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Tri-C Classical Piano Series: catching up with Soyeon Kate Lee

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by Daniel Hathaway

Pianist Soyeon Kate Lee, a medalist at the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2003, will return to play a free concert on the Tri-C Classical Piano Series at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday, November 24 at 3:00 pm. Her program includes works by Mozart, Debussy, Auerbach, and Chopin.

We last spoke with the pianist and her husband, Ran Dank, who both teach at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, before their duo-piano recital in June of 2018 under the auspices of CIPC’s Competition for Young Artists. In the meantime, they’ve welcomed their second child into the family. “Was that just a year ago? That’s amazing. I can’t keep track of what’s going on,” Lee said in a late October telephone conversation.

“In a nutshell, I teach and practice, and try to juggle life. Last night at 11, I was at Kroger’s for some last-minute Halloween decorating and shopping. Our older child just turned five. He’s going to dress up as Superman. He asked me what I was going as and I said, ‘Can I just be a really tired lady?’ Lee said, laughing. “But things are good, though I’ve been on the road a lot, which leaves me with a massive number of makeup lessons at the moment. Ran and I try to take turns with the kids, and we don’t do as many duo concerts now because of the logistics.” [Read more…]

The Oberlin Cooper Competition: a conversation with Kasey Shao

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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…]

CIPC to present duo pianists Ran Dank and Soyeon Lee

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by Mike Telin

DANK-SOYENLife has been good for Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee since they won medals at the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2007 and 2003, respectively. Since those wins, both pianists have enjoyed successful careers as solo artists, as well as holding positions as Assistant Professors of Piano at the Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music.

This week Dank and Lee will showcase their skills as duo pianists when they return to Cleveland for a performance on Thursday, June 7 at 8:00 in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The concert is presented as part of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists, which began last week and runs through Saturday, June 9.

The Duo’s program will include works by Mozart, Scriabin, Janáček, and Liszt as well as a four-hands version of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. “It’s a special piece for us because we played it at our wedding concert in New York City,” Lee said during a joint telephone call with Dank. “A wedding is sort of a rite,” he added with a laugh. “But you can’t quite call the piece an arrangement because parts of it were originally conceived for four hands. So in some ways, the orchestrated version is the arrangement in the same way Ravel would orchestrate his piano works.”

[Read more…]

CIPC’s second Young Artist Competition to run from May 30 through June 9

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by Daniel Hathaway

CIPC-Young-ArtistsTwenty-two young pianists from eleven countries will flock to the Cleveland Institute of Music next week to compete in both junior and senior divisions of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists. (Meet the contestants here.)

The competition — verging on a festival with the inclusion of several extra events — will be set in motion on Wednesday evening, May 30 with a 7:30 pm opening ceremony in Kulas Hall featuring Canadian pianist Leonid Nediak. Only 12 when he took home second prize in CIPC’s junior division in 2015, Nediak will play solo works before joining Liza Grossman and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra in the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto. WCLV’s Robert Conrad will introduce all of the contestants from the stage, and a reception will follow.

Competition rounds begin on Thursday afternoon, May 31 in Kulas Hall and continue daily through the semifinal rounds on June 6, when three pianists in each of the junior (ages 12-14) and senior divisions (ages 15-17) will advance to the final round. That event, on Friday, June 8 at 7:30 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, will feature concerto performances with Gerhardt Zimmermann and the Canton Symphony Orchestra. [Read more…]

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