After the final concerto round with Steven Byess and the Canton Symphony in Gartner Auditorium of the Cleveland Museum of Art on Saturday evening, July 15, Piano Cleveland president Yaron Kolhberg announced the prize winners of the 2023 Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists.
Senior Division Prize Winners
First Prize ($10,000): Saehyun Kim (16, South Korea)
Second Prize ($5,000): Yanyan Bao (16, China)
Third Prize ($2,500): Ryan Wang (15, Canada) [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The six pianists who advanced to the final round of Piano Cleveland’s International Competition for Young Artists cleared the first hurdle on their way to winning first, second, and third place prizes with performances in the Chamber Music Round on Thursday evening in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Demonstrating how well they can play with others, the finalists performed single movements of piano trios with members of The Cleveland Orchestra, collaborations that couldn’t help but inspire them to new heights.
For this round, the Juniors enjoyed the expertise of violinist Yun-Ting Lee and cellist Martha Baldwin, cello, while the Seniors joined forces with violinist Jessica Lee and cellist Dane Johansen. I attended via the live webcast. [Read more…]
By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. On the schedule: light opera, Piano Cleveland Young Artist finals, carillon concerts & Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Nikolai Lugansky (pictured)
. Women’s Orchestra appoints music director, New Ohio Arts Economic Relief Program grants, administrative staff cuts at CIM
Almanac: milestones for composers Unsuk Chin, Harrison Birtwistle & James MacMillan
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld — the show with the famous Can-Can and the sixth and final Ohio Light Opera production to open this summer hit the stage in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster on Thursday and repeats on Sunday at 2. OLO’s other shows running in repertoire this weekend: How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Saturday at 2), Arizona Lady (Friday at 2), No, No, Nanette (Friday at 7:30) and Camelot (Saturday at 7:30).
Six finalists in the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists will play concerto movements with conductor Steven Byess and the Canton Symphony in the Final Round on Friday at 7:30 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Witness these performances either live or online (tickets required). [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Surely one of the highlights of Piano Cleveland’s International Piano Competition for Young Artists this summer will turn out to have been an inspiring guest recital by the amazing Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero.
In Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance on Sunday evening, July 9, Montero presented pristine, penetrating performances of works from the literature, followed by four ingenious improvisations on musical material submitted by the audience. I watched the recital via the excellent live webcast.
Seated Radu Lupu-style on a straight-backed chair at the Steinway, Montero began with an exploratory journey through Chopin’s Polonaise Fantasy in A-flat, followed by Schumann’s intense portraits of the characters who showed up for the masked ball in his Carnaval. After intermission, she gave a finely etched and effortless reading of Stravinsky’s Piano Sonata with carefully managed dynamics. [Read more…]
By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Next up at Wooster and Kent Blossom Festivals
. Report from “Europe’s Most Interesting Opera Festival”
. Almanac: remembering Oscar Hammerstein II in 4,600 of his 25,000 letters — “the best ones”
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 2pm, Ohio Light Opera’s production of Frank Loesser’s How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying returns to the Freedlander Theatre stage in Wooster.
And at 7:30, the second of four Kent Blossom Music Festival Faculty Concerts in Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State campus features pianist Orion Weiss, piano (pictured), violinist William Hagen, and members of The Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]
By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Charnofsky from WRUW, summer organ institute faculty from Oberlin
. R.I.P. Peter Nero
. Nipper, an early audiophile?
HAPPENING TODAY:
From 2 to 4 this afternoon, Eric Charnofsky hosts Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music from the studios of WRUW. Today’s playlist includes unusual selections by Louis Aubert, Gerhard Stäbler, J.S. Bach, Philip Glass, Carl Orff & Elizabeth Austin.
And tonight at 7:30, an Oberlin Summer Organ Institute Faculty Concert features Jonathan W. Moyer & Kirk M. Rich performing on the organs by D.A. Flentrop (Dutch) & Greg Harrold (Spanish) in Warner Concert Hall. Click here for webcast.
For details, click here. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
This summer Piano Cleveland has turned its attention to the stars of the future. Earlier this week the six finalists — three in the Junior Division (ages 11 -14) and three in the Senior Division (ages 15 – 18) — were selected to come to Cleveland for the Final Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists.
Qinyaoyao Ji (13, China), Elisey Mysin (12, Russia), and Zhonghua Wei (14, China) will vie for the top cash prize of $5,000 USD while Yanyan Bao (16, China), Ryan Wang (15, Canada), and Saehyun Kim (16, South Korea) will compete for the first prize of $10,000 USD.
The six were selected from 32 contestants who recorded their First Rounds performances at locations in London, Hamburg, Cleveland, New York, Beijing, and Seoul, in partnership with Steinway & Sons galleries. All First Round performances are available to watch on Piano Cleveland’s YouTube Channel. Read the pianists’ biographies here. [Read more…]
By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Four OLO shows, Montero recital, three visits to Jurassic Park, and U.C. Bells
. Cleveland Pops’ season & William Byrd’s legacy
. Almanac remembers premiere of Paula M. Kimper’s Sojourner Truth & milestones for Percy Grainger, Fernando Sor, George Antheil & Randall Thompson
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
In Freedlander Theatre on the campus of the College of Wooster, Ohio Light Opera repeats Arizona Lady, an unusual Viennese operetta by Emmerich Kálmán with an American West theme on Sunday at 2, and continues its stagings of H.M.S. Pinafore (pictured, Friday at 2), No, No, Nanette (Saturday at 2), and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Saturday at 7:30). Check our reviews columns to read what our writers have had to say about the productions (we’ll eventually review all six of the shows). [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
It’s been a good thing for the creative team of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Seymour Sullivan that Victorian England was rife with unqualified public officials, rigid class distinctions, and social inequality. What would the plot of H.M.S. Pinafore, one of their most popular Savoy Operas, have been like without the opportunity to lampoon such functionaries as W. H. Smith, a politician with no nautical experience, by portraying him as Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty? His advice:
By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. OLO stages Pinafore, CIPC hosts Gevorgyan recital, Kent Blossom Festival presents first faculty concert
. Youngstown Symphony season, Opera Western Reserve grant for Carmen
. Almanac remembers famous Douglass anti-slavery speech that inspired an opera
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 2 pm, Ohio Light Opera continues its run of H.M.S. Pinafore or The Lass That Loved a Sailor in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.
At 7:30, Eva Gevorgyan returns to Cleveland to kick off the 2023 Cleveland International Piano Competition and Institute for Young Artists with a program of Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
And Kent Blossom Music Festival Faculty Concerts begin at 7:30 pm with a performance by WindSync — Garrett Hudson, flute, Emily Tsai, oboe, Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet, Kara LaMoure, bassoon and Anni Hochhalter, horn — in Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State campus. [Read more…]