ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad
Ad

Six Advance to Recital Round in Cooper Piano Competition

by

Following the concerto round on Tuesday, the jury for the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition announced the six competitors who will play 30-minute recitals on Wednesday, July 18 at 7:00 pm in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory (performance order to be determined). Admission is free. The session will be broadcast live by WCLV 104.9 ideastream, and will be streamed live here. The three finalists who will play concertos with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall on Friday evening will be announced late on Wednesday evening,.

 
Ryan Zhu (age 14), Vancouver, Canada
William Yang (17), Natick, Massachusetts, U.S.
Kai-Min Chang (17), Changhua County, Taiwan
Tony Yun (17), Toronto, Canada
William Chen (15), New York, New York, U.S
Yunchan Lim (14), Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

Ten remain in Cooper Piano Competition

by

Following the second semifinal round on Monday, the jury for the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition announced the ten competitors who will play full concertos with collaborative pianists on Tuesday, July 17 at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory. Admission is free. The sessions will be streamed live here.

2 p.m. session:
Ryan Zhu (age 14), Vancouver, Canada
Liszt: Concerto No. 1 in E-flat
Bo Zhang (17), Hangzhou, China
Chopin: Concerto No. 1 in e
William Yang (17), Natick, Massachusetts, U.S.
Chopin: Concerto No. 1 in e
Kai-Min Chang (17), Changhua County, Taiwan
Chopin: Concerto No. 1 in e
Tony Yun (17), Toronto, Canada
Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 in b-flat
William Chen (15), New York, New York, U.S.
Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 in b-flat

7 p.m. session:
Yunchan Lim (14), Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
Chopin: Concerto No. 2 in f
Yangrui Cai (17), Guangzhou, China
Prokofiev: Concerto No. 3 in C
Tyler Kim (15), Temecula, California, U.S.
Chopin: Concerto No. 2 in f
Anton Mejias (17), Helsinki, Finland
Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 3 in d

31 young pianists arrive this week for Oberlin Cooper Competition

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Piano professor Robert Shannon is eagerly waiting to welcome this year’s participants in the Thomas & Evon Cooper Piano Competition to the Oberlin campus later this week. “This year the lineup is stronger than ever,” Shannon said in a recent telephone conversation. “There’re some impressive people, and the overall level is consistently high.” (Photo: the semifinalists in 2016.)

The biennial piano contest, which alternates with a violin competition, will be fueled by 31 young players from seven different countries (see the roster of competitors and their repertoire here). The 13-18 year-olds have been selected from a field of some 90 applicants who have been drawn to the Cooper event through its reputation alone. “We don’t actively recruit,” Shannon said. “We just publish the announcement and we’re well enough known by now that it just happens. The first year we held the Cooper we had something like 140 pianists apply, but then I think people figured out how challenging it was going to be. We’ve stabilized now at about 90 applicants.”

This year’s competitors include eleven U.S. citizens, seven from China, five from Canada, three from South Korea, two each from Finland and Taiwan, and one from Norway.

[Read more…]

The Oberlin Cooper Competition: a conversation with Kasey Shao

by

by Mike Telin

This year’s sole competitor from Ohio in the Cooper International Piano Competition, fourteen-year-old Kasey Shao began her studies at age six. During a recent telephone conversation from her home in Cincinnati, the Walnut Hills High School sophomore said that she has known about the Cooper Competition from the time it began. “I’ve watched the live streams and broadcasts, and I’ve always wanted to compete in it. Now that I’m finally old enough, I applied and got in. I’m very excited to compete and to meet the other contestants.”  

No stranger to the competition world, Shao is a two-time grand-prize winner of the National League of Performing Arts. She has been awarded first prize at the Crescendo International Music Competition, West Chester Piano Competition, and Princeton Festival Piano Competition, as well as grand prize and first place at the Steinway Society of New Jersey Young Pianist Competition. [Read more…]

Oberlin’s Cooper International Competition features young pianists
in 2016

by

by Mike Telin

Tony-Yike-Yang-Oberlin-Cooper-Finals-(Mastroianni)Since its inauguration in 2010, the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition has established an impressive track record for identifying young pianists with potential. That year 14 year-old American pianist George Li took home the top prize. Since then, Li has quickly established himself as a young pianist to watch on the international concert scene. In 2015, Li won 2nd prize at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition.

