The David D. Dubois Piano Festival and Competition has selected 28 young pianists as semifinalists to compete Saturday, Feb. 11, with finals Sunday, Feb. 12 at Bowling Green State University’s Moore Musical Arts Center. All events will take place in Bryan Recital Hall.
The pianists will compete for a top prize of $3,000, with $2,000 for second and $1,000 for first.
The festival’s guest artist will be pianist Chu-Fang Huang. Huang will present a master class Friday from 2:30–4:30 p.m. in Bryan Recital Hall and she will perform a solo recital Saturday at 8 p.m. Contact 419-372-8171, or online at http://www.bgsu.edu/the-arts.
The teenage pianists come from 10 states and Ontario. The semifinalists were selected based on a video recording submitted to the festival. The pianists prepare a program of 20 to 30 minutes in length that includes selections from at least three of four style periods – Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Contemporary. One movement from a Classical sonata is required. All works must be memorized with the exception of those written after 1945.
The semifinals will be held Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Bryan Recital Hall in the Moore Musical Arts Center on campus.
Those selected as finalists will perform Sunday beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Recipient of a 2011 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Huang burst onto the music scene as a finalist in the 2005 Van Cliburn Piano Competition, and as First Prize Winner of the Cleveland Piano Competition that same year. In 2006, she won First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and made critically acclaimed debuts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and at the Kennedy Center in the Young Concert Artists Series.
Huang has performed in Canada on the Vancouver Recital Society Series, in Australia with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, in China with the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra and the China, Shenzhen, and Liaoning Philharmonic Orchestras, at the famed Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Ruhr Piano Festival in Germany, the Mustafa Kemal Center in Istanbul, and at the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
After early studies at the Shenyang Music Conservatory, Huang continued her studies at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, where she studied with Laura Melton, now on the BGSU music faculty. Subsequently, she earned her Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute, where she studied with Claude Frank, and her Master’s and Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where she worked with Robert McDonald.
Huang is the Artistic Director of the Ameri-China International Music Association, which she founded to provide opportunities for young Chinese pianists to study in the United States. She is a Steinway Artist and resides in New York City.
Dubois semifinalists selected are:
Hanyang Wang, Interlochen Arts Academy, MI
Laylo Rikhsieva, Interlochen Arts Academy, MI
Sua Lee, Interlochen Arts Academy, MI
Aditya Deshpande, Houston, TX
Ming Jin, Philadelphia, PA
Roger Shen, Northbrook, IL
John Cao, Arlington Heights, IL
Colin Choi, Northbrook, IL
Jarrett Tataki, Wilmette, IL
Timur Granovsky, Hudson, OH
James Wilson, Hudson, OH
Zi Ang Yin, Philadelphia, PA
Chi Zhang, Lawrence, KS
Jubliee Wang, Farmington Hills, MI
Baron Cao, State College, PA
Allison Lie, Naperville, IL
Isabelle Lian, Novi, MI
Emma Fu, Northville, MI
Ariana Chiu, Pittsburg, PA
Zichen Zhou, Pittsford, NY
Changning Xu, Upper Arlington, OH
Gabriel Bruner, Bloomington, IN
Nabil Hetman, Merill, NY
Tiger Yang, Windsor, ON
Maggie Ma, Brooklyn, NY
Di Zhong, Brooklyn, NY
Samantha Kao, Holsdel, NJ
Junhao Wang, Sandy, UT
