ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad
Ad

Virtu(al)oso Piano Competition: Round One, Sessions 1-6 (July 30-August 4)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

International piano competitions normally take place in real time in a single location. But when SARS-CoV-2 forced Piano Cleveland to postpone its Cleveland International Piano Competition until 2021, the organization decided to hold an online contest in its place.

Thus 30 pianists, chosen to compete in Virtu(al)oso out of a field of 130 applicants, turned up at Steinway locations in Cleveland, New York, London, Hamburg and Beijing, each to video record a 20-minute and a 30- to 35-minute program of music of their choice. There were no repertoire hoops to jump through: the only stipulation was that pieces be in contrasting styles. And to guarantee fair comparisons, visual and sonic values were to be standardized among the five recording venues.

Then during six First Round sessions beginning on July 30, the recordings of five pianists would be streamed each evening, to be vetted by a jury watching remotely on their own screens. Six pianists would be chosen to move on to the Final Round on August 7 and 8. [Read more…]

Virtu(al)oso Piano Competition: Round One ends on August 4

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Tonight around 8:45 pm, when U.K. pianist Martin James Bartlett, playing virtually from the Steinway Gallery in London, lifts his hands from the keyboard after the last notes of Shostakovich’s Polka for W.R., 30 contestants will have completed their 20-minute First Round performances in Piano Cleveland’s 2020 all-online Virtu(al)oso Competition.

We’ve been following the performances since last Thursday, and will share some thoughts and impressions on Wednesday afternoon, August 5. On Wednesday evening at 7 pm EDT, the jury will name the six players who will go on to the Final Round, playing 30- to 35-minute mini-recitals on Friday and Saturday. [Read more…]

Virtu(al)oso Piano Competition:
A Conversation with Anna Han

by

by Daniel Hathaway

American pianist Anna Han, 24, was born in Mesa, Arizona, earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Juilliard, and has won top prizes in the 2016 Gina Bachauer and 2019 Hilton Head competitions. A keen chamber music player, she is a founding member of the Munin Piano Trio, and has recorded for the Steinway label.

I caught up with Han in Cleveland, where she was hanging out after having recorded her two rounds at the Steinway Gallery. I started by asking her what her life has been like since the pandemic hit in March.

“I’ve spent the last six years in New York City, where I gave a concert with my trio on March 1. At that point, none of us had any concept of what this would turn into. I had a two week residency in Canada that was to start a couple of weeks later, but when that was cancelled, I ended up moving back to Arizona at the end of the month.”

At home in the West, Han settled into a very different style of life. “I had all these pressure-cooker things lined up, and suddenly I didn’t. [Read more…]

Virtu(al)oso Piano Competition:
A Conversation with Priscila Navarro

by

by Daniel Hathaway

26-year-old pianist Priscila Navarro will sail into Round One, Session 5 of Piano Cleveland’s online competition on Monday, August 3 under two national flags: Peru and Canada.

“I have dual citizenship,” she said in a Skype conversation from Florida. “My father worked in Canada for many, many years and became a citizen — but I was born and raised in Huanaco, Peru, about nine hours northeast of Lima, in between the mountains and the Amazon. I moved to Lima when I was nine to study at the conservatory, which is where I really got to know classical music.”

Her education took her to Miami for a master’s degree and artist diploma at the University, then on to Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, where she graduated summa cum laude. Like many other performers, her professional life came to a sudden halt in March. [Read more…]

Virtu(al)oso Piano Competition:
A Chat with Jonas Aumiller

by

by Daniel Hathaway

German pianist Jonas Aumiller will perform in the 5th Session of the First Round of Piano Cleveland’s Virtu(al)oso Competition on Monday, August 3 at 7:00 pm. His 20-minute program includes a Busoni transcription of a J.S. Bach organ Prelude and Fugue, a Scriabin Etude, and a Rachmaninoff Etude-tableau.

Aumiller, 22, earned his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the Conservatorio F. A. Bonporti in Trento, Italy, and went on to complete a graduate diploma at Juilliard under Sergei Babayan. He’s currently working on a master’s degree with Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

I reached him in his hometown of Munich for a Skype conversation, and began by asking him what his life has been like since everything fell apart in March.

“I was still in Cleveland when the pandemic started in Germany, then I decided pretty quickly to leave America as I was afraid they would close the border, which they did.” But luckily, not before Aumiller had booked a flight back home. [Read more…]

Piano Cleveland’s Virtu(al)oso fields a rich mix of contestants 

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Now that Piano Cleveland has posted biographies and repertoire selections for the 30 pianists who will be competing long-distance later this month in the organization’s first online competition, it’s time to get to know those players a little better, both as performers and individuals.

As is the case with all international competitions, participants come from far and wide: from China (4), Russia (4), Italy (3), the U.S. (3), Japan (2), the United Kingdom (2), and Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Peru/Canada, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan (1 each). Those are their official home countries, although their studies have dispersed them all over the map.

