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 10 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, 32 invited competitors from Asia, Australia, and North
America ranging in age from 13 to 18 will spend an intensive week
performing works by, among others, Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn,
Mozart, and Schubert in the preliminary rounds of the Piano Competition.
Of these 42 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 this year's distinguished visiting artists and pedagogues,
John Perry and Robert Weirich. |
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