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Ariela D. Bohrod
age 16
Madison, Wisconsin |
When she was eleven, Ariela represented the state
of Wisconsin in Chiba, Japan, as a part of a cultural exchange program, performing in schools and for special events. Ariela has also performed on public radio, in concert halls, in schools, and nursing facilities.
As a winner of five concerto competitions, she has soloed with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Youth Symphony, and the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra. She also won the 2012 Michigan Music Teachers Association's Senior Division Concerto Competition and was selected by the International Gilmore Keyboard Festival as a soloist
in their master classes.
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For the past three years, Ariela has attended the Interlochen Arts Academy, where she studies piano with Thomas J. Lymenstull.
When Ariela performs, her goal is to share her innermost feelings through her music, which she believes can convey more meaning than her spoken words. She says that she looks forward to learning from her peers who are also participaing in the PianoArts competition.
Ariela Bohrod – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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Christian S. Gamboa
Age 20
Hamburg, New Jersey |
“I’m a music lover,” says Christian Gamboa, who likes to listen to all kinds of music, including electronic music by composers such as John Cage and György Ligeti. He enjoys exploring the music of composers who do not get a lot of attention. When
he performs, whether the music is modern or from the past, Christian aims to project the composer’s story while projecting his own unique voice that, in turn, conjures up the audiences’ own vivid imaginations.
Christian also enjoys composing and playing the cello. During high school, he was an active chamber music player and member of the New York Youth Symphony, playing both the cello and piano.
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He won awards for both his chamber music performances and his piano performances, including grand prizes in the Piano Teachers Society of America and the International Young Artist Piano Competition featuring Chinese music.
Christian began piano studies when he was six. Currently he is a student of Victor Rosenbaum at the New England Conservatory of Music. He majors in piano and theory. When he can find the time, he still enjoys composing and playing the cello.
Christian Gamboa – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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Yoan P. Ganev
age 16
Wheeling, Illinois |
Yoan Ganev began his piano studies at the age of six and soon was accepted at the National School
of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria. Three years later, he moved to the United States, where he continued studying piano with Mr. Emilio del Rosario. Yoan currently studies with Dr. Theodore Edel and is enrolled in the distance learning Academic Honors program of Indiana University High School. His study plan gives him the opportunity to focus on music.
Playing the piano has brought Yoan “a bunch of exciting experiences.” He was featured three times
on Chicago WFMT’s show, Introductions. Then came another wonderful experience. In 2011, his performance of Franz Liszt's Mephisto Waltz no.1 was included in the compact disc, WFMT’S 60th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee Collection. Yoan cherishes the opportunity he was given to perform
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in a piano quintet with the Chicago Chamber Musicians
in the play Leaping Leopold at Chicago’s Shakespeare Theater.He has also appeared at Ravinia Music Festival’s Pavilion in a piano-violin duet and then, in a piano duet with Welz Kaufmann.
Yoan has received winning prizes for his performances in many competitions. Most recently, he won the silver medal at the 2011 International Russian Music Piano Competition in San Jose, California.
Besides playing the piano, Yoan enjoys opera and playing chess. He also loves playing chamber music with friends and says, “I guess I am one of the few people who think that learning German is actually fun.”
Yoan Ganev – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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Sahun Hong
age 17
Fort Worth, Texas |
When Sahun Hong was very young and was asked what he wanted to become, he said, “I want to become a mathematician who plays the piano well.” Today, he would answer that he wants to become a concert pianist who enjoys mathematics.
Sahun was eight when he moved with his family to Fort Worth, Texas. When he was eleven, he enrolled in Texas Christian University to major in math and music. After winning a competition and playing with an orchestra, everything changed. Music became the focal point of his life and at age sixteen, he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in piano performance. Continuing his studies with John Owings, Sahun is working for an Artist Diploma at TCU. Sahun has also had lessons with Martin Canin and Veda Kaplinksy and has performed in master classes with many teachers, including Leon Fleisher. He won first place prize in the Lennox
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Young Artist and Fort Worth Symphony Young Artist competitions, as well as the Leschetizky Competition for Gifted Young Pianists.
Sahun is a recipient of the Friedman Award for Outstanding Student in Performing Arts and was a top winner in the Cooper International Piano Competition. Symphony orchestras with which he has performed include the Fort Worth, Richardson, Brazos Valley, Galveston, and Camerata New York in Merkin Hall. In 2010, Sahun was named a Young Steinway Artist. He was featured on the nationally broadcast radio show, From the Top, and in an article of a Fort Worth magazine titled, “14 Brilliant Minds.”
Sahun relishes every opportunity to perform, whether in concert halls, schools, or retirement centers. His goal is “to reach out to every listener, giving to each of them the great gift of classical music.”
