The West Shore Chorale, John Drotleff, director, will hold auditions on Tuesday, August 21 at Memorial Hall in Rocky River. Click here for details and information about scheduling an audition time.
Winners named in Cooper Piano Competition
Following the final round of the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall on Friday evening, the judges announced the first, second, and third-place winners. Prizes were awarded by Thomas and Evon Cooper.
First prize of $20,000 went to Tony Yun, (left, 17) of Toronto, Canada, who played Tchaikovsky’s first concerto. Kai-Min Chang (17) of Changhua County, Taiwan, took home the second prize of $10,000, and Yunchan Lim (14) of Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea was awarded the third prize of $5,000. Chang and Lim had played Chopin’s first and second concertos with the Orchestra.
Earlier, Yun and Lim had tied for the Audience Award following the Recital Round at Oberlin, which gave each of them an additional prize of $500. All three winners also received full-tuition scholarships to the Oberlin Conservatory.
Oberlin Cooper Piano Competition culminates in concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra (July 20)
by Daniel Hathaway
Because contestants’ repertoire is selected well before the finalists get chosen, it’s always a cliff-hanger to see not only who makes it to the final round in the Thomas and Evon Cooper Competition, but what pieces they’ll be playing. As it turned out this year in Oberlin’s biennial piano competition, three separate works were on the docket for Friday evening’s finals with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall on July 20 — both of the Chopin concertos and Tchaikovsky’s first. [Read more…]
Six play Cooper Piano Competition Recital Round at Oberlin (July 18)
by Daniel Hathaway
Although they didn’t have to pass through trials by silence, water, and fire like Papageno, the six young pianists remaining in the draw on Wednesday evening, July 18 at the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition reached the recital round by surviving earlier sessions that had trimmed the original 31 performers down to 16, then to 10. With no questions remaining about their technical aptitude, it was up to these six to prove their musical and interpretive mettle and their ability to communicate their ideas to the jury in 30-minute solo programs. All of the pianists were impressive, but some were standouts. [Read more…]
Three finalists named in Cooper Piano Competition
Following the recital round in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall on Wednesday, the jury for the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition announced the three finalists who will play concertos with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall on Friday evening at 7:30 pm, and named the 4th, 5th, and 6th-place winners and the recipients of the Audience Prize.
The final three are Tony Yun, (left, 17) of Toronto, Canada, Yunchan Lim (center, 14) of Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, and Kai-Min Chang (right, age 17) of Changhua County, Taiwan.Yun will play Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto. Lim will be featured in Chopin’s Second Concerto. Chang will solo in Chopin’s First Concerto. [Read more…]
Six Advance to Recital Round in Cooper Piano Competition
Following the concerto round on Tuesday, the jury for the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition announced the six competitors who will play 30-minute recitals on Wednesday, July 18 at 7:00 pm in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory (performance order to be determined). Admission is free. The session will be broadcast live by WCLV 104.9 ideastream, and will be streamed live here. The three finalists who will play concertos with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall on Friday evening will be announced late on Wednesday evening,.
Ryan Zhu (age 14), Vancouver, Canada
William Yang (17), Natick, Massachusetts, U.S.
Kai-Min Chang (17), Changhua County, Taiwan
Tony Yun (17), Toronto, Canada
William Chen (15), New York, New York, U.S
Yunchan Lim (14), Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
Ten remain in Cooper Piano Competition
Following the second semifinal round on Monday, the jury for the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition announced the ten competitors who will play full concertos with collaborative pianists on Tuesday, July 17 at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory. Admission is free. The sessions will be streamed live here.
2 p.m. session:
Ryan Zhu (age 14), Vancouver, Canada
Liszt: Concerto No. 1 in E-flat
Bo Zhang (17), Hangzhou, China
Chopin: Concerto No. 1 in e
William Yang (17), Natick, Massachusetts, U.S.
Chopin: Concerto No. 1 in e
Kai-Min Chang (17), Changhua County, Taiwan
Chopin: Concerto No. 1 in e
Tony Yun (17), Toronto, Canada
Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 in b-flat
William Chen (15), New York, New York, U.S.
Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 in b-flat
Liszt: Concerto No. 1 in E-flat
Bo Zhang (17), Hangzhou, China
Chopin: Concerto No. 1 in e
William Yang (17), Natick, Massachusetts, U.S.
Chopin: Concerto No. 1 in e
Kai-Min Chang (17), Changhua County, Taiwan
Chopin: Concerto No. 1 in e
Tony Yun (17), Toronto, Canada
Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 in b-flat
William Chen (15), New York, New York, U.S.
Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 in b-flat
7 p.m. session:
Yunchan Lim (14), Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
Chopin: Concerto No. 2 in f
Yangrui Cai (17), Guangzhou, China
Prokofiev: Concerto No. 3 in C
Tyler Kim (15), Temecula, California, U.S.
Chopin: Concerto No. 2 in f
Anton Mejias (17), Helsinki, Finland
Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 3 in d
Chopin: Concerto No. 2 in f
Yangrui Cai (17), Guangzhou, China
Prokofiev: Concerto No. 3 in C
Tyler Kim (15), Temecula, California, U.S.
Chopin: Concerto No. 2 in f
Anton Mejias (17), Helsinki, Finland
Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 3 in d
Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Jahja Ling (July 7)
by Daniel Hathaway
With over a hundred Blossom Music Center performances to his credit, Jahja Ling was the obvious — and ideal — choice to replace the indisposed Franz Welser-Möst for The Cleveland Orchestra’s opening concert on Saturday, July 7. Perfect weather and a revelatory performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition celebrated the beginning of Blossom’s 50th Anniversary season in a memorable way. And there were fireworks, too. [Read more…]
31 young pianists arrive this week for Oberlin Cooper Competition
by Daniel Hathaway
Piano professor Robert Shannon is eagerly waiting to welcome this year’s participants in the Thomas & Evon Cooper Piano Competition to the Oberlin campus later this week. “This year the lineup is stronger than ever,” Shannon said in a recent telephone conversation. “There’re some impressive people, and the overall level is consistently high.” (Photo: the semifinalists in 2016.)
The biennial piano contest, which alternates with a violin competition, will be fueled by 31 young players from seven different countries (see the roster of competitors and their repertoire here). The 13-18 year-olds have been selected from a field of some 90 applicants who have been drawn to the Cooper event through its reputation alone. “We don’t actively recruit,” Shannon said. “We just publish the announcement and we’re well enough known by now that it just happens. The first year we held the Cooper we had something like 140 pianists apply, but then I think people figured out how challenging it was going to be. We’ve stabilized now at about 90 applicants.”
This year’s competitors include eleven U.S. citizens, seven from China, five from Canada, three from South Korea, two each from Finland and Taiwan, and one from Norway.
Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute: faculty perform Couperin & Charpentier (June 30)
by Daniel Hathaway
Even with a Baroque organ case looming over its stage, the utilitarian design of Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall has nothing in common with the overwrought exuberance of the Palace of Versailles. But if you closed your eyes last Friday evening, June 30, and let your ears take over, the faculty of the Baroque Performance Institute — plus some advanced students and choral scholars — successfully transported you back three centuries to the court of Louis XIV (aka the Sun King) in extended works by François Couperin and Marc-Antoine Charpentier. [Read more…]