heartening) state of today's concert and
recital venues, the copy-everybody-else
programming, the overabundance of
young artists seemingly primed and
ready-to-go, and the aging of audiences, the Classical Fellowship Awards
Premiere Series seems to be moving in
all the right directions.
Some Questions
But there are some questions.
Whether it's fair to pose these in
advance, or wait to see what happens
as the enterprise unfolds and concludes, these concerns will surface. We
thought we'd look them in the eye
right now. We think they are questions you have formed as you read the
projections of this new venture.
In an invitation-only competition,
isn't it is possible that some worthy talent may be overlooked, or that only
certain kinds of pianists might be
selected because of the artistic predilections of the selecting group?
According to Pocock, the nominating committee was large and
diverse, and the same names were the
top choices from an assortment of
nominators—not just pianists and
teachers. Moreover, the invitational
aspect allowed the participation of
pianists who might not be inclined to
go the competition route, just as it
freed the nominating committee
from selecting among only those
people who chose to throw their hats
into this particular ring.
Pocock makes a further point. "The
last American pianist I know of who
went from obscurity to world fame
without attracting the attention along
the way of a well-known teacher, festival, or competition is Gottschalk—and
that was 130 years ago. The piano club
is relatively small."
Who listened to all those tapes, thus
making the selection of the finalists?
Although the nominating group was
large, the screening to determine the
finalists was done by a smaller group:
Luis Biava, Peter Takacs, Panayis Lyras,
Matti Raekallio, and Janna Hymes-
Bianchi (Associate Conductor of the
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra).
continued on page 62
The Indy 5
Playing on September 19, 1999
ROBERT THIES, a 28-year-old California native and
a student of Daniel Pollack at the University of
Southern California, won the Gold Medal at the
Second International Prokofiev Competition in St.
Petersburg. Recently he had the opportunity to work
with Polish composer Henryk Gorecki in the premiere of some of his works.
Playing on October 17, 1999
NING AN, although born in China, has been in the
U.S. since 1985 and became a U.S. citizen in 1995.
An captured the third prize in the 1999 Queen
Elisabeth Competition in Belgium (see "Proven
Paradigm" in this issue). The 22-year-old pianist
studied at the New England Conservatory of Music
with Russell Sherman.
Playing on December 12, 1999
CHRISTOPHER TAYLOR is a summa cum
aude graduate in mathematics from Harvard,
and he also studied with Russell Sherman. This
29-year-old from Colorado was a Gilmore
Young Artist in 1990. He won the Bronze Medal
at the 1993 Cliburn Competition and the Gold
Medal at the Kapell Competition. He has also
received an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Playing on January 23, 2000
SPENCER MEYER is a 20-year-old Ohio native
who studies with Peter Takacs at the Oberlin
College Conservatory where he has won a number
of awards. He was also the first-place winner in the
1997 Kosziusko Foundation Chopin Competition.
He worked with Jerome Lowenthal at the Music
Academy of the West in the summer of 1998.
Playing on February 20, 2000
ANDREW RUSSO is a 23-year-old native New
Yorker who was the grand-prize winner of the
1999 Palm Beach Invitational International
Piano Competition. He has also won first prizes
in all levels of competition sponsored by the
Music Teachers National Association. He studied with Jerome Lowenthal at Juilliard.
J
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER I999 PIANO & KEYBOARD
