by Mike Telin
On Thursday, July 24 during the finals of the Cooper International Piano Competition at Severance Music Center, Anna Avramidou made a major statement with her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Samy Rachid.
In his review, Daniel Hathaway of ClevelandClassical.com described the 17-year old Cypriot as “a thoughtful player who is well in command of dynamic changes. In the opening movement, she balanced well-rounded phrases with lightning bolts of technical passages and a beautiful cadenza.”
Although she was up against some stiff competition from Anwen Deng (16, Australia) and Sawako Harada (18, Japan), both of whom were awarded second prize, in the end the jury bestowed the $20,000 first prize on Avramidou.
We reached Anna Avramidou by phone in Oxford, England, where she was participating in the annual Oxford Piano Festival. I began our conversation by congratulating her on winning the Cooper Competition.
This article was originally published on 
This article was originally published on 
In 2001, pianist Mike Petrone helped director John Baumgartner create the soundtrack to a silent film called War Story. Then he shelved the recordings and never thought about them again. Until last year.
INTERESTING READ:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
LOOKING AHEAD: