Misters Mozart, Bloch and Paganini would be impressed. The judges certainly were.

She won the state title.

She won the regional title.

And, no surprise, Gloria Ferry-Brennan came home from Milwaukee, Wis. with the national first place title at the Music Teachers National Association Junior String Competition.

The Langley violinist embarked on the five-day excursion to the Midwest with her mom, Anne, for the March 26 competition.

“It was bitterly cold and dry in Milwaukee,” Gloria said. “There wasn’t a single green blade of grass, flower or budding tree anywhere in sight. Everything was gray.”

It turned out to be cold inside, too. The 14-year-old eighth-grader at Langley Middle School recalled arriving at their freezing Milwaukee hotel — thanks to a broken heater — where Gloria tried to practice for a couple of hours before dinner.

She said that since things weren’t going too well at their hotel, they walked next door to the Hilton Hotel, where the competition would take place.

“It was so fancy, with huge chandeliers, beautiful carpets, ladies in big fur coats, and it was nicely heated,” Gloria said.

They found some dinner and went back to their now space-heated hotel room to get some rest.

A Friday morning rehearsal in the competition room the next day put Gloria at ease.

“This gave me an idea of the acoustics, and how it felt to play there,” she said.

“It wasn’t ideal; the sound was muffled because of the carpeted floor, and it was a very small space. The judges table was set up not seven feet away from me,” she said with some alarm.

All through the day, Gloria said she would get surges of butterfly flurries in her stomach.

“But other than that, I was just plain excited,” she said.

It came time to register for the competition, and mother and daughter got in line with the rest of the competitors. A nervous mom with her son stood in front of Gloria in line.

“The mom seemed really stressed out,” Gloria said.

“She turned around and said to me, ‘It’s too bad we have to be competing against you!’ We found out later that she said this because she saw that my teacher was Simon James.”

James is a soloist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and an active teacher with a large studio of gifted students at the highly regarded Coleman Studio in Seattle, where Gloria has studied for two years.

James gushed over the talents of Gloria.

“To say she is talented girl just doesn’t begin to qualify her as a musician,” James said. “She’s got amazing stage presence, she’s got incredible technique and she’s got a big smile and a warm heart,” he said.

“She’s just one of a kind.”

The lady in line with her son sensed that this student of James would give her son a run for his money.

“Her son had already competed at nationals three years ago,” Gloria said of the nervous mom. That year, one of Simon’s students had won the competition.

“Both she and her son turned out to be really nice. Her son, a cellist in my division, ended up getting second place.”

That night, Gloria and her mom returned to a now warm and cozy hotel room where she marked her pieces in her head and fingered along on the bed sheets.

She jumped out of bed at 6:45 a.m. and “tried to force some food down my throat” to get ready for her 9 a.m. slot.

Gloria donned the couture silk, magenta-and-orange sherbet-trimmed gown which she helped design, created by Langley clothing designer Lynn Mizono.

“As I walked through the halls at the Hilton to find a practice room, I heard so much amazing music streaming from all the rooms,” she said.

She started warming up with her accompanist and worked on the tricky sections, the beginnings and the endings of her pieces. Then she waited until it was her turn.

“Those 10 minutes were hard. I just kept taking deep breaths and drinking water and, as always, I got this sudden boost of courage when I walked into the room.”

She was required to choose three pieces that contrasted in styles. She chose “Nigun,” the second movement of Ernest Bloch’s “Baal Shem Suite for her contemporary selection; and two classical selections: Mozart’s “Violin Concerto No. 4” and Nicolo Paganini’s “Caprice

No. 13, a flamboyant, virtuosic piece.

She smiled at the three judges whom, she said, looked very stern.

“Everyone was looking at me, and there was this incredible tension in the room. I took a breath and started to play the Mozart,” Gloria said.

“It is a very happy, energetic piece and it put me in a good mood.”

After playing the three selections, Gloria thanked the judges and left the room. She said she didn’t feel overjoyed, but neither did she feel upset.

“I just felt like nothing much had happened. It was really tough competition, and I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”

They went out and enjoyed an interesting Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum, biding the time until the winners were announced at 5 p.m.

The hour arrived and all the junior string contestants were called onto the stage. Gloria’s hopes were somewhat dashed after the third, then second place winners’ names were called.

“I was truly surprised when they said, ‘And the winner of the Music Teachers National Association Junior String Competition is … Gloria Ferry-Brennan!”

Gloria was presented with $1,000 in prize money by the association sponsor, the Yamaha Corporation of America, Orchestral Strings Division.

“I was so incredibly pleased. What an honor,” Gloria said.

On Sunday, Gloria performed at a recital with all of the junior winners, including those in the categories of strings, piano, composition, woodwind and chamber music. The ballroom where the recital was held was carpeted, and Gloria said she couldn’t hear herself play.

“The room was ‘dead,’” she said.

“Although the audience could apparently hear me just fine.”