Browsing: Piano

The Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition (E-Gré) is a unique competition in which contemporary music is highly promoted. The Final was held this past spring at Brandon University and pianist Matt Poon won the first place as well as the prize for the best performance of the commissioned work. He received almost $17,000 including a $10,000 cash prize, a residency of three weeks, and a debut recital at the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival in Italy, as well as the Cross-Canada Winner’s Tour in November 2016. Poon began his undergraduate studies in Piano Performance in Music at the University of Toronto and moved to…

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Born in 1991, pianist and composer Philippe Prud’homme began his piano studies with professor Gilles Many at age twelve. Sixteen-year-old Prud’homme was accepted, under special circumstances, to the Université de Montréal in 2007 without even finishing his secondary studies and with only four years of piano studies under his belt. He earned his master’s with highest distinctions in the class of Dang Thai Son before beginning another graduate degree at the Conservatoire de Montréal in 2015 with Louise Bessette. An active presence on the Quebec scene, Prud’homme has notably won first prize at the CMC several times, in the solo…

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Last May, Emily Oulousian won the grand prize of the CBC Radio-Canada show Virtuose, produced and hosted by the ever-popular Gregory Charles. Oulousian was awarded an almost perfect score of 97.6 for her performance of an excerpt of Grieg’s Piano Concerto – without orchestra. She was only 15 years old. In the episodes leading up to the grand finale of the competition, Oulousian performed brilliant renditions of Prokofiev’s Toccata in D minor, Op. 11 and Scriabin’s Étude in D-sharp minor, Op. 8, No. 12. A native of Montreal, Oulousian, whose mother is of Chinese descent and father is of Armenian…

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“By the end, I could barely control my emotions,” says Thomas Yu, describing his first-prize-winning performance at the Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, on June 25. Yu, a Calgary periodontist, was one of six finalists who played a piano concerto movement with the Fort Worth Symphony under guest conductor Damon Gupton. He chose the third movement from Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5. “I had only six minutes to give the audience and jury my entire life,” he says. “It is difficult to get into that mindset and physicality in such a short time, especially with a…

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Montréal, September 28, 2016 – The Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) announces the names of its international jury and guest conductor for its piano edition next May 2 to 12. Presided over by André Bourbeau, CMIM co-founder and president, the 2017 international jury will include Idil Biret from Turkey, Dang Thai Son from Vietnam, Alain Lefèvre from Canada, Hélène Mercier from Canada, Pedja Muzijevic from Bosnia, David Owen Norris from the United Kingdom, Cristina Ortiz from Brazil, R. Douglas Sheldon from the United States, and Gabriel Tacchino from France. The CMIM will also welcome German maestro Claus Peter Flor…

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Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (excerpts); Lang Lang, piano; Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, TX, Friday, September 16, 2016 CONCERT REVIEW: It is now ostensibly a tradition for orchestras all over North America to open their seasons with a Gala concert (i.e., a fund-raising event with tickets at high prices, a sit-down meal and other perks). To guarantee maximum attendance at such an event, Gala concert programming must be accessible – no Schoenberg or Dutilleux, thank you – and above all, it must include a soloist of “superstar” status. The Dallas Symphony has perfected the art of producing…

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I am not the right person to be reviewing this album, but then I’m not sure the right person actually exists. This is a Sony crossover project that falls smack between the tracks. How does one rate it on a scale of one to five? Obviously five stars for production. This is a six-digit concept album involving dozens of round-table meetings, the top recording crew, best designer, photographer, makeup artist, go-fer. The cover shows Lang Lang sitting apparently exhausted on the steps of a nightclub. We’re not quite sure it is Lang Lang since there is no sight of the…

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Montréal, September 14, 2016 – The Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) is pleased to announce the addition of the Joseph-Rouleau Career Development Grant worth $50,000 to its roster of prizes for the next three editions: piano 2017, voice 2018, and violin 2019. Funded by the Azrieli Foundation and managed by the CMIM, this grant will be awarded to the First Prize winner, who will also receive $30,000 in cash from the Ville de Montréal, bringing the total value of the First Prize to $80,000. This career development grant has been created to honour internationally-renowned bass Joseph Rouleau, co-founder of…

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Lupo plays the LMMC Much loved in Quebec, Italian pianist Bedenetto Lupo will once more grace the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club for its first concert of the season. Upcoming artists include the Pacifica Quartet (October 2), Quatuor Hermès (October 23), cellist Pieter Wispelwey (November 13), and soprano Karina Gauvin (December 4). Lupo will play works by Chopin, Scriabin, and Rachmaninoff. September 11, Pollack Hall 3:30PM. www.lmmc.ca Souvenir de Florence Six MSO musicians – Richard Roberts, Jean-Sébastien Roy, Victor Fournelle-Blain, Sofia Gentile, Gary Russell and Sylvain Murray – will come together for this recital of chamber music devoted to Tchaikovsky. String…

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Joliette, August 8, 2016 – For its 39th season, le Festival de Lanaudière invited music lovers to discover some of the works that its founder, Father Fernand Lindsay, liked to hear and teach. Between July 9 and August 7, 2016, fourteen concerts were presented at the Amphithéâtre Fernand-Lindsay, eight in churches throughout the region, and two at the Musée d’art de Joliette. In addition, there were four cinema evenings and five morning yoga sessions held outdoors. Nearly 53,000 people attended Festival events – a significant increase over the figure for 2015. The piano takes center stage This year, the…

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