by Daniel Hathaway
After several days of preliminary rounds at the Oberlin Conservatory, the number of contestants in the 2025 Cooper International Piano Competition was suddenly reduced from 20 to six semi-finalists who advanced to perform concertos on Tuesday, July 22 accompanied by a second pianist. And then there were three.
On Thursday evening, July 24, the competition moved to Severance Music Center, where the trio of contestants who had advanced to the final round repeated their concertos, this time with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Samy Rachid. It was an impressive evening of music making.
We shared our impressions of their playing during the concerto round on Tuesday. On Thursday, they would perform under very different conditions. How did they interact with a full symphony orchestra? The answer — brilliantly.
Anwen Deng (16, Australia, pictured right), held a beautiful, extended conversation with her orchestral colleagues from the beginning to the end of Robert Schumann’s Concerto. Her flawless playing from the grand opening through elegant, expressive cadanzas to the stately ending luxuriated in the composer’s long melodic lines. Hers was a thoroughly mature, well-controlled performance — a joy to hear.
Sawako Harada (18, Japan, pictured left) brought the same robust sound, impressive technique, and spirited playing to her Thursday performance of Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 3 in C as she had on Tuesday, but this time in cahoots with The Cleveland Orchestra. That added a whole new palette of colors to the mix. She found agreeable partners in conductor Samy Rachid and the Orchestra, and together they handily negotiated the concerto’s many mood shifts.
Anna Avramidou (17, Cyprus, pictured center) made a major statement with her Thursday performance of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1. Everything was super-sized — her tone, her musical gestures, her virtuosity — which allowed her to partner on equal terms with her onstage colleagues.
Avramidou is 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.
Again, Avramidou’s performance oozed with romanticism. She supplied long, nicely-paced lines at the opening of the Andantino semplice, and moved effortlessly into the Scherzo (Prestissimo) and back to the main theme. She established a brisk tempo for the Allegro con Fuoco, tossed off technical passages securely, and together with The Orchestra and Rachid, brought Tchaikovsky’s tune-packed concerto to a grand conclusion.
In the end the jury awarded the $20,000 first prize to Anna Avramidou and $10,000 second prizes to both Anwen Deng and Sawako Harada.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com July 31, 2025
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