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The Friday Morning Music Club
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2005 Washington International Competition for Pianists
WINNERS
Jie Chen - First Place
Received award of $10000
Chu-Fang Huang - Second Place
Received $4000
Dudana Mazmanishvili - Third Place
Received $2000
Esther Keel - Audience Award
Received $500
Esther Keel and the other two finalist, Kimball Gallagher and So Yoon Lee, also received finalist prizes of $500 each.
Performance opportunities at the Kennedy Center, Strathmore Hall and the Phillips Gallery will be awarded to finalists.
When the dates for any of the recitals or orchestra performances are determined, they will be announced here as well as in the Friday Morning Music Club's Calendar of Events.
When the dates for any of the recitals or orchestra performances are determined, they will be announced here as well as in the Friday Morning Music Club's Calendar of Events.
Jie Chen, at age 18, has already established herself as a mature musician with "broad technical mastery, colorful musical imagination, and the ability to communicate and move the audience around the world."
Highlights of Ms. Chen’s 2004-2005 season include recital debuts at the Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York; the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert, Chicago, IL; the Schubert Club in Minneapolis, MN; and solo recital tour throughout the United States. Upcoming concerto engagements include the Minnesota Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, among others. She will also make her recording debuts with "One Thousand Lakes" label and Yamaha "Piano Soft".
Admitted to Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music in 1998 at the age of twelve, Jie Chen made her major Orchestral debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Maestro Wolfgang Sawallisch playing the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto three years later. Orchestras she has collaborated with include the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the Pottstown Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Sanremo Sifonica orchestra in Italy. Already an experienced recitalist, she has appeared as soloist in major concert venues in the US and abroad, including the Verizon Hall in the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Steinway Hall in New York, Hewlett Public Library in Long Island, the Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, the Leipzig Hochschule and The Mendelssohn House in Leipzig, Germany, and the Sanremo Opera Theatre in Sanreo, Italy.
Ms. Chen's performances has been broadcast by the Italian National Television Network "RAIUNO", The German Radio "MDR", the Minnesota Public Radio, and "Performance Today" of the National Public Radio. In addition, she has been featured in numerous major newspaper articles, including the "Philadelphia Inquirer", "Star Tribune", "World Journal", as well as many major musical Web site.
Over the years, Ms.Chen has won numerous awards including first prizes in "Piano Arts" National Competition, "Five Town" Young Artist Competition in New York, 3rd Prize in the "8th Sanremo Classico International Piano Competition" in Italy, Grand Prize in the 10th "Missouri Southern International Piano Competition", (the jury decide not to award the second prize) and Grand Prize in the "2nd Piano-E-Competition" in Minneapolis. Alongside her solo achievements, she is also an avid chamber music player.
Ms. Chen was born in Guang Dong, China. At the age of four, she started playing the piano and one year later, was awarded the first prize in the state music competition. Virtually self-taught, she was accepted into the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory at the age of eight, studying with Er-Yao Lin and Zi-Jie Wu. Three years later, Ms. Chen was selected as the First Prize winner to attend the first Music Bridge summer program in Canada with a full scholarship from the whole Conservatory, praised by international famed judge Mr. Lee Kum Sing as having the musicality well beyond her age. She has attended Masterclass conducted by Leon Fleisher, Peter Frankl, Rudolf Buchbinder, Gary Graffman, Anton Kuerti, Emmanual Ax. Ms. Chen will receive her BM from Curtis in May 05 where she studied with Claude Frank and Seymour Lipkin.
Chu-fang Huang began her piano study at the age of seven. After winning numerous prizes since age of ten, she was accepted in a full scholarship to the Pre-college Division of Shenyang Music Conservatory as the youngest student in 1994, where she won the first prize at the Chinese Prodigy Piano Competition at the same year. In 1997, Miss Huang received the grand prize from the Southeastern Asia Piano Competition in Hong Kong, as well as the Young Musician Awards for her special achievement in interpreting Chinese modern music.
Only 2 months after moving to America in 1998, Miss Huang made her first U.S. debut in the Prodigy Series at La Jolla Chamber Society at age of 15, where a live recording of her recital was released under ALPINE label. Soon after, Miss Huang became the grand prize winner of the California International Young Artists Competition. As part of the award, she was invited to participate in the International Music Festival in Germany for a concert tour and a CD recording under CAMUS label. Miss Huang has also won numerals top prizes including the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra Competition, the Missouri Southern International Competition, The Chinese American National Showcase, the Nina Wide man Piano competition, the Kingsville International Piano Competition, the Grace Welsh Piano Prize, and the Corpus Christi International Competition. Her recent winning of the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, brought Miss Huang to her Carnegie Recital debut this past November.
