Oberlin Cooper International Piano Competition: Winners Announced

July 27, 2012 by Special to ClevelandClassical.com

Cleveland, OH — Friday, July 27

Leonardo Colafelice with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra (photo: Roger Mastroianni)

Following the Final Round with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra tonight in Severance Hall, competition sponsors Thomas and Evon Cooper awarded the top prizes in the Oberlin Cooper International Piano Competition.

FIRST PRIZE: Leonardo Colafelice, 16, Altamura, Bari, Italy — Rachmaninov: Concerto No. 3
SECOND PRIZE: Xiaoyu Liu, 15, Montréal, Québec, Canada — Rachmaninov: Concerto No. 2
THIRD PRIZE: Micah McLaurin, 17, Charleston, SC — Chopin: Concerto No. 2

The performances were broadcast live over WCLV, 104.9 FM.

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Oberlin Opera stages a Cendrillon of professional quality (Nov. 10)

by Daniel Hathaway

Any regional opera company would be popping its buttons with pride to have produced such an impressive performance of Jules Massenet’s Cendrillion (Cinderella) as Oberlin Opera did in Hall Auditorium on Sunday afternoon, November 10.

Imaginative staging by Stephanie Havey, skillful pacing by conductor James Feddeck, beautiful set design and costuming by Laura Carlson-Tarantowski and Chris Flaharty, respectively, plus dramatic and — for the fairies — enchanting lighting by Jeremy K. Benjamin provided a supportive environment for splendid singing by the cast and brilliant playing by the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra.

Literally thousands of versions of the Cinderella tale exist in cultures around the globe, but many of the details of Massenet’s opera date back to Charles Perrault’s 1697 Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre, which adds what have now become essential elements to the tale: a young girl mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, who temporarily attracts the attention of a handsome prince at a royal ball and is eventually reunited with him to become a princess herself. [Read on…]

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by Stephanie Manning

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Cleveland Orchestra’s Beethoven Concerto Cycle performance featured pairing of rising star and mentor (Nov. 15)

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

By Daniel Hathaway

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Well-established names on the concert circuit — Orion Weiss, Sir Stephen Hough, and Garrick Ohlsson — had already filled the empty solo spots for the composer’s Triple Concerto and solo concertos 2, 3, and 4. But the choice of the youngest pianist ever to win the Van Cliburn Competition to close out the Cleveland series packed Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center on Friday evening, November 15, with a near-capacity audience teeming with enthusiastic young people.

[Read on…]

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