neat.

“I intend to keep it going as long as I live,” he continues. “I think it’s great that we’re able to do this and give the young people a chance to perform, and to really encourage them.”

Hsieh praises the “raw talent” and boundless curiosity of Lin, who’ll perform the third movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor with the VMO. “His personality is very sensitive,” the conductor says, “but very mature at the same time.” He’s even more ebullient about Lo, who’ll be showcased in Camille Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor.

“I think she’s destined for something great,” he predicts. “I remember when she played last year, and our adjudicator was [veteran pianist and educator] Henri Brassard. And Henri just turned to me and said, ‘Just look at her! She’s really enjoying her playing; she’s really smiling; she’s just having a ball.’ So, yeah, I think Natalie will have a great future in her music career.”

The Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra plays Shaughnessy Heights United Church on Friday (June 2).