Meet the 2018 PianoArtists
PianoArts will welcome, May 30 – June 5, a select group of ten pianists, ages 16-21, from Canada and cities across the United States for the North American Competition and Music Festival. Congratulations to Godwin Friesen, Derek Hartman, Evan Lee, TianYuan Liu, Niav Maher, Evan Lee, Fei (Ariel) Mo, Christopher Richardson, Nicholas Suminski, Lewis Warren, Jr., and Muzi Zhou. To qualify as PianoArtists, these pianists auditioned in a rigorous, anonymous preliminary round in March.
During the semifinal competition rounds, PianoArtists will perform a solo recital and a collaborative recital. Each PianoArtist will partner with a musician from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra to perform a duo in the collaborative recital and with quintets in seminars focusing on the concerto as a collaborative performing experience. Three finalists will perform a complete concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
PianoArtists will share in over $27,000 in prizes and performance opportunities. Other awards include the Edmund Assaly Scholarship Award to the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City and PianoArts Fellowships that prepare musicians to perform successfully in diverse neighborhoods and settings.
Both the preliminary and semifinal/final juries are comprised of distinguished concert artists and pedagogues. The preliminary jury members were Jean Barr, Jacob Ertl, and Jeannie Yu; in June, the PianoArtists will perform for John Perry, Ann Schein, and Joyce Yang.