by Tom Wachunas
With music director Gerhardt Zimmermann in the pulpit, as it were, the Canton Symphony Orchestra took us to church with the first of the three works on its season-opening October 12 program. Written by the acclaimed contemporary American composer Jennifer Higdon in 1999, blue cathedral is a tone poem inspired by the searing loss of her younger brother, Andrew “Blue” Higdon, to cancer.
by Mike Telin
When I asked Xiaoxuan Li how he started playing the piano, he gave me an honest answer. “I was four years old, so I remember nothing, but my mom let me study it and I really loved it,” Li said during a telephone conversation. “She said that many kids didn’t want to practice but I was totally different.”
On Saturday, March 2 at 8:00 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium, the Cleveland International Piano Competition Concert Series will present Xiaoxuan Li, the winner of the 2018 CIPC for Young Artists Competition senior division. His program will include works by Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Liszt. The evening will also feature Eva Gevorgyan, winner of the 2018 junior division. Together, Li and Gevorgyan will play four-hand arrangements of excerpts from The Nutcracker.
by Mike Telin
If you’ve ever wondered what the Cleveland International Piano Competition does during the gap years between its signature event, the answer is a lot. Last spring CIPC hosted its Young Artist Competition, and from January through May will present five free concerts at the Beachwood Community Center. And on Saturday, January 19 the Competition will kick off the 2019 Concert Series with an 8:00 pm recital by Jeremy Denk at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall.
Denk, an Oberlin alum and winner of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, will perform Beethoven’s Five Variations on “Rule Britannia” in D and An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 98/S. 469 (transc. Liszt), Adams’ I Still Play, Bizet’s Variations chromatiques, Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses in d, Op. 54, and Schumann’s Fantasy in C, Op. 1. Tickets are available online.
“We’re very happy Jeremy is coming,” CIPC President & CEO Yaron Kohlberg said during a telephone conversation. “He’s one of the major pianists in the United States right now. He’ll be presenting a wonderful program and I look forward to a beautiful concert.”
This Saturday’s concert also marks one of Kohlberg’s first public events since he began his tenure with the Competition this past fall. Kohlberg, the second prize winner at the 2007 CIPC, is uniquely qualified for the job. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Customarily, the Cleveland International Piano Competition announces its winner late in the evening of its final round, which this year featured concertos with the Canton Symphony Orchestra on Friday evening, June 8 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. But for the Young Artists Competition this time around, CIPC kept its competitors and followers in suspense until an awards ceremony the following evening at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Here are the results (L-R: Shuan Hern Lee, Hao Wei Lin, Eva Gevorgyan, Xiaoxuan Li, Yunchan Lim, JiWon Yang):
JUNIOR DIVISION
First Prize ($10,000): Eva Gevorgyan (13, Russia)
Second Prize ($5,000): Yunchan Lim (13, South Korea)
Third Prize ($2,500): Hao Wei Lin (13, Taiwan)
SENIOR DIVISION
First Prize ($25,000): Xiaoxuan Li (16, China)
Second Prize ($10,000): Shuan Hern Lee (15, Australia)
Third Prize ($5,000): JiWon Yang (16, South Korea) [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists brought 22 pianists (ages 12-17) from 11 countries to Cleveland beginning on May 30. By the beginning of the semifinals on Tuesday, June 5, six remained in the junior half of the draw, and seven in the senior. All were impressive performers, some of whom could stand up proudly to participants in CIPC’s 18-30 event. [Read more…]
Following the junior semifinal rounds at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Tuesday, June 5, the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists announced the three pianists who will advance to the final round with the Canton Symphony on Friday evening. They are, from left to right, Eva Gevorgyan, 13 (Russia), Yunchan Lim, 13 (South Korea), and Hao Wei Lin, 13 (Taiwan). The senior semifinal rounds will be held in Mixon Hall on Wednesday, June 6 at 1:00 and 7:00 pm, with the finalists to be named after the evening session. More information and live stream here.