International Piano Festival at Lee University
Recitals open to the public begin Monday
Lee University’s School of Music will sponsor its 12th annual International Piano Festival and Competition beginning Sunday, June 11, through Saturday, June 17. The event, which began in 2005, offers participants the opportunity to study with internationally acclaimed artists and gives the public a chance to hear performances by those artists. The competition is for pre-college and college students.
This year’s festival welcomes 20 young pianists ages 13 to 25. Participants come from the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China.
Mirian Conti, Dmitri Vorobiev and Pei-Chun Liao are guest artists. Lee faculty members Cahill Smith and Phillip Thomas will serve as artistic director and executive director of the festival, respectively.
New to this year’s festival are classes on piano literature, historical performance and career skills, as well as roundtable discussions with artist faculty. Prizes have doubled with $10,000 in cash awards.
The pre-college competition begins Wednesday, June 14, at 10:30 a.m. in Squires Recital Hall. The college division convenes Thursday, June 15, at 10 a.m.
Winners will be presented on Friday evening, June 16, following the competition’s final round, which begins at 7:30 p.m.
Also on June 16, at 3 p.m. Michael Shinn of Juilliard School will teach a master class in Squires Recital Hall using a DCFX Disklavier PRO concert grand piano, provided by Yamaha Corp. of America.
This instrument, which transmits performance data over the internet, will allow Shinn to hear students’ performances — with the piano’s keys and pedals moving up and down to capture the subtlest nuance in real time — on a DSFX at Yamaha’s facility in New York City. This session is open to the public.
For more information contact the music department at 423-614-8264, music @leeuniversity.edu or www.leeupiano.com.