International Piano Competition at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music July 23-30

July 19, 2006—The 12th 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 23, through Sunday, July 30, 2006. The final round of the competition will be held in Warner Concert Hall Saturday, July 29, at 8 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, will serve as the master of ceremonies for the finals concert, which is free and open to the public. Jacqueline Gerber, the host of WCLV’S morning show “First Program,” will be the on-air host. 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.

More than 37 young musicians from cities throughout the United States, Taiwan, China, and Korea have been accepted for the competition following a preliminary taped audition round. Of that group, 10 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 finals.

Guest faculty for the festival are Emanuel Krasovsky, a professor at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel-Aviv; Marietta Orlov, faculty member at the University of Toronto and The Royal Academy of Music’s Young Artists Performance Academy; and Andrew Willis, faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Krasovsky and Orlov will also serve as judges for the final round of the competition.

Final round judges from Oberlin are Professors of Piano Sanford Margolis, Sedmara Zakarian Rutstein, and Peter Takács. The judges expect to award cash prizes ranging from $4,000 for the First-Prize winner to $100 for the Audience-Prize winner, who is selected by the vote of audience members attending the finals concert.

More information about the competition and festival is available by calling Anna Hoffmann at 440-775-8044 or by visiting www.oberlin.edu/con/summer/piano.

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. Renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber and pronounced a “national treasure” by the Washington Post, Oberlin’s alumni have gone on to achieve illustrious careers in all aspects of the serious music world. 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. Oberlin, an All-Steinway School, is Steinway & Sons oldest continuous client; their relationship dates back more than 125 years.

Concert Schedule
Programs and artists are subject to change.
These concerts are free and open to the public.

Faculty Recital
Peter Takács, piano
Sunday, July 23
8 p.m. Warner Concert Hall
Works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel, and Gershwin

Faculty Recital
Robert Shannon and Haewon Song, piano
Monday, July 24
8 p.m. Kulas Recital Hall
Works by Rzewski, Schubert, and Ravel

Guest Recital
Andrew Willis, piano
Tuesday, July 25
8 p.m. Kulas Recital Hall
Program TBA

Faculty and Guest Recital
Tony Arnold, soprano
Robert Shannon, piano
Wednesday, July 26
8 p.m. Warner Concert Hall
Works by George Crumb

Award-winning contemporary music vocalist Tony Arnold is a 1989 graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. The Chicago Sun-Times writes: “American soprano Tony Arnold has a beautiful and precise voice.”

Faculty Recital
Sedmara Zakarian Rutstein, piano
Thursday, July 27
8 p.m. Warner Concert Hall
Program TBA

Semifinalists’ Concert
Friday, July 28
8 p.m. Warner Concert Hall

Competition Finals Concert
Saturday, July 39
8 p.m. Warner Concert Hall
This concert will be broadcast live on WCLV 104.9 FM
and on wclv.com.