Southeastern Piano Festival brings top international artists and outstanding young pianists to South Carolina
A world of piano music comes to Columbia, SC, for the 11th annual Southeastern Piano Festival. The week-long Festival, June 9 – 15, will welcome Armenian, Israeli, Chinese and Chinese-American pianists.
“We strive to bring the most talented and distinctive pianists in the world to the Festival,” said Artistic Director Marina Lomazov. “In the past we have had guest artists from Russia, Italy and other counties and the Festival is becoming more and more international each year, inviting the most celebrated concert pianists.”
Along with its stellar concert series, the Festival also trains 20 young pianists from throughout the United States and abroad who participate in the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition. Most concerts and the competition are held at the University of South Carolina School of Music.
For the first time, the festival will also present one of its major concerts at the Columbia Museum of Art with a performance by piano virtuoso Sergei Babayan. The Thursday, June 13, concert will be held in the DuBose Poston Reception Hall where the Chamber Music on Main series (formerly Charles Wadsworth and Friends) takes place. Partnering with the museum will allow the Festival to accommodate more listeners and reach out to new audiences.
“We are thrilled to partner with this leading cultural institution in the region for this important concert,” Dr. Lomazov said. “The Columbia Museum of Art has for 50 years been the center of art activity in Columbia both in the visual arts and performing arts, and we’re pleased to be part of that rich history.”
Mr. Babayan, a native of Armenia, studied at the Moscow Conservatory and early in his career won first-place awards in several international piano competitions. He has performed across the globe and been soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony and Detroit Symphony.
“Mr. Babayan belongs to an elite breed of new pianists,” according to American Record Guide. “This is elegant playing, intelligent yet colorful, rational yet never wanting for passion and tenderness, irreproachable on every level.”
Ilana Vered has had a stellar career performing with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Symphony and under the batons of Leopold Stokowski, Sir George Solti and Michael Tilson Thomas. Her extensive recording career (much of it for the Decca/London label) includes Brahms Concerto No. 2, the complete Chopin Etudes, Rachmaninoff Concerto No.2, Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1, Mozart Concerto No. 21 and No. 23 and the complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano concerti.
Born in Israel, Ms. Vered graduated from the Paris Conservatory at 16 and completed her studies at the Juilliard School.
Only 21, Claire Huangci made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra and has performed at the St. Petersburg Hermitage Theater with the St. Petersburg Symphony, the Ravinia Festival, the Caramoor Festival, Bonn Beethovenhaus, Salzburg Mozarteum and at the Shanghai EXPO with Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. She won First Prize in the Europäischer Chopin Klavierwettbewerb in Germany, the Orpheum Music Prize in Switzerland and the National Chopin Piano Competition. She is one of five finalists for the 2013 American Pianists Association Award.
“At times it was hard to believe that such a slender, petite woman could breathe such fire and brimstone and call forth the torrents of sound,” wrote the South Florida Classical Review of a concert she gave in Miami.
A native of Rochester, NY, she attended the Curtis Institute of Music and continues her piano studies at Hannover Musikhochschule in Germany.
The Festival will also welcome Keng Zhou, one of the top teachers and proponents of piano music in China. He is Artistic Director of the International Piano Festival of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Executive Deputy Director of the International Piano Academy, Deputy Dean of the Piano Department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Head of Piano Department at Shenzhen Arts School. He has also served as a judge in many competitions including the International Nikolay Rubinstein Competition and Shanghai International Piano Competition in China.
He will present the Marian Stanley Tucker Lecture during the Festival.
The Festival opens Sunday, June 9 with the “Piano Fireworks Concert” with performances by Marina Lomazov, Festival Program Director Joseph Rackers, Festival faculty members Charles Fugo, Phillip Bush and others. Micah McLaurin and Naomi Causby, co-winners of the 2010 Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition, will give a concert Monday, June 10.
Along with performing, the guest artists will work closely with the students who are admitted to the Festival through a rigorous selection process. Master classes are open to the public as is the day-long Fraser Competition (June 14.) Winners of the competition will give the closing concert for the Festival June 15. Along with a cash award the winners have the opportunity to perform with the South Carolina Philharmonic.
Many students selected have already made significant strides in their careers and have been admitted to top-ranked schools including the Juilliard School, the Eastman School of Music, Peabody Conservatory, New England Conservatory and Oberlin Conservatory.
Festival concert schedule
Sunday, June 9, 6 p.m. Piano Fireworks Concert and Opening Ceremony.
Monday, June 10, 7:30 p.m. Alumni concert with Micah McLaurin and Naomi Causby co-winners in 2010 Fraser Competition.
Tuesday, June 11, 7:30 p.m. Rising Star concert: Claire Huangci.
Wednesday, June 12, 7:30 p.m. Ilana Vered.
Thursday, June 13, 7:30 p.m. Sergei Babayan (Columbia Museum of Art, Main and Hampton streets).
Friday, June 14, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition.
Saturday, June 15, 7 p.m. Fraser Competition winners concert.
Unless otherwise noted concerts take place in USC School of Music Recital Hall, 813 Assembly St. in downtown Columbia. The competition is free and open to the public as is the winners’ concert. Ticket prices for other concerts range from $20 to $30 and all concerts are free to those under 18. For more information visit the Southeastern Piano Festival website at southeasternpianofestival.com