Cooper International Piano Competition: Seven (Not Six) Advance to Concerto Round

August 2, 2023 by Daniel Hathaway

from an Oberlin Conservatory news report
by Shelly Rasmussen

After two days of nineteen semifinal performances, each consisting of 40-minute programs, the jury has selected seven pianists to move on to the Concerto Round. The Concerto Round on Wednesday features the pianists in performances of a full concerto, with piano accompaniment. Our finalists range in age from 13 to 18 years old and represent seven countries.

The following musicians have been selected to advance:

Andrew Sijie Li, 15, Boston, Massachusetts | Canada & Hong Kong
L. V. BEETHOVEN Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37

Sophia Shuya Liu, 14, Montreal, Quebec | Canada
C. SAINT-SAENS Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22

Yanyan Bao, 16, Zhuhai, Guangdong | China
F. CHOPIN Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21

Filip Trifu, 18, Vienna | Austria
R. SCHUMANN Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54

Seoeun Lee, 14, Suwon, Gyeonggi, South Korea
F. CHOPIN Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11

Taige Wang, 13, New York, New York | United States
S. RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43

Pyotr Akulov, 16, Moscow | Russia
F. LISZT Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, S. 124

Each pianist will perform on Wednesday, August 2 for the chance to perform in Friday’s Concerto Finals. The Concerto Round will be held in two sessions at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, August 2 at Warner Concert Hall. The concerts are free and open to the public and available via livestream. The schedule is available at the Cooper Competition website.

Following the Concerto Round on August 3, the jury will determine the three pianists that will perform in the Finals in Cleveland on Friday, August 4. This is the culmination of the week’s competition and will showcase the artists performing complete concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of David Robertson at Severance Music Center’s Mandel Concert Hall.

At the conclusion of the evening, one participant will be named the Cooper champion, and win a grand prize of $20,000.

Published on ClevelandClassical.com August 2, 2023

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About Daniel Hathaway

Daniel Hathaway founded ClevelandClassical.com in September, 2008, after a thirty-one year tenure as music director of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral, where he founded the Wednesday Noon Brownbag Concert Series and Trinity Chamber Orchestra. A graduate of Harvard College and the Episcopal Divinity School, he also studied historical musicology at Princeton and Harvard Universities. Before coming to Cleveland in 1977, he served as head of humanities at the Sunset Hill School in Kansas City and as head of arts at Groton School in Massachusetts. In Cleveland, he has served on the music staff of Cleveland Opera, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and the faculty of Laurel School. As an organist, Hathaway has played recitals in the U.S., England, France, Germany, and Austria. He team-teaches Music Journalism at Oberlin College and Conservatory and is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America.

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