by Mike Telin
If you ask a musician what new skill they learned during the past eighteen months, more often than not, the answer is video editing. And, in a relatively short amount of time, many became quite good at it.
“Everyone we knew learned how to video-edit,” Marissa Glynias Moore, executive director at Piano Cleveland, said via Zoom. “So we thought, what would be a cool way for us to tap into that creativity?”
On Wednesday, October 27 at 7:00 pm, Piano Cleveland will debut PianoFlicks, a new video contest showcasing pianists as they creatively re-imagine how classical music is presented and enjoyed by audiences. Throughout the broadcast — which will air on the Piano Cleveland website — viewers will have the opportunity to cast their vote for the Audience Prize. They can also cast their votes over the course of the next week — details below. All participants will receive prize money for their participation in the contest.
“Everything we do is about making classical music more accessible, not only for the audience, but for young pianists as well — making yourself and what you do accessible is an important part of being an artist in today’s world,” Moore said.
Since they weren’t sure who, or how many people would be interested in this new endeavour, a call for entries was sent to all participants in Piano Cleveland activities dating back to 2013. “There is a range of ways they have been affiliated with us, but we told them that we were doing this crazy little project and if you’re interested, send in your ideas or concepts for a five-minute video. So people did that and the staff made the selections.” Click here to read about the contestants and their projects.
Moore said that all six videos are very different but very cool. “One contestant, Natalie Zhang, created this incredible animation to go along with her performance of a Scriabin sonata. She’s a high school student, and she said, ‘I think it is important to do this because I want my friends to be able to understand this music. They love looking at visuals while listening to music, so hopefully this will help them.’”
The free, hour-long broadcast will be emceed by Piano Cleveland president Yaron Kohlberg and Living the Classical Life host Zsolt Bognár. All six videos along with a prepared intro-video will be screened. All videos will be uploaded to the Piano Cleveland website and social media pages for one week so that people can vote for their favorite for the Audience Prize.
Moore said that it’s been fun to work on this project. “Every time I watch their videos I’m in awe of their creativity. The contestants have all struck an amazing balance of teaching us something and making us think differently about the music they’re presenting, so I hope people will tune in.”
Published on ClevelandClassical.com October 19, 2021.
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