February 28, 2006—Three recent graduates of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music have taken the top three prizes in the Corpus Christi International Competition for Piano and Strings, held on the campus of Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas, Feb. 16 - 19. All of the prizewinners were in the piano division.

Michael Bukhman '05 won the first prize and $5,000 for his performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor. A native of Baku, Azerbaijan, who moved with his family first to Israel, then to Houston, Texas, Bukhman studied at Oberlin with Professor of Piano Robert Shannon and received a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship in 2005. He is currently enrolled in the Master of Music program at the Juilliard School, where he studies with Robert McDonald. He is a graduate of the Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

Yury Shadrin AD '05 won the second prize and $2,500 for his performance of Chopin's Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11. At Oberlin he studied with Professor of Piano Monique Duphil and performed at the Kennedy Center as part of the 2005 Conservatory Project.  

Scott Meek '05 won the third prize and $1,000 for his performance of Prokofiev's Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major, Op. 10. He was a student of Oberlin Associate Professor of Piano Alvin Chow and a winner of Oberlin's 2003 Concerto Competition. Meek won the bronze medal at the 2005 World Piano Competition, held in Cincinnati in July 2005. He performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in November 2005, and was invited to perform with the Toronto and Winnipeg symphony orchestras in November and December 2006. All three are among Canada's major orchestras, and all are subscription series concerts. Meek is studying with Menahem Pressler in the Master of Music program at Indiana University.

The field in the piano division consisted of 17 musicians, winnowed down to six semi-finalists and two finalists. The competition allows the participants to provide their own accompanists; in a show of typical Oberlin camaraderie and support, Bukhman accompanied Meek and Meek accompanied Bukhman. Enrique Graf, Ralph Votapek, and Joseph Schwartz served as adjudicators for the competition.  

Founded in 1865 and situated within the intellectual vitality of Oberlin College since 1867, Oberlin is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. A primarily undergraduate institution, Oberlin is renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber and has been called 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 World Piano 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, with a relationship dating back more than 125 years.