International Piano-E-Competition Website
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Piano-e-Competition Alexander Braginsky President /Artisic Director Jeffrey Wirth Chief Executive Officer HAMLINE Louise F. Ruhr UNIVERSITY Project Manager Partners Grand Hotel Minneapolis Hamline University Minnesota Public Radio Yamaha Corporation of America With The Participation Of Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis Rosalyra Quartet The Schubert Club Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Murry Sidlin, Conductor About The Competition Through advanced technology, including the use of pianos capable of transmitting the pianists’ performances via MIDI through the Internet, the The International Piano-e-Competition can be judged from any location.This concept enables the e-Competition to attract to the jury great musicians who would otherwise be prevented from participating by their busy schedules. Piano-e-Competition™ For the first e-Competition, two juries will be assembled: one,“on site”, consisting of seven jurors; a second, with two more judges, will be added offers a special for the finals.These two judges will adjudicate from their “home” locations. Each judge will be able to view the competition via opportunity for young video-conferencing, and also hear the competition as synchronous performances are transmitted from the competition site directly to each judge's location. pianists worldwide Our artistic vision aims to bring to the public’s attention young artists with the promise of lasting and important careers.The program has been to participate in a designed to allow participants the freedom to demonstrate their strongest qualities in the repertoire that suits them best. competition of the The Internet will be used to inform and educate those unable to attend the actual competition. A competition website will provide information highest artistic on participants, works being performed and offer additional educational elements. For the duration of the competition, all solo performances quality and integrity. will be stored on the Internet, accessible at any time. All rounds and the Gala Concert will be broadcast over the Internet. 1 PRIZES 1st place––$25,000 First Prize winner also receives these prestigious prizes: • Yamaha DC3A 6’ 1” Disklavier ® polished ebony grand piano. 2nd place––$15,000 • Spring 2003 New York City Debut Recital at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center sponsored by Yamaha Corporation of America. CD issued on the Ten Thousand Lakes label. 3rd place––$10,000 • • A Yamaha PianoSoft™ recording for the Yamaha Disklavier reproducing piano. 4th place––$5000 Additional Prizes: • $1500 prize for the best performance of the Schubert 5th place––$5000 Sonata (Offered by The Schubert Club). • Engagements with: Richmond Symphony Orchestra Mark Russell Smith, Music Director International piano-e-competition 6th place––$5000 The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra all monies in U.S. dollars 2 JURY Emanuel Ax Pianist , U.S.A. Acclaimed for his poetic lyricism and brilliant technique, Emanuel Ax is one of the best known and most highly regarded musicians in the world today. His Emmanuel Ax* distinguished career has encompassed many prestigious prizes, performances with every major symphony orchestra, countless recitals in the greatest concert Yefim Bronfman* halls and a catalogue of highly successful recordings. Ax captured public attention in 1974 when, at the age of 25, he won the Fou T'Song first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and, four years later, took the Ralf Gothoni coveted Avery Fisher Prize. Ax regularly performs duo recitals with Yo-Yo Ma, and their recordings of the cello and piano repertoire have earned three Sergio Perticaroli GRAMMY ® awards. Born in Lvov, Poland, Ax moved with his family to Winnipeg, Canada, Abbey Simon (chair) while still a child. A graduate of Columbia University where he majored in French, Ax currently resides in New York City. Sontraud Speidel Yefim Bronfman Pianist, U.S.A. Dubravka Tomsicˇ Yefim Bronfman is widely regarded as one of the most talented virtuoso pianists performing today. His commanding technique and exceptional lyrical gifts Earl Wild have won him consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audience responses worldwide, whether for his solo recitals, his prestigious orchestral engagements or his rapidly growing catalogue of recordings. Bronfman, an Avery Fisher Prize *e-judges winner, has appeared with most of the world’s celebrated symphony orchestras. 