The final 30, announced on July 1, were winnowed by a selection jury from videos sent in by more than 130 hopefuls. The competition will be conducted remotely, through videos recorded at Steinway facilities in the U.S., Europe, and China. By the time the first round officially begins on July 31, twelve will have performed in Hamburg, six each in Cleveland and London, four in New York, and two in Beijing.

Ranging in age from 18 to 30, the contestants are well accustomed to the pressures of international competitions, having taken home top prizes in a long list of contests. Several have already recorded more than one album. At least four of the contestants are also composers who will include their own works in their performances. [Read more…]

Piano Cleveland announces 30 pianists for its Virtu(al)oso global competition

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Drawing from a pool of 158 pianists from 33 countries who range in age from 18-32, Piano Cleveland’s four-member screening jury announced today the names of the 30 who will record two rounds of performances under local health and safety guidelines at Steinway galleries in Cleveland, New York, London, Hamburg, and Beijing for the organization’s first-ever virtual competition, Virtu(al)oso.

First-round sessions will be streamed nightly at 7:00 pm EDT beginning on July 30 on the Piano Cleveland website. After eliminations, the final round for the six remaining contestants will be streamed on August 7 and 8 (WCLV 104.9 Ideastream will air the final rounds on August 8 and 9 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm). Winners will be announced during an awards ceremony on August 9.

Competitors include Lorenzo Adamo (20, Italy), Kevin Ahfat (25, Canada), Jonas Aumiller (22, Germany), Martin Bartlett (24, United Kingdom), Sergey Belyavskiy (26, Russia), Elia Cecino (19, Italy), Han Chen (28, Taiwan), Michael Davidman (23, United States), Madoka Fukami (32, Japan), Martin Garcia Garcia (23, Spain), Francesco Granata (21, Italy), Arseny Gusev (21, Russia), Anna Han (24, United States), [Read more…]

Piano Cleveland announces summer Virtu(al)oso Competition

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Having postponed its Cleveland International Piano Competition until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Piano Cleveland has come up with a clever placeholder for the summer of 2020 that will allow 30 pianists, ages 18-30, to compete in a worldwide virtual contest while providing participants with across-the-board financial support.

In a recent telephone conversation, Piano Cleveland CEO Yaron Kohlberg said the idea for Virtu(al)oso grew out of the success of their Quarantine Concerts, a quickly-organized series of eight Thursday evening performances that came together only a few days after Governor DeWine’s stay-at-home order went into effect. Streamed from Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland between March 19 and May 7, the concerts featured local artists and gave viewers the opportunity to contribute to a Musicians’ Fund.

“It surpassed our goals,” Kohlberg said. “We went into the series not knowing really what to expect. We just knew that we wanted to react as quickly as possible and try to support our musicians. People were so kind and generous, and responded so well.” [Read more…]

Live streaming: a roundtable discussion and Q&A’s with recent performers

by

by Daniel Hathaway, Jarrett Hoffman, and Mike Telin

With the recent spread of COVID-19, the opportunity to attend live classical music performances has come to a complete halt and will likely remain that way for the foreseeable future. Many organizations and individual artists are seeking to fill that void through online streaming.

On Thursday, March 19, two area institutions presented the first of what will likely be many live-streamed concerts. At 4:30 pm in Oberlin Conservatory’s Stull Recital Hall, Flute Professor Alexa Still and Faculty Collaborative Pianist Evan Hines presented a program of works by Koechlin, Chopin, Coleman, and Debussy.

On the same day at 7:30 pm in Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland, Piano Cleveland presented the first of its Quarantine Concerts. Pianist Yaron Kohlberg played selections by Schumann and Grieg, and duo pianists Irwin Shung and Natsumi Shibagaki played works by Bach, Rachmaninoff, and Gershwin.

Remotely streamed concerts raise an interesting question for journalists: is it possible to critically evaluate live performances when you’re not in the same room? Three of ClevelandClassical’s writers attempted to answer that and other questions about covering virtual performances.

[Read more…]

A guide to staying home and streaming videos of concerts

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

Live streams, re-broadcasts, digital archives, and YouTube channels — here are some videos of performances to keep you occupied during social distancing.

Beginning locally, some performances are still taking place via live stream, without an audience. On Thursday, March 19 at 4:30 pm, Oberlin Conservatory will stream a faculty and guest concert from Stull Recital Hall. Flutist Alexa Still, cellist Mihai Tetel, and pianist Evan Hines come together in Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Assobio a Játo (“Jet Whistle”) and Valerie Coleman’s 2019 Amazonia.

Piano Cleveland, the presenting organization of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, has announced a new weekly series called The Quarantine Concerts, to be streamed every Thursday at 7:30 pm from Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland. The first concert, on March 19, will feature pianist Yaron Kohlberg as well as the piano duo of Natsumi Shibagaki and Irwin Shung. Online audience members have the opportunity to offer their support directly to these artists by donating to Piano Cleveland’s Musicians’ Fund.

[Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us