By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Jerry Chang, a pianist from St. Louis, Missouri, came away with the $3,000 top prize at the 15th David D. Dubois Piano Competition and Festival held this weekend at BGSU.
Other winners were:
- Evan Dan, Solon, second place, $2,000.
- Dongjoo Shin, Frisco, Texas, $1,000
- Melanie Klapper, Columbus, honorable mention.
The Dubois reverberates throughout the BGSU piano studios. The program lists nine BGSU graduates and four current students who participated in the event. That includes Luca Albano who won this year’s Competitions in Music in the undergraduate division and Hannah Zaborski who won the graduate division. Both will perform concertos with the Bowling Green Philharmonia on Feb. 15. Abigail Petersen who won the concerto competition in December 2022 and in the 2023 spring semester to won top honors in the Conrad Art Song and Wayland Chamber Music competitions.
The competition is funded by the David D. Dubois Trust. Dubois was an educator, author, and business consultant.
Laura Melton, a professor of piano and now chair of Music Performance Studies, responded for BGSU to the Dubois requests for proposal. The call for proposals had few parameters leaving up to Melton, is still the coordinator of the event, with the support of Dean Richard Kennell to envision what the festival could be.
While the competition is the hallmark of the event, the endowment also funds scholarships for BGSU piano students, support for Dubois competitors to attend the college’s summer piano camp, and money for BGSU students to attend festivals, competitions, and conferences.
The festival also brings in an internationally-known pianist as guest artist to present a master class for BGSU piano majors, perform a Saturday night recital, and then judge the competition finals on Sunday morning. This year’s guest was Soyeon Kate Lee, from the Juilliard School.
Lee said she was familiar with the festival. Kasey Shao, a student of Lee’s husband, Ran Dank, won the competition in 2020.
“It’s incredibly well run,” Lee said of the event, crediting Melton’s work.
She said she appreciates the way various elements come together. She gets to perform, work with university students, and hear rising talent.
“They were all so wonderful,” Lee said of the finalists she and her fellow judges Lori Sims, of Western Michigan University, and Kathryn Brown, of the Cleveland Institute of Music, heard on Sunday morning. Another finalists were Erik Jacoby, New Albany, and Henry Shao, Sylvania.
In judging, Lee said, she listens for “a completeness of pianism. That’s technical control and expression.” The first prize winner, Chang, “had a great combination of those.”
Chang said he learned about the Dubois from his friend Ryan Lu, who won the 2024 competition.
Chang also praised the organization of the event. It felt as much like a festival as a competition with the master class on Friday, semifinal round during the day on Saturday, and the recital on Saturday.
At that concert, he got to hear Lee perform Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor. The opening pieces he played early the next morning as the first finalist on stage were the Grave and Scherzo movements of that sonata.
On Saturday, the field of 22 semifinalists was winnowed to six finalists. That gave time for each finalist to play the entire set of music they had prepared without interruption. With more finalists, that’s not possible.
“It felt more meaningful to play the whole thing through,” Chang said.
The 17-year-old has been playing since he was 4. He has studied with the same teacher, Zena Ilyashov, for the entire 13 years. He also periodically takes lessons with Sasha Starcevich.
Early on, he said, his parents had to push him to practice, but as he grew to love music more that was not necessary. “I love it too much not to,” he said. “Music has something special about it, whether it’s transcendental moments almost, or super, super beautiful resolutions or harmonies.”
He kept that in mind as he selected the music to play at the competition. “I was looking for those pieces I really, really enjoy playing. While I m practicing, it’s still practicing. It is tedious. But at the same time it’s enjoyable. It’s the music I love.”
A high school junior, Chang is undecided on his plans for college. “I definitely don’t want to drop music,” he said. “It would leave a hole in my life.” Still, he’s still not sure he wants to pursue a career as a performer. He’s thinking maybe of a double major, pairing music with possibly a social science.
Melton said it’s exciting to host the competition.
“Bowling Green is a special community, a special place,” she said. “We try to make them really comfortable, and they say they do.”
For example, the young pianists have access to faculty’s studios to warm up before their performances. “So they have a nice quiet space to get ready and to focus.”
They play in a concert hall on a Steinway grand piano.
And “they get to speak to the judges after each round so they get immediate feedback,” she added.
“It has brought hundreds of students to the university to compete. It brings exposure and reputation of our program and university,” said Music Dean William Mathis said of the Dubois. ““It’s a been a true feather in our cap to have this competition.”
