by Mike Telin
On Thursday, July 24 during the finals of the Cooper International Piano Competition at Severance Music Center, Anna Avramidou made a major statement with her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Samy Rachid.
In his review, Daniel Hathaway of ClevelandClassical.com described the 17-year old Cypriot as “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.”
Although she was up against some stiff competition from Anwen Deng (16, Australia) and Sawako Harada (18, Japan), both of whom were awarded second prize, in the end the jury bestowed the $20,000 first prize on Avramidou.
We reached Anna Avramidou by phone in Oxford, England, where she was participating in the annual Oxford Piano Festival. I began our conversation by congratulating her on winning the Cooper Competition.
After two days of semi-final rounds in which 20 contestants each performed 40-minute recitals, the field of the Cooper International Piano Competition was narrowed to six. On Tuesday, July 22 in Oberlin Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall those six pianists performed full concertos with piano accompaniment in afternoon and evening sessions. Here are our impressions.