Sahun Hong – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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Yesse Kim
age 19
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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“Listen to your heart.” Yesse Kim says that is why she is drawn to music. “The passion I have for music, the arts, and people, fills my heart every day and gives a life to my soul.” Yesse believes that watching her mother, a dancer, teach and perform was a guiding influence in building her love of music and the arts.
Living with the arts also led Yesse to understand the restrictions and disciplines needed to perform. She says that an artist must possess “two opposite qualities at the same time: spontaneity and orderliness.”
Through her passion and discipline, Yesse has accomplished many important goals. She is on a full tuition scholarship at The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where she studies
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piano with Yong Hi Moon. In 2011, she was named a Yamaha Young Performing Artist, the same year that she
won the Kankakee Valley Young Artist Concerto Competition. She also won top prizes in the Lennox Young Artist Competition and other competitions while she was in high school.
Yesse began her music studies in Korea, where she was born. She performed with the Deajeon Sangrok when she was nine and later with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. In the United States she soloed with the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, among others.
When Yesse is not listening to classical music, she listens to jazz and has a fondness for music played on the cello.
Yesse Kim – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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Philip M. Kwoka
age 20
West Palm Beach, Florida |
In Philip Kwoka’s long list of favorite composers,
you will always find Frédéric Chopin. That is not surprising – Philip is a first generation American born to Polish parents. He speaks Polish fluently and is immersed in the culture. That interest and his talents in piano performance led him to participating in master classes in Poland and to receiving scholarships from the Chopin Foundation of the United States in 2007, 2008, and 2012.
Philip’s early piano studies were in New York.
When he moved to South Florida, he began piano studies with Roberta Rusk at the Lynn University Preparatory School of Music. After graduating from high school, Philip was accepted at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he currently studies piano with Paul Schenly.
Philip has won many awards for his performances. |
In 2012, he won first place prize at Bradshaw andBuono International Competition, where the competition directors described his performance as “reflecting the kind of intelligent interpretation and expertise essential in an artist.” His performance resulted in his Carnegie Hall debut performing in the Weill Recital Hall.
Philip also was the first prize winner In the Bluthner Piano Competition Senior Division and the Tampa Bay Symphony Young Artist Competition that included three performances with the orchestra. Other award winning performances include the second place prize with the New World Symphony Concerto Competition and honorable mention
at the Blount Slawson Young Artist Competition.
During his concerts, Philip enjoys speaking about the music that he is playing. “I would like audience members to leave my performances,…with a better understanding of the pieces I perform and the personality that I project."
Philip Kwoka – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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Brian Yuebing Lin
age 20
New York City and Shenzhen, China |
Now a sophomore at The Juilliard School, Brian’s life changed dramatically when he was fifteen. That was when he left his hometown of Shenzhen, China and the Shenzhen Arts School, where he studied piano. Moving to Fort Worth, Texas, Brian enrolled in Trinity Valley High School. While in high school, Brian became fluent in English, learned about American culture, played basketball, and continued his piano studies with Tamás Ungár. As busy as he was, he still found time to enter competitions, give concerts, and enjoy sharing his music with others.
Brian currently studies piano with Matti Raekallio. He has performed in many parts of the world – in the states of California, Florida, Texas, New York, and the cities of St Petersburg, Seoul, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, among others. He won first place prizes in the Lennox, Virginia Waring, |
Wysong-Joplin, and Crescendo international competitions. Brian has performed with the symphony orchestras of Richardson, Gulf Coast, California State University Northridge; and attended music festivals in Maine’s Bowdoin International Music Festival, PianoTexas Young Artists Festival, and the Beijing International Piano Festival.Brian has also performed in master classes with Arie Vardi, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Douglas Humpherys, and Barry Douglas, among others.
Whether performing solos, chamber music, or concerto repertory, Brian hopes that his audiences will share his own enjoyment of the music and experience all the emotions that music conveys.
Brian Yuebing Lin – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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Pin Hsiu (Emma) Liu
age 20
Rochester, New York and Taichung, Taiwan |
| Listening to her brother’s piano lesson so excited four-year old Pin Hsiu Liu that she was soon taking lessons herself. When she was fifteen, she received the opportunity to study in the United States and was accepted at the Walnut Hill School and the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division in Boston. To her American friends, she became known as Emma.
At Walnut Hill School, Emma studied with Roberto
Poli and participated in master classes with Russell Sherman, Hung-Kuan Chen, and Boris Slutsky.
Her growing interest in performing chamber music encouraged Emma to explore the repertory in coaching sessions with many master teachers, including Benjamin Zander. Emma has received top awards in the Williams Chorale Scholarship
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Competition, Harvard Musical Association Competition, Steinway Society of Massachusetts Piano Competition, and the A. Ramon Rivera Piano Competition. She attended the Aspen Music Festival and School and Maine's Bowdoin International Music Festival.
