"Temperament, Technique, and Virtuosity": Winning Traits for Pianist Kairy Koshoeva By Marci Janas '91
			"She has everything: temperament, technique, virtuosity and emotion." With this assessment, Professor of Pianoforte Monique Duphil pretty much sums up what led to Kairy Koshoeva winning the third prize at the 25 D'Angelo Young Artists Competition in Piano, held at Mercyhurst College in late April. Koshoeva, an artist diploma student from Kyrgyztan, was one of three finalists in what was her first American competition, performing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor with the D'Angelo Competition Orchestra, conducted by Frank Collura. No first prize was awarded. Koshoeva, who is 26 years old, earned her bachelor and master of music degrees in Moscow at Gnessin's Academy of Music. She first learned about Oberlin from Duphil. "I met Ms. Duphil in Germany at the International Bach Piano Competition, where I was a semi-finalist," says Koshoeva. Duphil was one of the judges. Then, last year, the two met again when Duphil was invited to Moscow to perform a recital and conduct a series of master classes, several of which took place at Koshoeva's school. "Kairy came up to me and expressed her desire to come to Oberlin and become my student," Duphil says, remembering well the audition videotape that Koshoeva submitted to Oberlin. "She sent us tape of two or three live recitals; I thought she was just sensational. So did my colleagues. She received an outstanding evaluation and a full scholarship in the artist diploma program." What was it about Koshoeva's playing that attracted Duphil the most? "First of all," she says, "the level of her playing is very high. She's really an accomplished pianist. But there is in her playing something very bright, alive, and sensitive that attracted me, and that reflects her personality. I was not at all surprised to hear that she'd won third prize at the D'Angelo. It was very well-deserved." Judges for the D'Angelo competition were Lorin Hollander, Jacob Lateiner, Gyorgy Sandor, Abbey Simon and Susan Starr. "I had quite a hectic four days," Koshoeva says of the D'Angelo preliminaries. "Starting early in the morning, practicing for each round, competing during the day and finding out the results late in the evening." By the second day of the competition, 20 pianists from around the world had advanced from the first day's preliminary rounds. During this stage, Koshoeva played Bach's French Suite in G Major, Mozart's Sonata K. 311 in D Major, Beethoven's Sonata, Opus 31, no. 3, Liszt's Spanish Rhapsody and Prokofiev's Second Sonata. Ten pianists then advanced to the semifinals, where Koshoeva played Beethoven's Second Concerto for Piano. Before testing the waters in the U.S., Koshoeva had already won awards in other international competitions--she took second place in both the N. Rubinstein Piano Competition in Paris, and the International Piano Competition in Vicenza, Italy. She has also competed internationally in piano competitions in Germany, Israel, Russia, and in her hometown of Bishkek in Kyrgyztan, which is located in Central Asia. She began piano studies at the age of seven with Bela Zubok; other teachers have included Faina Khasrmatz, and Khasrmatz's husband, Michael Burshtin, at Mukash Abdrayev, a special music school named for a famous Kyrgyztan musician. She studied there for 11 years, then left for Moscow to study with Vera Nossina at Gnessin's Academy of Music. During her final year in Moscow, Koshoeva offered what she calls "a big recital with a huge repertoire" in the midst of course work and many other responsibilities. Although she was accepted at Gnessin for postgraduate study, she opted for Oberlin. Even though she spoke no English upon her arrival last August, there were numerous amenities at Oberlin to soften the transition. She no longer has to stand in line to wait for a practice piano, and her commute from home to her classes is no longer 40 minutes each way.
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