Six Finalists in International Piano Competition

Of the 16 gifted young pianists who graced the stage today at Westport Town Hall in an international competition, six have moved on to the final round Sunday.

Pavel Gintov of Ukraine, Sun-A Park of Korea, Alexandra Beliakovich of Belarus, Di Yi Tang of China, Igor Pancevski of Macedonia and Alexei Tartakovski of Russia have advanced to the finals to compete for cash prizes in the 2009 Heida Hermanns International Piano Competition. 

This annual contest, now in its 36th year,  is a tribute to the late Westporter, Heida Hermanns (1906-1995), and is presented by Connecticut Alliance for Music at Westport Town Hall.

At 3 p.m. Sunday at Westport Town Hall, the six finalists selected by the judges compete in the Finals Concert. They must each perform a program selected by the judges to demonstrate musical virtuosity and skill.  At the conclusion of the performances, the audience will be invited to a reception while the judges make decisions for the cash prizes of $10,000 to be awarded to the winners after these determinations have been made. 

Tickets for the Finals Concert are $20 (18 years and under are free), and will be available at the door or by calling Connecticut Alliance for Music at (203) 319-8271.

 About the Finalists

Pavel Gintov was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1984.  He began his musical education at Kiev Central Music School with Iryna Barinova and continued it at the Moscow State Conservatory where he was a student of the legendary teacher Lev Naumov.  In 2008 he obtained a master of music degree at the Manhattan School of Music studying with professor Nina Svetlanova.  Gintov regularly performs recitals, concertos with orchestra and chamber music throughout Europe, Asia and the United States appearing in such venues at Teatro Verdi Nationale (Milan), Kioi Hall (Tokyo) and Merkin Hall (New York).  Among the grants received by Gintov are the Shevchenko Scientific Society Grant, a full scholarship and stipend at the Manhattan School of Music and the Scholarship of the President of Ukraine.  He currently is working on doctor of music arts degree at the Manhattan School of Music.

Pianist Sun-A Park has performed as a concert pianist throughout the United States and also in Korea, Japan, China and Italy.  Her performance this season includes Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra.  Park is the winner of the 2009 Cape Vincent International Chopin Competition.  She also won first prizes at Pacific International Piano Competition in Vancouver, Canada, William Garrison - Franz Liszt Competition, Kingsville International Competition, Orchestra Sinfonica del Festival di Chioggia Competition in Italy.  Born in 1988, in Pusan, Korea, she began piano when she was 4 under her mother's instruction.  She is currently studying under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Rackallio at the Juilliard School where she is the recipient of the Susan Rose Piano Fellowship.

Born in 1985, Belarusian pianist Alexandra Beliakovich has performed extensively as a recitalist and soloist.  She played solo recitals in Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, the United States, and gave numerous recitals in Spain the last two summers.  After entering Manhattan School of Music in September  2006, Beliakovich received first prize in the Miezyslaw Munz Scholarship Competition.  As the first-place winner of the annual Concerto Competition at Manhattan School of Music, she made her debut with the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonia, performing Gershwin's Concerto in F.  She was the recipient of the President of the Republic of Belarus Youth Scholarship and the Anbrose Monell Foundation Scholarship.  She has performed at the Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Mannes College International Keyboard Institute and Festival.  She is currently a full scholarship degree candidate at the Manhattan School of Music where she studies with Solomon  Mikowsky.

Since 1990, Pianist Di Yi Tang  has won many prizes in important competitions throughout Europe.  In the course of his studies he has participated in master classes and received instruction and coaching from some of the world's most acclaimed pianists.  Tang has performed in Mannes' yearlong festival events at the New York Historical Society, The University Club, The 92nd Street Y and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.  In the 2004 International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes, he won Second Prize in the Dorothy MacKenzie Award Competition.

A native of Skopje, Macedonia, Igor Pancevski started playing the piano when he was 8 years old.  Early in his studies he was admitted to the special piano program for talented young pianists at the National Music School of Macedonia.  He pursued further education at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan with Stephen Perry and Yoshikazu Nagai.  He received his bachelor's degree from Oberlin College where he studied with Angela Cheng.  Pancevski has won several prizes at national and international competitions in Macedonia, Serbia, Italy, the Czech Republic and the United States.  He has performed with the Interlochen Camp and Academy Orchestras, as well as the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.  Igor is pursuing his master's degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he is studying with Yoshikazu Nagai.

Alexei Tartakovski was born in Moscow, Russia, in March 1989, and moved to America with his family as an infant.  At the age of 6 he began piano lessons in Gainesville Fla. In 2005, he entered the Juilliard Pre-College Division to study piano with Julian Martin and conducting with Julien Benichou.  Tartakovski has given numerous solo and chamber music recitals throughout the East Coast.  He was chosen to perform in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in June 2007, as a winner of the American Fine Arts Festival.  He received the first prize in the piano category for his performance at Weill Recital Hall.  Alexei speaks English, Russian, German, and has been recognized as a National Merit Scholar.  He is studying at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College with Nina Lelchuk.

