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Cooper International Piano Competition welcomes 21 young pianists to Oberlin

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by Mike Telin

“This year, we had 190 applicants,” Robert Shannon, director of the Cooper International Piano Competition, said during a recent telephone conversation. “I listened to them all, and I can tell you that the level of playing has never been higher.”

This weekend, the Cooper International Competition will welcome 21 pianists between the ages of 13 and 18 who have advanced through the preliminaries of submitted videos to participate in live rounds in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall from July 20 to 23.

The 21, who represent eight countries, are vying for the opportunity to play full concertos in a final round with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Samy Rachid at Severance Music Center on Thursday, July 24 at 7:30 pm — and for the $20,000 first prize. Tickets are available online. Click here to view a complete schedule.

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Cooper International Competition Invites 19 Pianists to Oberlin

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by Mike Telin

Next week the Cooper International Competition turns its attention to the piano for the first time since 2018. “It’s been five years, so it’s good to be back,” Oberlin Conservatory professor and Competition director Robert Shannon said during a recent telephone conversation.

This year, 19 pianists between the ages of 13 and 18 who have advanced through the preliminaries of submitted videos will participate in live rounds in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall from July 31 to August 2. Click here to view their biographies and repertoire lists.

The 19, who represent 7 countries and 4 U.S. states, are vying for the opportunity to play full concertos in a final round with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of David Robertson at Severance Music Center on Friday, August 4 at 7:30 pm — and the $20,000 first prize. Tickets are available online.

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Oberlin Conservatory to begin year with World War I Festival Sept. 8 & 9

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by Daniel Hathaway

“I’ve always loved music from the early 20th century, particularly during World War I, ” Oberlin violin professor Sibbi Bernhardsson said in a recent telephone conversation. “And I’m fascinated by the decade after the war, which is more varied than any ten-year period in the 19th century. You have the Second Viennese School, the Russian composers, things that are starting up in America, Modernism, and reactions to this and that. It’s a very rich time.”

Bernhardsson, who joined the Conservatory faculty last year after 17 seasons touring with the Pacifica Quartet, was seized by the idea of marking the 100th Anniversary of the cessation of hostilities, using Oberlin’s deep musical and scholarly resources to explore the music surrounding the Great War. “Looking at the number of great chamber pieces that were written during the era, not only are they all very different, some are clearly about the war while other composers were writing as though there was no war going on at all. This became a fascinating thing to me,” he said.

The violinist broached the idea of a festival with Oberlin musicology professor Charles McGuire early last spring only to discover that McGuire, who is in charge of Oberlin’s Murphy Colloquium, had already been talking with his colleagues about mounting a panel discussion about World War I music. “That seemed fortuitous,” McGuire said in a separate telephone conversation. “It’s always better to plan a scholarly panel if it’s surrounded by great music, and Sibbi’s very enthusiastic — a whirlwind when he sinks his teeth into something.” [Read more…]

31 young pianists arrive this week for Oberlin Cooper Competition

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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.

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Arts Renaissance Tremont: Mark Kosower plays Bach

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by Timothy Robson

KosowerIn honor of the Baroque master’s 333rd birthday on the 21st of the month, Cleveland Orchestra principal cello Mark Kosower played an all-Bach recital on Sunday, March 18 on the Arts Renaissance Tremont Series at Pilgrim Congregational Church. It was a splendid and generous concert, musically, spiritually, and temporally — and at over two and a quarter hours, there were a lot of notes! [Read more…]

Cooper International Piano Competition: Concerto Rounds at Oberlin (July 19)

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by Daniel Hathaway & Neil McCalmont

Oberlin-Cooper-BannerTen young pianists, ages 13-17, advanced to the Concerto Round of the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition at Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall on Tuesday, July 19. In afternoon and evening sessions, the jury and audience heard performances of concertos by Sergei Prokofiev (No. 3, three times), Edvard Grieg (twice), Sergei Rachmaninoff (No. 2, twice), Ludwig van Beethoven (Nos. 1 and 4) and Frédéric Chopin (No. 1). [Read more…]

Oberlin’s Cooper International Competition features young pianists
in 2016

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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…]

Oberlin Chamber Music Intensive & Festival ends with Oberlin Trio & friends in Warner Concert Hall (Jan. 24)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin-Trio-Charles-NovakThe Oberlin Trio, Oberlin Conservatory’s excellent faculty piano trio, brought three busy weeks of chamber music coachings and performances to a rousing conclusion on Saturday evening in Warner Concert Hall. [Read more…]

Young Pianists Gather in Oberlin for Cooper International Piano Competition

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By Daniel Hathaway and Daniel Hautzinger

Mo-EvelynThe idea of playing finger-tangling pieces on the piano in front of distinguished piano professors and performers for a prize would have most people curled up in a corner asking for mercy, but not fifteen year-old Evelyn Mo.

“The competitions are actually one of my favorite parts of playing piano,” she said over the phone. “I think that they make the whole thing more rewarding and worthwhile, and it’s an exhilarating experience while you’re playing. I just take a few deep breaths, go through the pieces in my mind, relax, and play.”

Mo will join 28 other thirteen to eighteen year-old pianists in Oberlin for the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition, with participants hailing from nine countries. The competition runs from July 17-26, with cash prizes awarded to the top six competitors. [Read more…]

Cooper International Piano Competition debuts at Oberlin this week

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin Winners

An earlier group of winners

This Thursday afternoon, more than forty young pianists from seven countries will arrive in Oberlin to compete in a new and much enhanced version of the Oberlin International Piano Competition. Launched in 1995 by Oberlin Conservatory piano professor Robert Shannon, that competition for 13-18 year old pianists continued annually through 2008, when Warner Concert Hall was closed for renovations.

Reborn in 2010 as the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition, the contest will now alternate each year between pianists and violinists, with pianists up in 2010 and violinists in 2011. Cash prizes of more than $20,000 and Oberlin scholarships will be distributed among the winners, and the first prize winner will have the opportunity to perform with professional orchestras in Beijing and Shanghai. And in another big leap forward for its inaugural year, the Competition has made arrangements for the three finalists to play their concertos in Severance Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra under Jahja Ling.

We spoke with Robert Shannon by phone in his office at the Oberlin Conservatory to ask how this all came about.

“Before 1995, we had had a summer piano festival that had no age requirements and no focus at all. You’d come and you’d take some lessons, and you’d go to a lecture or two. We had lawyers from San Francisco who had never played the piano before! We wanted to upgrade this, and establish an age group of 13-18 — which is of course the group of people we either want to get excited about Oberlin or recruit from. There are many youth competitions now, but in 1995 that wasn’t really true. We thought we could combine having a competition with more educational programs so people would come here for a about a week and nobody would really lose because they could all learn something while they were here. That’s always been my dream”.
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