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2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition announces sixteen quarterfinalists

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by Daniel Hathaway

On April 23, Piano Cleveland, host of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, released the names of the sixteen quarterfinalists who will compete in the 2024 contest this summer.

Marking its 50th year, the competition got underway in February, when 55 contestants selected for its first round played in Cleveland and Paris.

The semifinalists will come to Cleveland this summer for three weeks of free public performances and ticketed competition events between July 28 and August 10, culminating in concerto performances with The Cleveland Orchestra and the bestowing of awards including the $75,000 Mixon First Prize.

This time around, the competition has revised its guidelines to allow contestants to play a broader range of repertoire. [Read more…]

Piano Cleveland: CIPC for Young Artists Concerto Final Round (July 15)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The last hurdle to be cleared on the way to the awarding of prizes in Piano Cleveland’s Competition for Young Artists brought the finalists to the stage of Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Saturday, July 15 to play concerto movements with the Canton Symphony Orchestra, led by Steven Byess.

Six items were on the docket: the three Junior Division players chose the opening movements of concertos by Beethoven, Mozart, and Grieg, while the three Seniors each chose Chopin, with only one repetition. Piano Cleveland president Yaron Kohlberg emceed the proceedings. I watched the well-produced webcast.

Concertos, which occupy a singular position in the orchestral ecosystem, are often performed with only a read-through beforehand, which means that both the soloist and the orchestra have to show up well-prepared. But anything can happen in the heat of battle — and adjustments have to be made on the spot with intelligence and sensitivity. [Read more…]

Piano Cleveland: Gabriela Montero at Reinberger (July 9)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Surely one of the highlights of Piano Cleveland’s International Piano Competition for Young Artists this summer will turn out to have been an inspiring guest recital by the amazing Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero.

In Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance on Sunday evening, July 9, Montero presented pristine, penetrating performances of works from the literature, followed by four ingenious improvisations on musical material submitted by the audience. I watched the recital via the excellent live webcast.

Seated Radu Lupu-style on a straight-backed chair at the Steinway, Montero began with an exploratory journey through Chopin’s Polonaise Fantasy in A-flat, followed by Schumann’s intense portraits of the characters who showed up for the masked ball in his Carnaval. After intermission, she gave a finely etched and effortless reading of Stravinsky’s Piano Sonata with carefully managed dynamics.  [Read more…]

The Final Six: Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists  

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by Mike Telin

This summer Piano Cleveland has turned its attention to the stars of the future. Earlier this week the six finalists — three in the Junior Division (ages 11 -14) and three in the Senior Division (ages 15 – 18) — were selected to come to Cleveland for the Final Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists.

Qinyaoyao Ji (13, China), Elisey Mysin (12, Russia), and Zhonghua Wei (14, China) will vie for the top cash prize of $5,000 USD while Yanyan Bao (16, China), Ryan Wang (15, Canada), and Saehyun Kim (16, South Korea) will compete for the first prize of $10,000 USD.

The six were selected from 32 contestants who recorded their First Rounds performances at locations in London, Hamburg, Cleveland, New York, Beijing, and Seoul, in partnership with Steinway & Sons galleries. All First Round performances are available to watch on Piano Cleveland’s YouTube Channel. Read the pianists’  biographies here. [Read more…]

Piano Days @CLE: Stanislav and Friends (Aug. 7)

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by Peter Feher

When the first notes sounded in Mixon Hall on August 7, the star of the afternoon’s program was nowhere to be seen. Stanislav Khristenko would only sneak onstage after the fourth movement of Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet had already started. It was a playfully modest entrance — that is, until he took up the theme in this sparkling set of variations for piano and strings.

