July 9, 2004—The 10th annual Oberlin International Piano Competition and Festival, sponsored by the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College and directed by Oberlin Professor of Piano Robert Shannon, will take place Sunday, July 25, through Sunday, August 1, 2004. The final round of the competition will be held in Warner Concert Hall Saturday, July 31, at 7 p.m., and will be broadcast live on 104.9 FM WCLV, Cleveland's classical music radio station. Robert Conrad, co-founder and president of WCLV and host of the station's long-running national broadcasts of The Cleveland Orchestra, will serve as host of the finals concert, which is free and open to the public. Audience members will be invited to vote for their favorite performer.

The competition is for pianists between the ages of 13 and 18. Some events, including all festival recitals and all rounds of the competition, are free and open to the public. A schedule of concerts presented by festival faculty members follows.

The festival faculty--composed of renowned professors from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and distinguished guest artists--will offer private lessons, master classes, recitals, and lectures that will provide the festival participants with intensive and in-depth opportunities to expand their knowledge of music history, theory, and pedagogy, as well as the vital connection of those three elements to on-stage performance.

Some 42 young musicians from cities throughout the United States, Canada, and Asia have been accepted for the competition following a preliminary taped audition round. Of that group, 12 to 16 pianists will be selected from a first performance round and will advance to the third round of competition. Up to six pianists remaining after the third round will perform in the competition's final round.

Guest judges for the final round of the competition and guest faculty for the festival are John Perry, professor of keyboard studies at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, and Robert Weirich, who holds the Jack Strandberg Missouri endowed chair in piano at the University of Missouri in Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Weirich is also a 1972 graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Final round judges from Oberlin are Professors of Piano Monique Duphil and Sanford Margolis and Emeritus Professor of Piano Joseph Schwartz. The judges expect to award cash prizes ranging from $4,000 for the first-prize winner to $100 for the sixth-place competitor. In addition, audience members attending the finals concert will cast their vote for the "Audience Favorite," which carries a cash prize of $100.

More information about the competition and festival is available by calling Anna Hoffmann at 440-775-8044.

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music , founded in 1865 and situated within the intellectual vitality of Oberlin College since 1867, is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. It is renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber. Its students and alumni have won top prizes in numerous international piano competitions, including the Van Cliburn, the Fryderyk Chopin, the Queen Elisabeth, the Arthur Rubinstein, the Walter W. Naumberg, the Unisa International Piano Competition (South Africa), the American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship competition, the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition, and the Busoni Competition. The Conservatory's collection of 1,700 period and modern musical instruments includes 199 Steinway grand pianos.

Concert Schedule
Programs and artists are subject to change.

Faculty Recital, Monique Duphil. Sunday, July 25 at 8 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall. Program: works by Fauré and Ravel.

Faculty Recital, David Breitman. Monday, July 26 at 8 p.m. in Kulas Recital Hall. Program: works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin.

Faculty Recital, Robert Shannon and Haewon Song. Tuesday, July 27 at 8 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall. Program: works by Schubert, Crumb, Stravinsky, and Rachmaninoff

Faculty Recital, Peter Takács. Wednesday, July 28 at 8 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall. Program: an all-Beethoven sonata program. 

Faculty Recital, Angela Cheng and Alvin Chow. Thursday, July 29 at 8 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall. Program: works by Haydn, Prokofiev, Dvorak, and Ravel.

Faculty Recital, Joseph Schwartz. Friday, July 30 at 7:30 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall. Program: TBA

Semifinalists' Concert, Friday, July 30 at 9 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall.
 
Competition Finals Concert, Saturday, July 31 at 7 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall. ( This concert will be broadcast live on WCLV 104.9 FM and on wclv.com.)