By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Renowned pianist Greg Anderson’s mission is to make classical music a powerful and relevant force in society.
When he visits Bowling Green State University this weekend for the 16th David D. Dubois Piano Festival and Competition, he will share that mission in a Friday afternoon masterclass to BGSU piano students, followed by a presentation titled “Classical Music in a Changing World.”
Anderson also plans to put his mission into action when he performs Saturday evening, conveying through his music the same message as in his presentations.
This is the second time Anderson has been a guest artist for the Dubois Piano Competition. He and his duo partner, Elizabeth Joy Roe, were guests for the 2013 Dubois Piano Competition, serving as judges and performers.
“It was a wonderful experience,” Anderson said in an email to the BG Independent News about his first-time experience at the Dubois event. “We ate a meal with some of the piano students; they were so curious and bright.”
He also recalled listening to “the super talented youngsters” in the competition and praised the “phenomenal” piano faculty at BGSU’s College of Musical Arts.
“Since 2013, there have been huge changes in social media and how we access music,” he said. Player piano technology, including Steinway’s Spirio pianos, has also seen huge advancements, which didn’t exist 13 years ago. “All of this offers huge practical and creative potential for musicians.”
The Friday afternoon talks will explore how classical music can thrive in the 21st century, from creative collaboration and reimagined repertoire to the possibilities of modern technology.
“We tend to think of classical music as ‘timeless,’ but the world we live in most certainly isn’t, so it’s our job to find ways to connect this music we love with our times,” he said.
“Greg’s talk should engage, not just piano majors, but all CMA students and anyone interested in classical music,” said Dr. Laura Melton, professor of piano and lead organizer for the Dubois competition. “It really addresses where classical music is headed and hopefully, plants seeds for this generation to carry it forward in creative and innovative ways.”
Anderson’s performance includes premiere
Anderson is “super excited” about the Saturday night program, in part, because he will premiere his brand new “Mosaic Variations,” which has been in the works for years. Throughout the evening performance, he hopes to demonstrate how classical music can thrive in our current times through his musical style, which he said includes “big emotions, beautiful melodies, visceral thrills and the unexpected.”
The program features reinventions of music by Bach, Mozart, and Radiohead and a handful of surprises.
“One piece is my own completion to a fantasy left incomplete by Mozart when he died,” Anderson said. “The fantasy fragment took my breath away—it’s stunningly beautiful—and I wanted to find a way to showcase it.”
He wove it together with two of Mozart’s vocal laments about fading memories and titled it the “Lost Fantasy.”
The “Mosaic Variations” premiere is based on one of Mozart’s flirtatious tunes “that people obsessed over in the 1800s,” he said. Anderson’s work creates a dramatic portrait of imaginations in the 19th century by assembling “the most beautiful and brilliant moments” from hundreds of variations and dozens of fantasies by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Paganini, Bizet and dozens of others.
“Many of these scores have only recently been uploaded to the web by libraries around the world, so I wouldn’t have been able to find such depth of resources even a few years ago,” he explained.
One of Anderson’s discoveries was a set of variations by Hélène Liebmann composed in 1806 when she was 10 years old.
“When I was first sight-reading, a gut-wrenching passage took my breath away, and I immediately knew it had to anchor the slow, minor variation at the heart of my ‘Mosaic Variations.’”
Because Liebmann stopped composing when she was married at the age of 19, her found music was some of the only music she composed.
“Yet, it’s so good that here she finds herself shoulder to shoulder with Beethoven and Chopin,” Anderson said.
The second half of the program will feature his “very surprising take” on Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android,” a miniature rock “opera” about alienation in the early digital age from their 1997 album, “OK Computer.”
BGSU student Lorenzo Rambo dos Santos, who recently won the college’s undergraduate concerto competition, will join Anderson to perform two of his works for two pianos, including “Ragtime Alla Turca,” a quirky, revelrous romp based on Mozart’s “Rondo Alla Turca.”
“World premiere performances are always a rush, so the ‘Mosaic Variations’ will hvae that extra jolt of excitement and risk,” Anderson said. “Likewise, performing with Lorenzo will be a special thrill.”
Piano competition for young performers
The Dubois Piano Competition is the main focus of the weekend activities. Classically trained pianists in grades 8-12 from across the U.S. and Canada compete for prizes and the prestige of winning the competition.
The BGSU College of Musical Arts established the David D Dubois Piano Festival and Competition with support from the David D. Dubois Trust. Dubois was an internationally recognized consultant, author and speaker who had a love of music and a special passion for piano and organ performance.
The piano competition supports student pianists at several levels. It provides a number of scholarship opportunities for high school students to attend BGSU, encourages undergraduate piano students to develop innovative programming ideas for outreach projects and supports current piano students to participate in music festivals around the world.
Prizes include $3,000 for first place, $2,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place.
This year’s competitors and their hometowns are listed:
- Joseph Yoon, Centerville, Virginia
- Baohan Hou, Dublin, Ohio
- Luca Sugawara, Indianapolis, Indiana
- Brandon Zhang, Potomac, Maryland
- Fayfay Sheng, Saline, Michigan
- Alex Burrow, Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Jessica Xie, Lafayette, Indiana
- Andrey Bakalov, Reynoldsburg, Ohio
- Yunen Gu, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
- Montgomery Moore, Forest, Ohio
- Saya Uejima, Green, Ohio
- Eric Wang, Wilmette, Illinois
- Harold Fang, Maple Grove, Minnesota
- Alan Liu, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
- Jeremy Cao, Fort Lee, New Jersey
- Isaac Sandelin, Vicksburg, Michigan
- Enzo Zhao, University Place, Washington
- Henry Shao, Sylvania, Ohio
- Miaochen Yu, Willoughby, Ohio
- Melanic Klapper, Columbus, Ohio
- Bowen Liang, Skillman, New Jersey
- Erik Jacoby, New Albany, Ohio
- Mia Safdie, Venice, California
- Joseph Guo, Dublin, Ohio
- Alex Liu, Short Hills, New Jersey
The competition’s semifinal round takes place in Kobacker Hall from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday (1/31). Finalists are announced at approximately 5:30 p.m.
The final round on Sunday (2/1) is held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Winners are announced at 1 p.m.
“The Dubois competition offers young performers an opportunity to perform in a high-pressure environment, to test their skills, and to share what’s in their hearts. So much hard work goes into preparing for something like this,” Anderson said, as he recalled his piano journey, which started when he was eight years old and included competing in and winning several similar competitions.
2026 David D. Dubois Piano Festival and Competition Schedule of Events
Friday, January 30, 2026
- 2:30 – 4:30 p.m. Guest Artist Master Class, Greg Anderson, Bryan Recital Hall
- 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. Guest Artist Q&A, Greg Anderson, Bryan Recital Hall
Saturday, January 31, 2026
- 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Semifinal Round, Kobacker Hall
- Approximately 5:30 p.m. Announcement of Finalists, Bryan Recital Hall
- 8 p.m. Guest Artist Solo Recital, Greg Anderson, Bryan Recital Hall (free)
Sunday, February 1, 2026
- 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Final Round, Kobacker Hall
- 1 p.m. Announcement of Winners/Photos, Kobacker Hall
For more information, visit bgsu.edu/dubois.
