By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
The power and relevance of classical music in society today were heard loud and clear during the recent David D. Dubois Piano Festival and Competition at Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts.
Guest artist Greg Anderson’s overarching message in his outstanding and unique presentations and performances on Friday and Saturday (Jan. 30-31) emphasized that, despite changes in technology and society, classical music can and does thrive in the 21st century.
The 25 teen pianists who competed for the prestige and top prizes awarded in the competition confirmed Anderson’s belief that classical music is not lost to young and future generations.
Enzo Zhao, a 16-year-old from Tacoma, Washington, earned the top prize ($3,000) in the two-day competition with his classical music selections. He performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 22,” Frédéric Chopin’s “Mazurka Op. 17, No. 4,” and Igor Stravinsky’s “Trois mouvements de Petrouchka.”
Previously, Enzo, who is a student of Dr. Oksana Ejokina, won top prizes in the Eastside Music Teachers Association Competition, Olympia Young Artists Competition and Washington State Outstanding Young Artists Competition. He was a winner in the 2025 Piano Texas Concerto Competition, which allowed him to perform with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
“This has been a great experience for me,” he told Dr. Laura Melton, professor of piano and lead organizer for the Dubois competition. “BGSU has excellent facilities, offers us plenty of warm-up time on grand pianos, and the competition is well organized.
Though the Bowling Green weather was “quite different from Tacoma, where it isn’t as cold, rains a lot, and doesn’t get snow,” Enzo said he actually enjoyed that part of the experience.
To prepare for the competition repertoire, he practiced for many hours. “But I also have to trust myself and trust the process. I try to stay out of my own head,” he said.
Outside of his commitment and focus on playing the piano, Enzo enjoys tennis and ping pong and playing games with his brother.
The other winners of the piano competition were all from high schools in Ohio.
Melanie Klapper of Columbus, Ohio, won second place ($2,000); Erik Jacoby of New Albany, Ohio, placed third ($1,000); and Henry Shao of Sylvania, Ohio, received an Honorable Mention.
Melanie of Gahanna, Ohio, is a sophomore at Upper Arlington High School in Columbus. She has won numerous awards and competitions including honorable mention at the 2025 David D. Dubois Piano Competition, and first place in the 2023 and 2024 Ohio MTNA Piano Competitions. Her musical selections included “Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp Major, WTC I, BWV 848” by Bach, “Sonata in A Major, D. 664” by Franz Schubert, “Ballade No. 2 in B Minor, S. 170” by Franz Liszt, and “Étude No. 4, “Embraceable You” by George Gershwin (arranged by Earl Wild).
Erik, an honors student at New Albany High School, has won the Denison University International, Piano Star International, MTNA State, Ohio MTA Solo and Duet, and Chopin Foundation Scholarship. In 2025, he won the AADGT International Young Musicians Festival and was invited to perform in Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and Carnegie Hall in New York. His musical selections were Bach’s “Prelude and Fugue in G-sharp Minor, WTC I, BWV 863,” Beethoven’s “Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 81a, Les Adieux,” Paraphrase de concert sure “Rigoletto,” S 434 by Liszt; and “Nocturne in G Major, Op. 37, No. 2” by Chopin.
Henry, who is a senior at Southview High School in nearby Lucas County, has been playing piano for 13 years. He has performed as a soloist with the Toledo Symphony, MostArts Festival Orchestra and Sylvania Community Orchestra. He won the 2025 Dorothy Mackenzie Price Piano Competition and the 2025 Gene Marcus Piano Competition. His competition selections were Bach’s “Prelude and Fugue in A Major, WTC I, BWV 864,” Beethoven’s “Sonata in E-flat Major, Op 7,” and Rachmaninoff’s “Etude-Tableau in F-sharp Minor, Op. 39, No. 3.”
The competition started on Saturday with the 25 semifinalists playing for three judges: Tianshu Wang, Capital University; Caroline Oltmanns, Youngtown State University; and Jose Mendez, Oberlin College and Conservatory.
Eight finalists were chosen to play on Sunday morning for three judges, including Anderson, Logan Skelton, University of Michigan, and Jackson Leung, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.
In addition to the four winners, the other four finalists who performed Sunday were Andrey Bakalov, an 18-year-old senior at New Albany High School from Reynoldsburg, Ohio; Saya Uejima, a junior at Green (Ohio) High School; Eric Wang, from Wilmette, Illinois, a merit scholar at the Music Institute of Chicago; and Isaac Sandelin, a junior at Vicksburg (Michigan) High School.
All competitors are eligible for scholarships to attend the 2026 BGSU Summer Music Institute. The institute’s piano camp offers pre-college students between the ages of 13 and 18 the opportunity to study music in a stimulating environment. Christopher Goodpasture, piano faculty at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, is the camp’s guest artist in mid-June at BGSU.
During Anderson’s guest recital on Saturday, he premiered “Mosaic Variations,” a magnificent work based on the Mozart aria from “Don Giovanni,” which was “built upon a century of musical responses to Mozart’s aria,” Anderson said. The 23-minute piece drew “from nearly 10 hours of variations, fantasies, paraphrases and potpourris” from 35 composers “to celebrate the duet’s allure and debate its themes of seduction and desire.”
The second half of Anderson’s recital included a piece called “Radiohead Android” that demonstrated making classical music relevant today. Anderson played a Steinway piano and a Yamaha Disklavier player piano that played a file from Anderson’s computer.
The final two pieces of the performance were duets with sophomore piano major Lorenzo Rambo dos Santos, a student of BGSU piano professor Solungga Liu. Anderson’s arrangements of works by Bach and Mozart brought the house down to a standing ovation to close the night.
The 17th Annual Dubois Piano Festival and Competition will be Jan. 29-31, 2027. Peter Dugan, pianist, composer, collaborator, and host of NPR’s “From the Top,” will be the guest artist in 2027.
