At this year’s UF International Piano Festival, finalists for the pre-college solo piano competition include one pianist from China and two pianists from the U.S.
The finalists will perform Saturday morning in front of faculty judges and the public. The first-prize winner will receive $500, and the other two finalists will receive $250 each as honorable mentions, according to the UF School of Music’s website.
Rok Palcic, a visiting assistant professor at UF and the associate director of the festival, said the screening committee reviewed the participants’ applications, which included recordings. The finalists were selected by May 1.
Since its first run in 2007, Palcic said the festival has been tweaked slightly but remains the same, with the exception of this year’s guest faculty members from China, Slovakia and the U.S.
“The festival has achieved what we have set out to do,” he said.
The weeklong festival features 25 college and pre-college students from Canada, China, Croatia, Russia, South Korea and the U.S.
Palcic said UF graduate students will serve as counselors, but there are no UF student or alumni participants this year.
Each participant admitted into the artist division of the festival will perform in two recitals, which began this past Saturday and will run through this Saturday. There will be no events today, according to the website.
Every performance will be evaluated, and the six outstanding pianists, determined by faculty vote, will play at the honors recital at the close of the festival Saturday afternoon, Palcic said.
The events are held at the Music Building, Room 101, except for two recitals. One was held Monday afternoon at the South Tower of the UF Health Shands Hospital, and the other will be held in the North Tower on Friday afternoon, according to the website.
Faculty members will teach five master classes, which serve as public lessons for the festival’s participants.
Daniel Shapiro, a professor of piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a guest faculty member for the festival, instructed a master class Sunday afternoon.
“Very often, when students play in a master class, they are a little intimidated because there’s this, you know, big bad teacher up there who’s allegedly an expert or famous or whatever, and they’re just a student wondering what the teacher is going to say,” he said.
Unlike the recitals, Shapiro said master classes are strictly geared toward giving students advice on their performances.
Shapiro said master classes keep the audience in mind, and the feedback should be interesting to the audience and the performer.
“It’s an art in itself,” Shapiro said.
All events are free and open to the public.
Performers Bomin Park, Mayan Essak, Zhao Yuhang, Anna Gilliland and Christina Lai (left to right) rise to bow for the audience at the first piano recital held for the International Piano Festival on Saturday. The event brings together outstanding pianists from around the world for daily masterclasses and evening recitals with guest artists from North America and China.