Here's information on the other pianists who competed in the semi-final round:

Zhenni Li, a native of China, has performed throughout China and United States, including the Lincoln Center in New York, The California Theater, Pasadena Civic, and the National Concert Hall in Tianjin.  Upon moving to the United States, Li enrolled in the Juilliard School where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree on a full scholarship under the tutelage of Seymour Lipkin.  She is a top prize winner in the International Russian Piano Competition and the Kosciusko Chopin Competition, MTNA Competition (Washington) Winner, and has received the prestigious Yamaha Scholarship for the Asian area.

Pianist Hyeyeon Park has distinguished herself as one of the major young artists from Korea, making her orchestral debut with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra at the age of 10.  She has performed extensively throughout Europe, North America and Asia.  As an active chamber musician, she has collaborated with such luminaries as Alan Kay, Paul Katz, Nicholar Mann, Donald Weilerstein and Amit Peled.  A graduate of Korean National University of Arts, and Yale School of Music, Park is a Doctoral candidate at Peabody Conservatory.  She can be heard on Urtext and Hum record labels.

A native of Tokyo, Japan, Emy Todoroki-Schwartz has appeared in numerous concerts as a soloist and as a chamber musician in Japan, Spain, and throughout America. She began her musical training at the age of 3.  She received her bachelor of music degree from the Univesity of Texas at Austin as a scholarship student.  In 2007, she completed her master's degree at New York University, where she was a scholarship student and an adjunct faculty member.   Todoroki-Schwartz has won numerous awards in auditions and  competitions.  She gave her New York solo recital debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in March  2009.  She is currently continuing her studies with Miyoko Lotto in New York City.

Sun Min Kim, 24, was born in Seoul, South Korea, where he graduated from Yewon Arts School and Seoul Arts High School.  Since he made his debut with the Ulsan Symphony Orchestra at age 13, he has won numerous prizes and has concertized throughout South Korea.  Since he moved to the United States he has been a prize winner of various competitions in and outside of the United States.  He has appeared in a number of concerts in New York, Ohio, Belgium, Korea, Switzerland, Spain, and Czech Republic.  He is currently attending Eastman School of Music, studying with Thomas Schumacher.

Marina Kerze was born in Perm, Russia.  She made her debut with a symphony orchestra at the age of 12 and won several regional and national piano competitions. Marina has participated in a great number of concerts as a soloist, as a performer of chamber music and as an accompanist.  She has won several concerto competitions; her recent performance of Saint-Saens Concerto No. 2 was a great success.  Shed  holds a bachelor's degree from St. Petersburg State Conservatory, a master's degree from Cleveland State University, and currently studies at Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she is pursuing an artist diploma in piano performance.

Clement Acevedo is a native of Capiz, Philippines.  He moved to Manila in 2000 for music studies at the University  of the Philippines College of Music.  In 2007, he went to Temple University for further piano studies with Harvey Wedeen on a fully funded graduate assistantship for the masters' program.  Acevedo is a winner of several national competitions in the Philippines. 

Samuel Sterling Gingher, who was born in 1983, is a native of Greensboro, N.C.  He holds a bachelor's degree in music in piano performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a mater's degree in music from the Univesity of Illinois.  He is currently a doctor of music candidate in piano performance at the Univeristy of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Gingher was the recipient of the David Arons Award for Excellence in Musical Performance at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2006, and currently holds a fellowship at UIUC. Gingher has won 1st prize in state and regional competitions.  He plans to pursue a career in performance while continuing to teach and compose.  His teachers in classical performance have included Timothy Ehlen, Thomas Otten, Constance Kotis and Kenneth Drake.

Born in 1982,  Matthieu Cognet undertook serious piano studies after having hesitated between medical and musical studies.  In 2002, he was admitted to the ConservatoireSuperieur de Paris-CNR in piano while studying at the same time in the U. of La Sorbonne (Master of Musicology with high honours).  In 2004, after his graduation in Paris (lst Prize of Piano), he was admitted to the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where he studied with Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden.  He obtained the Master of Piano Performance in 2007 with High Distinction, ranking first in the final recital exam.   Cognet is also highly interested in the two-piano repertoire.  He regularly plays as a soloist and in chamber music, mainly in France, Belgium and Spain.  He is pursuing a Performer Diploma in Piano Performance with Emile Naoumoff at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Krystian Tkaczewski, described as "Polish Virtuoso"by the Kosciuzko Foundation made a well-received debut in Carnegie Hall in April 2007.  Born in 1980 in Tarnów, Poland, started his musical education at the Paderewski Music School in Tarnów in the class of J. Iwaneczko. He studied at the Chopin College in Warsaw (1995-2000) in the studios of G. Weiss and Dr. Pawel Skrzypek.  He became a student of Olga Rusina at the Academy of Music in Wroclaw.  In 2007, he received a graduate diploma at the University of Hartford Hartt School in the class of Oxana Yablonskaya.  He is pursuing a doctor of music arts degree at University of Hartford.  Tkaczewski has been an active member of the Society of Polish Musical Artists SPAM since 2004. 