In the summer of 2004, Miss Huang won Prizes in both the Beijing International Piano Competition in China and the Sydney International Piano Competition in Australia, as well as special prizes for her unique interpretation in Haydn and Debussy. As a solo Performer, Miss Huang had concertized throughout major cities of China. She has appeared as soloist with Pacific Symphony, Eastern symphony Orchestra, Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, the Hilton Head Orchestra, and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Her solo appearances in the US include recitals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Escondido, Irvine, Pasadena, Joplin, Denver, Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Wilmington, New Jersey and Philadelphia. In Europe, Miss Huang had played recitals in the Klavier Festival Ruhr in Germany, where she will be reengaged again this coming July. Her recitals during Holland music Sessions in the Netherlands, where both Head Councils of Culture from Chinese Embassy and American Embassy had attended, will bring her back this March for an European tour.
Miss Huang had solo appearances with the Pacific Symphony, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Liaoning Philharmonic, the Shenzheng Philharmonic, the Hilton Head Symphony, the Fort Collins Symphony, the Illinois Philharmonic and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Having played in such prestigious hall as Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House, Miss Huang's upcoming engagements will be highlighted by her Concertgebouw debut in Amsterdam, and recitals in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, and Budapest, a recital tour in Chicago as the winner of the Grace Welsh Piano Prize, recitals at the Kravis Arts Center in Florida, the Young Pianists Series in Tennessee, the Myra Hess Series and the Music in the Loft concert series in Chicago, the Stokowski Society in New Jersey and at the San Diego Arts Center in California.
Solo appearances this season will be with the Victoria Symphony, the Corpus Christi Symphony, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Miss Huang's performance has also been broadcast on the Young Artists Series on WQXR Radio Station, National Public Radio in Washington, the South Carolina Radio Station, and through the internet by the Australian Broadcast Cooperate. As the recipient of "2001-2002 Most Outstanding Student", Miss Huang Graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music with her Bachelor's degree this May. She is currently pursuing her Master's degree in the Juilliard School as a pupil of Robert McDonald.
Dudana Mazmanishvili was born in 1980 in Tbilisi, Georgia. She received her first piano lessons, at age three, from her mother, Tamar Apakidze. Three years later she was accepted into the Central Music School for Talented Children in Tbilisi.
Dudana’s concert debut took place at the age of eight when she performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 with the Georgian State Orchestra. By age 14 she played Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra. Since then she has regularly performed in Germany, Russia, France, Poland, Italy, and the United States. One highlight was in 2001 when she played a solo recital in the Max-Josef-Hall of the Munich Residence, a performance which was recorded by Bavarian Radio and subsequently broadcasted several times in Germany. Another important event was her 2002 performance at the Grand Hall of the Tschaikowsky Conservatoire in Moscow.
Since 1998 Dudana has been a student of Prof. Elisso Wirssaladze at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. This term she began her studies with Prof. Jerome Rose at the Mannes College of Music in New York.
Dudana is a winner of numerous international piano competitions, including 1992 Dvarionas International Competition in Vilnius, Lithuania, 1995 Città di Senigallia Competition in Italy, 1996 Sarrebourg Competition in France, 1998 Chopin Competition in Corpus Christi, Texas, Isabel Scionti Competition in Kingsville, Texas and a special award winner of the 2002 Tschaikowsky Piano Competition in Moscow. Other noteworthy successes in that year were the Nicolai Rubinstein International Competition in Paris, where she was awarded first prize, and her participation in the prestigious Merano International Music Festival in Italy, where she received the Solo Recital Award.
In 1998-2001, Dudana received the annual Honorary Prize awarded by President Eduard Shevardnadze to talented young Georgians.
Dudana’s concerts in 2003 included Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, when the Westfallen Abend Zeitung described her as a “soloist who captured the soul of the music…. She captivated the audience with her sensitive, poetic sound…. She plays with bravura and great virtuosity.”
Esther Keel, age 19, is a native of Los Angeles, California. She is currently in her second year at Juilliard where she is enrolled in the Bachelor of Music program and is studying under the tutelage of Professor Yoheved Kaplinsky. She began studying with her mother at the age of three and has also studied with Professor John Perry. She made her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen at the age of 13. She was also a winner of the Ostra International Piano Competition in Italy, the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, and a diploma-winner of the Moscow International Chopin Piano Competition. She has performed with over twenty orchestras across the United States. Most recently, she made her debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Orchestra under the direction of Otto-Werner Mueller as a result of winning the Juilliard Concerto Competition.
