By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Young pianists come from all over to participate the annual David D. Dubois Piano Festival and Competition at Bowling Green State University.
Last February that included a pianist from Wuhan, China. News was just emerging about the new virus in that city. Fortunately, the pianist had been in the United States on a college tour for about a month before arriving in Bowling Green. Laura Melton, the founding coordinator of the festival, had herself been in Wuhan late in 2019.
That coronavirus which causes COVID-19 has upended the entire world.
The Dubois Competition is taking place online, and as with so many adjustments made because of the pandemic, that comes with some advantages.
Music lovers can hear the 10 finalists perform all their pieces online at the festival’s website.
Melton, the coordinator of keyboard studies at BGSU, said the field of contestants is of especially high quality this year. Thirty-eight pianists, 18 and younger in grades 8 through 12, submitted videos. Each must submit a 20-30 minutes program representing three different periods – Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary, including a movement from a Classical sonata. Everything must be memorized, except for pieces composed after 1945.
The quality of pianists has gone up steadily since the first competition 11 years ago, and Melton was expecting that trend to continue. This year’s competition “definitely drew a higher level,” Melton said.
Visit the website, she advised, and listen and “you’ll see they’re pretty outstanding.” Many of them have been involved in other larger competitions and been prize winners at other big competitions.”
She speculated that holding the competition virtually so the pianists and families didn’t have to travel encouraged more to enter. Anyone applying for college or for another festival would already have their videos ready, so for the cost of the entry fee, they could submit to the Dubois.
The prize money – $3,000 for first place, $2,000 for second, and $1,000 for third – is an attraction. “It’s a big prize.”
The competition is supported by funding from the David D. Dubois Trust.
Melton relied on her colleagues on the BGSU piano faculty – Robert Satterlee, Solungga Liu, and Yevgeny Yontov – to decide the finalists. The aim was a final field of six to eight, but the level of playing made that impossible.
“It was hard,” Melton said. “The three of them had different choices.” And though she was participating in the selection, Melton drew up her own list and her choices were little different than those of the panel.
“We had to work for a while. It’s a nice problem to have.”
Now it will be up to the outside judges to decide on the winners.
Judging the event will be: Yu-Lien The, from Western Michigan University, Phillip Bush, University of South Carolina, and guest artist Arthur Greene, University of Michigan.
Choosing winners is a daunting task.
“This year in particular, they’re all playing so well, it becomes more of a matter of who really makes a connection, who really communicates their personality through the music,” Melton said. “Certain pianists have that personality in their playing and the ability to convey the feelings of the music, the expressions. What the composer was really intending comes though their playing … At this level that’s what you’re looking for. It’s amazing to see this from 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds.
She would listen to one of the recordings and think: “This person really moves me.” Then she’d read their biography. “Gosh, they’re 14.”
The announcement of the winners will be streamed on Saturday, Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. Melton will announce the top three in reverse order, each announcement followed by one of their pieces.
Greene, as guest artist, will present a live master class with BGSU students, that will be livestreamed Friday, Feb. 5 from 2:30-4:30 p.m.