In  2012, 16-year-old Italian Leonardo Colafelice won the top honors, and he too quickly cultivated an impressive career. In 2014 the first prize was awarded to 15 year-old Canadian Tony Yike Yang (left, with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra), who at the age of 16 won the fifth prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition, making him the youngest prizewinner in the history of that competition. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra announces
its 2016 Summer Schedule

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Blossom-Lawn-by-Roger-Mastroianni-CLO81703_408On the Ides of February, when the mercury is hovering low, and your vehicle is encrusted in road salt, there’s no more pleasant pastime than thinking ahead to the lazy, hazy days of summer. The Cleveland Orchestra is thinking ahead too: details of their Blossom Festival concerts, their third season of Summers@Severance performances, their collaboration with the Cleveland International Piano Competition, and their August European Festival Tour have recently been released. Here’s what’s going to happen.

[Read more…]

The Cooper International Piano Competition: a conversation with winner Tony Yike Yang

by

By Mike Telin

yang_yike_webLast weekend, fifteen year-old Tony Yike Yang from Toronto played Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto at Severance Hall with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Jahja Ling on his way to winning the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition. As first-prize winner, Yang was awarded $10,000 and a full four-year scholarship to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. We spoke to him recently about his experience in the competition, his life as a young pianist, and his aspirations for the future.

Mike Telin: First, congratulations on winning the Cooper. What was it like to play with The Cleveland Orchestra?

Tony Yike Yang: It was so much fun. [Read more…]

Review: Oberlin Cooper Piano Competition: Finals at Severance Hall (July 25)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

3-Finalists

Out of an initial field of 28 competitors in the Thomas and Evon Cooper Oberlin International Piano Competition, three young pianists, having survived semi-final, concerto final and recital final rounds at the Oberlin Conservatory earlier in the week, won the opportunity to appear on the stage of Severance Hall on Friday evening, July 25 to play concertos with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra.

The impressive audience that turned out to hear Sae Yoon Chon, Zitong Wang and Tony Yike Yang in concertos by Beethoven, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky was full of young people — largely made up of friends, relatives and colleagues of the Cooper participants, no doubt. Palpable energy was in the air, and each of the three finalists was greeted with whoops and cheers both before and after they played. [Read more…]

Oberlin Cooper Piano Competition: Six advance to Recital Round

by

Oberlin-Cooper-2014-LogoOberlin – July 23. Following the concerto round last evening, the judges announced the six finalists in the 2014 Cooper International Competition who will advance to the Recital Round on Wednesday evening, July 23 at 7:00 pm in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Following the program, the judges will announce the three contestants who will play concertos with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra on Friday evening at Severance Hall. The performance will be carried live on WCLV, 104.9 FM and wclv.com, and a video stream will be available here.

Here is the Recital Finals program for Wednesday evening (performance order to be announced):

[Read more…]

Cooper International Piano Competition: reflections and the final round at Severance Hall

by

Cleveland, OH, August 2, 2010

Cooper Competition Awards

Dean David Stull of the Oberlin Conservatory and donor Thomas Cooper present 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes to George Li, John Chen and Kate Liu (photo: Roger Mastroianni)

by Daniel Hathaway & Nicholas Jones

In the debut of the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition at the Oberlin Conservatory last week, first there were forty-three contestants, then after the first round, twenty-three. Eleven were chosen for the concerto with piano round, then six for the solo finals. On Friday evening, three young pianists, one 14 and two 16 years old, competed in the final round in Severance Hall with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra for several thousand dollars in prize money (they already had won four-year, full tuition scholarships to the Oberlin Conservatory). The top winner would go on to play engagements with professional orchestras in Beijing and Shanghai.

It must have been a heady week for the more than forty contestants, who ranged in age from 13 to 18, and who were as finely tuned up as young tennis players for this demanding week of elimination rounds, in this case in front of an international jury of distinguished judges.

Out of deference to the age and comparative inexperience of some of the younger competitors, we began our coverage of the Cooper Competition with the Tuesday concerto round, when eleven pianists made their first appearances on the Warner Hall stage at Oberlin as interactive soloists.

[Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us