by Daniel Hathaway
How do you tell a great chamber music performance from an ordinary one? That’s what the jury and audience are asking themselves this week as the Cleveland International Piano Competition puts its four finalists through a chamber music round with the Escher String Quartet. [Read more…]
10:00 am — Master Class, Session 1
Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music.
Members of the competition jury present master classes for gifted local piano students. Free event; reservation required.
1:00 pm — Master Class, Session 2
Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music.
Members of the competition jury present master classes for gifted local piano students. Free event; reservation required.
Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music.
8:00 pm — CIPC Young Artists Showcase
Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music
Two finalists from the 2015 CIPC Young Artists Competition return for a showcase event: Leonid Nediak, second prize (junior division) and audience prize winner; and Chaeyoung Park, third prize (senior division). Special Ticket Offers $5 Student Tickets: Students may purchase $5 tickets at the box office on the day of the performance.
by Mike Telin
Long before the pianists arrive and each session begins, a whole group of people arrive to begin work backstage at Gartner Auditorium — making sure that microphones and cameras are properly placed and focused, that the audio and video feeds are working, that pianos are tuned, that radio broadcasts are announced, and that ushers are ready to take tickets, seat the audience, and deal with latecomers.
When I arrived in the lobby one hour prior to the 7:00 start time for the chamber music segment of the finals on Tuesday, the ushers were busy preparing to receive the audience, and volunteers were stocking the competition gift shop with program books, CDs and other CIPC items.
When audio engineer Alan Bise meets me and takes me backstage, the piano technician is busy tuning the Hamburg Steinway that both Georgy Tchaidze and Nikita Mndoyants had chosen for their performances with the Escher String Quartet. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
In a new twist this time around, the Cleveland International Piano Competition is requiring each of its finalists to play a chamber music round with the Escher String Quartet. Aside from the welcome change in musical timbre after many hours of solo piano music, this new round is designed to show how well pianists play with others — a direct look at their musicianship in collaboration with a world-class ensemble before moving on to play concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]
3:00 pm — Film, Daniil Trifonov
This new film by Christopher Nupen provides an intimate portrait of pianist and composer Daniil Trifonov, who has taken the concert world by storm since winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2011. Lecture Hall, Cleveland Museum of Art
7:00 pm Final Round: Phase 2
Chamber Music with the Escher String Quartet. Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art
Leonardo Colafelice
Robert Schumann
Piano Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44
Dinara Klinton
Johannes Brahms
Piano Quintet in f, Op. 34
Follow the live stream from Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art here. WCLV will broadcast the session live at 104.9 FM and on Ideastream.
The following four pianists will advance to the two final rounds in the Cleveland International Piano Competition. The first phase involves chamber music performances with the Escher String Quartet in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 2 and 3. In the second phase, the finalists will play concertos with Bramwell Tovey and The Cleveland Orchestra in Severance Hall on Friday and Saturday, August 5 and 6. In performance order:
IN PERFORMANCE ORDER:
Tuesday and Friday:
Georgy Tchaidze
Nikita Mndoyants
Wednesday and Saturday
Leonardo Colafelice
Dinara Klinton
by Daniel Hathaway
While the first and second rounds of the Cleveland International Piano Competition require contestants to show their mettle in required repertoire categories, the semi-final round turns them loose to design their own hour-long recitals — demonstrating their ability “to present a well-planned, stylistically diverse program.” Emcee Zsolt Bognár informally added the caveat that the programs should be “engaging for the audience.” [Read more…]
3:00 pm — Film, Argerich
Filmmaker Stéphanie Argerich follows her mother, Martha Argerich, through public concerts and private moments, searching for answers that might shed light on the private spaces of a family that has lived in the limelight of the international stage. CMA Lecture Hall. Students may purchase $5 tickets at the box office.
7:00 pm Final Round: Phase 1
Chamber Music with the Escher String Quartet. Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art
Georgy Tchaidze
Antonín Dvořák
Piano Quintet No. 2 in A, Op. 81
Nikita Mndoyants
Johannes Brahms
Piano Quintet in f, Op. 34
Follow the live stream from Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art here.
by Mike Telin
The semi-finals of The Cleveland International Piano Competition continued at 3:00 pm on Sunday, July 31 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, when a large audience was treated to polished performances by Nikita Mndoyants (27, Russia, left) and Yuanfan Yang (19, United Kingdom, right). In addition to being accomplished pianists, the two are also award-winning composers. They also each concluded their programs with the second of Prokofiev’s three “war sonatas.” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
When the names of the eight semi-finalists were announced on Saturday evening shortly after 7:00 pm, four pianists had the daunting pressure of putting the final polishing on their 60-minute recital programs and performing less than 24 hours later. On Sunday, July 31 the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium played host to the first two of four semi-final sessions. [Read more…]