Kimball Gallagher attended the Tanglewood Music Center this past summer as one of five piano fellows. Mr. Gallagher's performance prompted a review in the New York Times: "Kimball Gallagher, a pianist, deftly balanced the influences of the Chinese folk song and Western modernity in Bright Sheng's My Song,'" the Times declared on August 18, 2004.
Mr. Gallagher's love of the piano began at age 4. A Massachusetts native, Mr. Gallagher has played an annual recital in Boston for the past 10 years and an annual recital in Houston for the past five. He received top prizes at the Corpus Christi International Piano Competition and at the San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club competition.
In 2001, Mr. Gallagher performed Bartok's 3rd Piano Concerto with the Shepherd School Symphony in Houston. In New York City, Mr. Gallagher has appeared in Alice Tully Hall, Paul Hall, and Morse Hall at the Juilliard School, as well as performances at the Kosciusko Foundation and Faust Harrison Pianos. He has also played in Killian Hall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Boston Conservatory's Seully Hall. In addition to performing in more conventional venues, Mr. Gallagher has played numerous concerts in private homes throughout the United States in emulation of the salons of the romantic era, including trips to California, Illinois, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Mr. Gallagher has also participated in numerous music festivals, including Bowdoin, the Music Academy of the West, Orford, Pianofest, the Prague Master Classes, Tuckamore, and Yellow Barn.
Mr. Gallagher has taught piano and guitar for eight years and maintains a studio of private students in New York City. He composes music in popular and classical genres for piano, guitar, and ensembles. He has studied with Robert McDonald, Jeanne Kierman Fischer, Joseph Smith, and Jonathan Bass. Mr. Gallagher is a graduate of Rice University and the Juilliard School. He resides in New York City.
So Yoon Lee, a native of Korea, studied in her early years with Jin-Woo Chung and in 2001 received a Bachelor of Music from Seoul National University where she studied with Hyung-Jun Jang and graduated with honors in piano performance. In 2002 she received a Master of Music from Eastman School of Music and studied with. Barry Snyder At present she is in the DMA program at the University of Texas at Austin and is studying with. Anton Nel.
She has received scholarships throughout her study and has been the official accompanist at Eastman and continues in that role at the University of Texas. She was a 2nd Prize Winner of the 26th Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition of The Piano Teachers Congress of New York, Inc. (2002) and the 1st Prize Winner of the 22nd Kingsville International Competition (2003)
Her performances have included soloing with the Seoul Arts High School Orchestra in a subscription concert in 1996, solo recitals in Seoul in successive years starting in 1999 and solo recitals in Rochester in 2002 and in New York City in 2002-2004
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Admitted to Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music in 1998 at the age of twelve, Jie Chen made her major Orchestral debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Maestro Wolfgang Sawallisch playing the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto three years later. Orchestras she has collaborated with include the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the Pottstown Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Sanremo Sifonica orchestra in Italy. Already an experienced recitalist, she has appeared as soloist in major concert venues in the US and abroad, including the Verizon Hall in the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Steinway Hall in New York, Hewlett Public Library in Long Island, the Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, the Leipzig Hochschule and The Mendelssohn House in Leipzig, Germany, and the Sanremo Opera Theatre in Sanreo, Italy.
Ms. Chen's performances has been broadcast by the Italian National Television Network "RAIUNO", The German Radio "MDR", the Minnesota Public Radio, and "Performance Today" of the National Public Radio. In addition, she has been featured in numerous major newspaper articles, including the "Philadelphia Inquirer", "Star Tribune", "World Journal", as well as many major musical Web site.
Over the years, Ms.Chen has won numerous awards including first prizes in "Piano Arts" National Competition, "Five Town" Young Artist Competition in New York, 3rd Prize in the "8th Sanremo Classico International Piano Competition" in Italy, Grand Prize in the 10th "Missouri Southern International Piano Competition", (the jury decide not to award the second prize) and Grand Prize in the "2nd Piano-E-Competition" in Minneapolis. Alongside her solo achievements, she is also an avid chamber music player.
