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Yuqing Meng Captures the First Prize in the 13th Annual Oberlin International Piano Competition Film crew from China plans a documentary about the competition. July 31, 2007 -- Out of 55 pianists from Canada, the People’s Republic of China, Cyprus, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States, Yuqing Meng, 16-years old, has won first prize in the 13th Annual Oberlin International Piano Competition, held July 21–29, 2007, at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio. Six pianists competed in the finals round, which was held Saturday evening, July 28, in the Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall. Meng received a cash award of $10,000 and orchestral engagements in Beijing and Hong Kong for his achievement—the largest first prize award for an international youth piano competition. For the finals round, he performed Song Without Words, Op. 85, No. 5 by Felix Mendelssohn; Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 31, No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven; and Réminiscences de Don Juan by Franz Liszt. The Oberlin competition featured a concerto round earlier in the week, the results of which were weighted toward the final outcome. Meng performed the first movement from Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16. Born in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, Meng moved with his family to the United States when he was 7 years old. He lives in Madison, New Jersey, where he is an honors student at Madison High School. He is in his eighth year in the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School in New York, where he studies piano with Yoheved Kaplinsky. The second prize and $4,000 dollars went to Minsoo Hong, 13, of Seoul, South Korea. Yunqing Zhou, 18, from Shenyang, People’s Republic of China, won the third-place award of $1,500 as well as the audience prize of $100. Xiao Pei Xu, of Beijing, People’s Republic of China, took the fourth-place prize of $1,000. Chai Ju Yen, 16, from Seoul, South Korea, received fifth-place honors and $500, and 16-year-old John Choi from Demarest, New Jersey, took the sixth-place prize of $200. As is the competition’s protocol, the finalists were told only moments before walking onstage which pieces from their repertoire they were to play for the judges. Judges for the finals round were Oberlin Professors of Piano Sanford Margolis and Monique Duphil; Malcolm Bilson, Frederick J. Whiton Professor of Music at Cornell University; Christopher Elton, Head of Keyboard at the Royal Academy of Music, London; James Giles, Assistant Professor of Piano at Northwestern University and a 1989 graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music; Jerome Lowenthal, Professor of Piano at the Juilliard School; Thomas Rosenkranz, Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a 1999 graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory; and David Starobin, Founder and Director of Bridge Records and Chair of the Guitar Department at the Manhattan School of Music. Fan Tao, principal conductor of China’s National Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, was a concerto round judge. He will conduct Yuqing Meng in his orchestral engagements in Beijing and Hong Kong. Oberlin Professor of Piano Robert Shannon founded the Oberlin Piano Competition and Festival in 1994 and serves as its director. The finals round was broadcast live on 104.9 WCLV, northeast Ohio’s classical music station, and simulcast on www.wclv.com thanks to the sponsorship of the Riverside Company, a leading private equity firm specializing in premier companies. Robert Conrad, President of WCLV, was Master of Ceremonies for the evening. A crew from CCTV (China Central Television), including producer Wanjie Liu, was on the Oberlin campus during the competition filming elements of the Piano Competition and Festival for a documentary that will be broadcast throughout China on the network’s Drama and Music channel. An English-language version of the documentary is anticipated.- ### - Media Contacts: Marci Janas < back to current press releases
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