About the Oberlin International Festival and Competition
	Guest Faculty Bios About the Oberlin International Festival and Competition Concert Schedule		This gathering of international members of the pianistic community has at its core a fundamental premise: those who attend do so because they care deeply about the piano, its repertoire, and the future of live piano concerts in our culture. The festival–designed to bring educational opportunities to young and old, students and private piano teachers alike–features a week-long banquet of lectures, master classes, private instruction, and nightly concerts that complement the piano competition. The director of the Oberlin International Piano Competition and Festival, Robert Shannon, is professor of pianoforte at Oberlin, chair of the department, and a member of the Oberlin faculty since 1976. Since its inception nine years ago, the festival and competition has included noted pedagogues and performers from around the world. Notable artists and teachers who have judged and taught here include Soo-Jung Shin from Seoul, Korea; Che Chen Wang from Shanghai; Menahem Pressler, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Martin Canin, and Jerome Lowenthal. Prominent teachers of younger students, such as Emilio del Rosario, Gary Amano, and John Weems, are also invited to lecture and judge. This year, 35 invited competitors from Asia and North America ranging in age from 13 to 18 will spend an intensive week performing works by Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Schubert in the preliminary rounds of the Piano Competition. Of these 35 young pianists, no more than six will survive the grueling examination. They will play for judges who have selected winners from some of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world–members of the piano faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College and distinguished visiting artists and pedagogues from New York, California, and Russia.