Ms. Chen was born in Guang Dong, China. At the age of four, she started playing the piano and one year later, was awarded the first prize in the state music competition. Virtually self-taught, she was accepted into the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory at the age of eight, studying with Er-Yao Lin and Zi-Jie Wu. Three years later, Ms. Chen was selected as the First Prize winner to attend the first Music Bridge summer program in Canada with a full scholarship from the whole Conservatory, praised by international famed judge Mr. Lee Kum Sing as having the musicality well beyond her age. She has attended Masterclass conducted by Leon Fleisher, Peter Frankl, Rudolf Buchbinder, Gary Graffman, Anton Kuerti, Emmanual Ax. Ms. Chen will receive her BM from Curtis in May 05 where she studied with Claude Frank and Seymour Lipkin.
Chu-fang Huang began her piano study at the age of seven. After winning numerous prizes since age of ten, she was accepted in a full scholarship to the Pre-college Division of Shenyang Music Conservatory as the youngest student in 1994, where she won the first prize at the Chinese Prodigy Piano Competition at the same year. In 1997, Miss Huang received the grand prize from the Southeastern Asia Piano Competition in Hong Kong, as well as the Young Musician Awards for her special achievement in interpreting Chinese modern music.
Only 2 months after moving to America in 1998, Miss Huang made her first U.S. debut in the Prodigy Series at La Jolla Chamber Society at age of 15, where a live recording of her recital was released under ALPINE label. Soon after, Miss Huang became the grand prize winner of the California International Young Artists Competition. As part of the award, she was invited to participate in the International Music Festival in Germany for a concert tour and a CD recording under CAMUS label. Miss Huang has also won numerals top prizes including the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra Competition, the Missouri Southern International Competition, The Chinese American National Showcase, the Nina Wide man Piano competition, the Kingsville International Piano Competition, the Grace Welsh Piano Prize, and the Corpus Christi International Competition. Her recent winning of the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, brought Miss Huang to her Carnegie Recital debut this past November.
In the summer of 2004, Miss Huang won Prizes in both the Beijing International Piano Competition in China and the Sydney International Piano Competition in Australia, as well as special prizes for her unique interpretation in Haydn and Debussy. As a solo Performer, Miss Huang had concertized throughout major cities of China. She has appeared as soloist with Pacific Symphony, Eastern symphony Orchestra, Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, the Hilton Head Orchestra, and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Her solo appearances in the US include recitals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Escondido, Irvine, Pasadena, Joplin, Denver, Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Wilmington, New Jersey and Philadelphia. In Europe, Miss Huang had played recitals in the Klavier Festival Ruhr in Germany, where she will be reengaged again this coming July. Her recitals during Holland music Sessions in the Netherlands, where both Head Councils of Culture from Chinese Embassy and American Embassy had attended, will bring her back this March for an European tour.
Miss Huang had solo appearances with the Pacific Symphony, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Liaoning Philharmonic, the Shenzheng Philharmonic, the Hilton Head Symphony, the Fort Collins Symphony, the Illinois Philharmonic and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Having played in such prestigious hall as Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House, Miss Huang's upcoming engagements will be highlighted by her Concertgebouw debut in Amsterdam, and recitals in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, and Budapest, a recital tour in Chicago as the winner of the Grace Welsh Piano Prize, recitals at the Kravis Arts Center in Florida, the Young Pianists Series in Tennessee, the Myra Hess Series and the Music in the Loft concert series in Chicago, the Stokowski Society in New Jersey and at the San Diego Arts Center in California.
Solo appearances this season will be with the Victoria Symphony, the Corpus Christi Symphony, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Miss Huang's performance has also been broadcast on the Young Artists Series on WQXR Radio Station, National Public Radio in Washington, the South Carolina Radio Station, and through the internet by the Australian Broadcast Cooperate. As the recipient of "2001-2002 Most Outstanding Student", Miss Huang Graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music with her Bachelor's degree this May. She is currently pursuing her Master's degree in the Juilliard School as a pupil of Robert McDonald.
Dudana Mazmanishvili was born in 1980 in Tbilisi, Georgia. She received her first piano lessons, at age three, from her mother, Tamar Apakidze. Three years later she was accepted into the Central Music School for Talented Children in Tbilisi.
Dudana’s concert debut took place at the age of eight when she performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 with the Georgian State Orchestra. By age 14 she played Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra. Since then she has regularly performed in Germany, Russia, France, Poland, Italy, and the United States. One highlight was in 2001 when she played a solo recital in the Max-Josef-Hall of the Munich Residence, a performance which was recorded by Bavarian Radio and subsequently broadcasted several times in Germany. Another important event was her 2002 performance at the Grand Hall of the Tschaikowsky Conservatoire in Moscow.