Then, you heard all the qualities that make for a stunning soloist. Winner of the 2013 Cleveland International Piano Competition, Khristenko was back in town this month for a recital in Piano Cleveland’s summer series, Piano Days @CLE. And he couldn’t help but revel in the spotlight a little, even as he settled into a more collaborative role at the keyboard for his program, “Stanislav and Friends.” [Read more…]

PianoDays @CLE: Michelle Cann features music of Florence Price (Aug. 11)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Pianist Michelle Cann freely admits she was as unaware as everyone else about the music of Florence Price until a trove of Price’s compositions turned up in the composer’s former summer home in Chicago in 2009.

Since then, Cann has become one of Price’s most enthusiastic advocates, as she made clear to the audience in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music on August 11. Her program, part of Piano Cleveland’s PianoDays @CLE, wrapped works by Chopin, Brahms, Clara Schumann, and Margaret Bonds around Price’s Sonata in e and Fantasie Nègre No. 1, also in e minor. I heard the performance through the livestream. [Read more…]

Piano Days @CLE: Igudesman & Joo (July 26)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Because it usually takes itself so seriously, classical music is a sitting duck for parody and satire. But the art form also has a divinely installed funny bone that allows its artists to lampoon themselves and their craft, even while producing high quality performances.

This humor can take many forms, from the deadpanning of that great Dane, Victor Borge (while unwrapping and eating a sandwich between solo passages in a concerto), and the plummy but wicked commentary of Anna Russell (particularly on Wagner), to the down-home musicological wackiness of Peter Shickele, often accompanied by his favorite prop, the bassoon.

Violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo, who originally met over a plate of fish and chips at England’s Yehudi Menuhin School, jack up the game significantly with slapstick and athleticism. [Read more…]

Stanislav Khristenko unites friends new and old for PianoDays @CLE

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by Stephanie Manning

Local audiences may remember Stanislav Khristenko from his electrifying performances at the 2013 Cleveland International Piano Competition, where his performance of the Brahms Concerto No. 1 with The Cleveland Orchestra helped him to take home the grand prize. This summer, competition organizer Piano Cleveland has invited him back to perform as part of the inaugural PianoDays @CLE.

Winning the CIPC is not Khristenko’s only connection to Cleveland — the pianist also earned an artist diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music. “Cleveland is really my home here in the U.S.,” he said in a recent Zoom interview. On Sunday, August 7, he’ll return to his alma mater for his PianoDays program at 2:00 pm in Mixon Hall. Titled “Stanislav and Friends,” the performance will include a number of musicians that he met as a student. Purchase in-person or virtual tickets here. [Read more…]

Piano Days: a conversation with Apostle Jones’ Mikey Silas

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by Noah Auby

Mikey Silas, of Apostle Jones fame, is proud of what he and his band have been able to accomplish in such a short period of time. Formed in late 2018, Apostle Jones has been on an impressive run in the Cleveland music scene like no other. Over the last four years, they have managed to release a studio EP as well as four live performance compilations.

Speaking of live performance, Mikey Silas along with the rest of Apostle Jones will be performing on Friday, July 29th as part of Piano Cleveland’s “PianoDays @CLE.” Their 7:00pm “Rock the Classics” program takes place at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Union Home Mortgage Plaza outdoor stage. The event will be free and open to the public.

During a recent Zoom conversation, I asked the Cleveland native about the upcoming show and his musical career. [Read more…]

PianoDays: music & comedy
with Igudesman & Joo

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by Jarrett Hoffman

My recent conversation with pianist Hyung-ki Joo began with some pushback — beginning when I said that it was exciting to talk to him. “Well, you don’t know that,” he joked. “You haven’t talked to me yet.”

A sound argument. So I explained that I was excited about the opportunity to speak to someone like him: a musician who is also a comedian.

He replied that although he was flattered, he and violinist Aleksey Igudesman — who together are Igudesman & Joo, a musical-comedic duo that will perform in Hanna Theatre at Playhouse Square on Thursday, July 28 at 7:30 pm as part of Piano Cleveland’s PianoDays festival — don’t really think of themselves as comedians.

[Read more…]

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