Anton Smirnov was born in 1984 in Novosibirsk, Russia.  He began his piano studies at age 7 and made his first public appearance on year later.   He  has accumulated more than 250 public performances worldwide.  In 1997 he was accepted to the Special School for Gifted Children in Novosibirsk.  He later received his bachelo's ddegree in music from the Novosibirsk Music Conservatory.  He is a prize winner of many international piano competitions. He has performed with various orchestras as a soloist including  Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Tomsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Full Symphony Orchestra in San Jose and Oberlin Orchestra.  He is pursuing his artist diploma at Oberlin Music Conservatory in Ohio, studying with Sedmara Z. Rutstein.

Tianjiao Wang began her piano instruction at 7 and at age 9 gave her first public performance.  At age 10 she won the first prize at the Chinese Prodigy Piano Competition.  She has been an active solo performer concertizing throughout the major cities of China.  At 14, she made her orchestral debut with the Shenyang Youth Orchestra and subsequently appeared with the leading orchestra in China.  In 2004, she continued her graduate study at Indiana University School of Music and was awarded the Dean's Scholarship.  She graduated with a master of music degree  and received a full scholarship from Texas Christian University where she is currently following an Artist Diploma course with Tamás Ungár

About the Competition

Hermanns, a long-time Westport resident, was a concert pianist and premier music lover and promoter.  In 1973, she founded this competition which was later renamed in her honor.

The competition has has enhanced the careers of an impressive number of today's internationally acclaimed musical stars.  Former competition winners include pianists Frederic Chiu, Andrew Armstrong, Max Levinson, and Christopher O'Reilly; clarinetists Igor Begelman, Charles Neidich and Todd Palmer and saxophonist Otis Murphy

Contributions from the Heida Hermanns Foundation and from generous donors support this annual event, traditionally one of the highlights of Fairfield County's musical season.

Hermanns grew up in an atmosphere of competition and loved it.  A Jewish refugee, Hermmans fled Nazi Germany with her husband, Artur Holde. Artur became her agent, and for many years, Heida had a very successful concert career.  Artur and Heida eventually took up residence in Westport

Heida coordinated the first competition in 1972, before there was an organization to support it.  The following year, Performers of Southern Connecticut (POSC) was established. Its  membership consisted mostly of performing musicians.  Concerts held in private homes were started to raise money for the competition.  House concert artists donated their performances, and the revenue from ticket sales supported the competition.

As the activities of POSC expanded throughout Connecticut, the name was changed to Performers of Connecticut.  The membership gradually evolved to be more audience-based than performer-based, and so the name was changed again, in 1997, to Connecticut Alliance for Music .

The Heida Hermanns Competition started as a local Connecticut competition for all instruments.  As time progressed, the competition grew to an international contest, the Board decided that it would be better to have individual categories - piano, woodwinds, voice and strings.  The alliance then decided to have two separate competitions - woodwinds and piano one year, voice and strings the next - with a final concert of three winners from each division. 

In 2007, the CAM Board voted to focus on two major areas in order to build on its success, now offering competitions for piano and voice, in two-year rotations.  Current prize money is $5,00 for first place, $2,500 for second place, $1,250 for third place and up to three honorable mentions at $500 each.

About Heida Hermanns

Heida Hermanns received her first piano lessons from her mother, Alice Goldschmidt Hermanns, and when she was 15 she enrolled at the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik. Her teachers included Egon Petri, Artur Schnabel, Carl Friedberg and Isabella Vengerova.

She made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic when she was 18 and toured Europe as a recitalist and concerto soloist through the 1920s and early 1930s. In 1931 she married Artur Holde, a music critic and author. They immigrated to the United States in 1936.

Mrs. Hermanns made her New York debut at Town Hall in 1942, and gave annual recitals that often included works by Busoni, Dussek, Kodaly and other composers whose works were not in the mainstream repertory. Her interest in unusual works brought her to the attention of the Society for Forgotten Music, with which she appeared several times.

As a chamber music player,  Hermanns performed regularly with John Corigliano, the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic (and the father of the composer of the same name). She also gave duo-piano recitals and made recordings with Ruth Steinkraus Cohen.

Hermanns was  a supporter of the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts. When the Westport Arts Center was built in the mid-1980's, she underwrote its concert hall, which is called Artur Holde Hall after her husband, who died in 1962.