Since 1998 Dudana has been a student of Prof. Elisso Wirssaladze at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. This term she began her studies with Prof. Jerome Rose at the Mannes College of Music in New York.
Dudana is a winner of numerous international piano competitions, including 1992 Dvarionas International Competition in Vilnius, Lithuania, 1995 Città di Senigallia Competition in Italy, 1996 Sarrebourg Competition in France, 1998 Chopin Competition in Corpus Christi, Texas, Isabel Scionti Competition in Kingsville, Texas and a special award winner of the 2002 Tschaikowsky Piano Competition in Moscow. Other noteworthy successes in that year were the Nicolai Rubinstein International Competition in Paris, where she was awarded first prize, and her participation in the prestigious Merano International Music Festival in Italy, where she received the Solo Recital Award.
In 1998-2001, Dudana received the annual Honorary Prize awarded by President Eduard Shevardnadze to talented young Georgians.
Dudana’s concerts in 2003 included Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, when the Westfallen Abend Zeitung described her as a “soloist who captured the soul of the music…. She captivated the audience with her sensitive, poetic sound…. She plays with bravura and great virtuosity.”
Esther Keel, age 19, is a native of Los Angeles, California. She is currently in her second year at Juilliard where she is enrolled in the Bachelor of Music program and is studying under the tutelage of Professor Yoheved Kaplinsky. She began studying with her mother at the age of three and has also studied with Professor John Perry. She made her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen at the age of 13. She was also a winner of the Ostra International Piano Competition in Italy, the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, and a diploma-winner of the Moscow International Chopin Piano Competition. She has performed with over twenty orchestras across the United States. Most recently, she made her debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Orchestra under the direction of Otto-Werner Mueller as a result of winning the Juilliard Concerto Competition.
Kimball Gallagher attended the Tanglewood Music Center this past summer as one of five piano fellows. Mr. Gallagher's performance prompted a review in the New York Times: "Kimball Gallagher, a pianist, deftly balanced the influences of the Chinese folk song and Western modernity in Bright Sheng's My Song,'" the Times declared on August 18, 2004.
Mr. Gallagher's love of the piano began at age 4. A Massachusetts native, Mr. Gallagher has played an annual recital in Boston for the past 10 years and an annual recital in Houston for the past five. He received top prizes at the Corpus Christi International Piano Competition and at the San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club competition.
In 2001, Mr. Gallagher performed Bartok's 3rd Piano Concerto with the Shepherd School Symphony in Houston. In New York City, Mr. Gallagher has appeared in Alice Tully Hall, Paul Hall, and Morse Hall at the Juilliard School, as well as performances at the Kosciusko Foundation and Faust Harrison Pianos. He has also played in Killian Hall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Boston Conservatory's Seully Hall. In addition to performing in more conventional venues, Mr. Gallagher has played numerous concerts in private homes throughout the United States in emulation of the salons of the romantic era, including trips to California, Illinois, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Mr. Gallagher has also participated in numerous music festivals, including Bowdoin, the Music Academy of the West, Orford, Pianofest, the Prague Master Classes, Tuckamore, and Yellow Barn.
Mr. Gallagher has taught piano and guitar for eight years and maintains a studio of private students in New York City. He composes music in popular and classical genres for piano, guitar, and ensembles. He has studied with Robert McDonald, Jeanne Kierman Fischer, Joseph Smith, and Jonathan Bass. Mr. Gallagher is a graduate of Rice University and the Juilliard School. He resides in New York City.
So Yoon Lee, a native of Korea, studied in her early years with Jin-Woo Chung and in 2001 received a Bachelor of Music from Seoul National University where she studied with Hyung-Jun Jang and graduated with honors in piano performance. In 2002 she received a Master of Music from Eastman School of Music and studied with. Barry Snyder At present she is in the DMA program at the University of Texas at Austin and is studying with. Anton Nel.
She has received scholarships throughout her study and has been the official accompanist at Eastman and continues in that role at the University of Texas. She was a 2nd Prize Winner of the 26th Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition of The Piano Teachers Congress of New York, Inc. (2002) and the 1st Prize Winner of the 22nd Kingsville International Competition (2003)
Her performances have included soloing with the Seoul Arts High School Orchestra in a subscription concert in 1996, solo recitals in Seoul in successive years starting in 1999 and solo recitals in Rochester in 2002 and in New York City in 2002-2004