Two share top prize at the 2023 Cooper International Piano Competition

August 5, 2023 by Daniel Hathaway

from an Oberlin Conservatory news report
by Shelly Rasmussen

History was made this evening as Pyotr Akulov and Sophia Shuya Liu were both named champions for the Cooper International Competition for Piano. (Photo by Yevhen Gulenko.)

For the first time in the history of the Cooper Competition for Piano, the top prize was awarded to two participants. Pyotr Akulov and Sophia Shuya Liu were named co-champions following the Concerto Concert with The Cleveland Orchestra Friday evening.

Akulov opened the concert performing Liszt’s Concerto No. 1 in E-flat. Liu followed next, performing Saint-Saëns’ Concerto No. 2 in g. Second place winner Taige Wang ended the concert with a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

All three finalists performed with The Cleveland Orchestra, under the direction of David Robertson.

Read the full article here.

Published on ClevelandClassical.com August 5, 2023

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About Daniel Hathaway

Daniel Hathaway founded ClevelandClassical.com in September, 2008, after a thirty-one year tenure as music director of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral, where he founded the Wednesday Noon Brownbag Concert Series and Trinity Chamber Orchestra. A graduate of Harvard College and the Episcopal Divinity School, he also studied historical musicology at Princeton and Harvard Universities. Before coming to Cleveland in 1977, he served as head of humanities at the Sunset Hill School in Kansas City and as head of arts at Groton School in Massachusetts. In Cleveland, he has served on the music staff of Cleveland Opera, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and the faculty of Laurel School. As an organist, Hathaway has played recitals in the U.S., England, France, Germany, and Austria. He team-teaches Music Journalism at Oberlin College and Conservatory and is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America.

Cleveland Orchestra’s holiday concerts return with plenty of festive cheer (Dec. 11)

by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

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[Read on…]

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by Stephanie Manning

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by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

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