3 A devoted chamber music performer, Bronfman has collaborated with the Emerson, Cleveland, Guarneri and Julliard quartets as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Bronfman also has played chamber music with Yo-Yo Ma,Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Shlomo Mintz, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Pinchas Zukerman. Bronfman won a GRAMMY ® award in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartok Piano Concertos with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Born in 1958 in Tashkent, in the Soviet Union, Bronfman immigrated to Israel in 1973. Bronfman has been a U.S. citizen since 1989. Fou T’Song Pianist , China. Born in 1934 in Shanghai, China, Fou T’Song possesses a clear and natural talent that has garnered the attention of musicians, conductors, critics and music lovers the world over, as well as brought him numerous awards and accolades. Fou T’Song moved to Europe in 1953, where the Warsaw Conservatory professors were amazed at his intuitive grasp of mazurka rhythm. Major awards, including the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, led him to the class of Zbigniew Drzewicki. TIME magazine has hailed him as the greatest Chinese musician alive today. Hermann Hesse called him the only true performer of Chopin. His recordings of solo piano music by Mozart and Schumann and piano concerts by Mozart and Chopin have recently been issued by Carlton Classics. Fou T’Song has been a jury member for numerous international piano competitions, including Leeds, Queen Elizabeth, Geneva, International piano-e-competition Chopin and Dino Ciani. In addition to his extensive performance, recording, and judging schedules, Fou T’Song teaches annually at the International Foundation for Young Pianists held in Como, Italy. 4 Ralf Gothoni Pianist, Conductor, Composer, Finland For more than 25 years, Ralf Gothoni has enjoyed a multi-faceted career as a pianist, chamber musician and conductor. He often appears as both a soloist and a conductor, conducting from the keyboard. A regular guest artist at many major chamber music festivals, Gothoni has performed at the prestigious music festivals of Salzburg, Berlin, Prague, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, La Roque de Antheron, Ravinia and Tanglewood. Gothoni’s compositions include three chamber operas, the chamber cantata “The Ox and Its Shephard” and a Concerto Grosso version for violin, piano and strings. A prolific recording artist, Gothoni has recorded more than 80 albums for a variety of labels. In September 2000, Gothoni was appointed principal conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra. In 1996, Gothoni started the Forbidden City Music Festival, held in Beijing. He serves as artistic director for the Aino Ackte Institute for chamber music in Savonlinna. In May 2000, Gothoni was appointed a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music in London. Mr. Gothoni is the recipient of the Gilmore Artist and Schubert Medal of the Austrian Ministry of Culture. Abbey Simon (Chair) Pianist , U.S.A. Recognized as one of the grand masters of the piano, Abbey Simon’s 50-year career has taken him across six continents to perform in all of the major music capitals. At the age of eight, the great pianist Josef Hofmann accepted Simon at the Curtis Institute, where he trained with fellow classmates Jorge Bolet and Sidney Foster. Simon made his official debut in New York’s Town Hall as the winner of the prestigious Naumburg Award. 5 Simon is one of the most recorded classical artists of all time. He has recorded all of the concerti of Rachmaninoff; the complete works of Ravel; and Schumann’s Carnaval and Fantasy. His Chopin collection encompasses more than 20 discs, the latest of which is a complete set of Chopin Nocturnes. Despite his enormous success with recordings, Simon prefers live performance.“It’s a totally new experience every time, and this is what I love.” Sontraud Speidel Pianist , Germany Sontraud Speidel, who won the J.S. Bach International Piano Competition in Washington D.C. at the age of 18, is a prolific performer and recording artist. Speidel, who has given recitals in both solo and chamber music, has performed with orchestras throughout Europe, North and South America, Israel and Asia.The first performer to record the piano works of Fanny Hensel, Speidel has recorded over 20 CDs. Her recording of all works for two pianos by Max Reger together with Evelinde Trenkner won the first prize of “Audiophile Reference” in the solo instrument category. Awarded the Silver Cross for special cultural achievement by the city of Vienna,Speidel’s teachers include Branka Musulin,Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, Géza Anda and Stefan Askenase. Sontraud Speidel currently serves as Professor of Piano at the State Music University of Karlsruhe, Germany. Speidel also is the music director of the Clavissimo Piano Festival in Seoul, Korea. Speidel regularly conducts master courses in Austria, Greece, Israel, Brazil and Korea, and has International piano-e-competition served as a jurist for many international piano competitions. 6 Dubravka Tomsicˇ Pianist , Slovenia The brilliant Slovenian pianist Dubravka Tomsicˇ gave her first public recital at the age of five