Currently, Emma is completing her sophomore year at
the Eastman School of Music, where she studies piano with Nelita True as a Howard Hanson scholarship recipient. When she is not listening to solo piano repertory, Emma listens to chamber music, especially by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Gabriel Fauré.
Pin Hsiu (Emma) Liu 2012 PianoArts Program |
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Garrick H. Olsen
age 16
Madison, Wisconsin
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| Only a few years after his first piano lesson at age nine, Garrick Olsen was giving solo recitals at local churches, retirement homes, and in a Bach birthday celebration, “Bach around the Clock.” He soon went on to win the first place prize in the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Concerto Competition and to win a top prize in Milwaukee’s Chopin Youth Piano Competition. Then in 2012, Garrick won the first place prize in the Bolz Young Artist Competition. In the final round, he and three other young artists performed with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in a concert that was broadcast statewide on Wisconsin Public Television.
Garrick is a sophomore in the eAchieve Academy,
a Wisconsin online school, which allows him to study his academics and to practice his music.
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He attended the Jacobs School of Music Summer Piano Academy at Indiana University last summer and has studied piano with Bill Lutes of Madison, Wisconsin for
the past five years.
When Garrick is not studying, practicing, or performing the piano, you might find him logrolling on a lake near his home. He has also competed in Wisconsin’s Lumberjack World Campionship Logrolling competition.
Garrick Olsen – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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Yinuo Qian
age 19
San Francisco, California and Wenzhou, China |
Pursuing a music career led Yinuo Qian to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to study piano with Yoshikazu Nagai. This spring, Yinuo will complete her freshman year. During this first year in the United States, busy Yinuo still found time to broaden her experiences and win an award by participating in the Music Teacher’s National Association California State Young Artist Competition. She was the youngest participant.
Listening to her mother play the piano sparked Yinuo’s interest in music at a very early age. When she was seven, Yinuo began piano lessons and by the age of nine, she was awarded the second prize at the Chopin Piano Competition of Zhejiang Province |
Division. Once again, she was the youngest participant. Soon afterwards, she enrolled in the primary school affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and studied with Professor Qi Zhang and John Que. As she continued into middle school, Yinuo had opportunities to perform chamber music in master classes with Fou Ts’ong and Xiaozheng Zhao.
Yinuo received scholarships from the People’s Scholarship, Junyuan Tang Educational Foundation, and Shanghai City. After one of her solo performances in the Shanghai Symphony Hall, an orchestra reviewer wrote, “Yinuo Qian is a pianist with fire and passion.”
Yinuo Qian – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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Josephine Yang
age 20
Phoenix, Arizona |
Josephine Yang is still drawing on the experiences she had in her early teens when she cofounded a community service music group. “I started to realize the impact that music could have,” said Josephine. One performance venue was especially memorable. It was a center for seniors with Alzheimer’s disease. As the patients hummed along, she realized music’s power.
Josephine has won many awards for her performances that include first place prizes at
the Schimmel Piano Young Artist Concerto Competition and the Arizona MusicFest Young Musicians Competition. She represented the state of Arizona in the Music Teachers National Association Senior Piano Competition and performed as a winner of Arizona State University’s State Concerto Competition with the orchestra.
Among the music fesitvals Josephine has attended is the Music Fest Perugia in Italy. During the 2009 Fest,
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she played with members of II Solisti di Perugia and at
the 2011 Music Fest Perugia, she played with the orchestra in residence.
Josephine recently decided to pursue a music career. She is now finishing up her sophomore year at Arizona State University, where she studies piano with Baruch Meir.
When she is not practicing or performing piano, Josephine enjoys listening to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita no. 2 in D minor for violin and the orchestral music of Maurice Ravel, among many other selections. “Music is perfection in a chaotic world,” says Josephine.
Josephine Yang – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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Xiaohui Yang
age 20
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Chaoyang, China |
As a young piano student growing up in China, Xiaohui Yang’s talents and achievements were recognized immediately. She won awards in the Hong Kong Piano Open Competition, the Toyama Aisan Youth Music Competition, and the International Chopin Piano Competition in Asia. Then she was awarded the Michael and Cecilia Iacovella Capuzzi Memorial fellowship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music, where Xiaohui is presently completing her fourth year.
Since arriving in the United States, Xiaohui’s educational and performance opportunities have blossomed. She studies piano with Ignat Solzhenitsyn and has participated in master classes with Gary Graffman, Peter Serkin, Richard Goode, and many others. In 2010, she performed a solo recital at the Shenyang Foreign Culture Music |
Festival, and in 2012, she performed violin/piano
duo recitals in Hawaii. Xiaohui has also attended
the Taos School of Music, the Mannes College of Music Beethoven Institute, and the Third Beijing International Music Festival and Academy.
In addition to performing solos with orchestras, Xiaohui enjoys performing the piano as an orchestra member. Last February, she performed the piano parts in symphonies by Serge Prokofiev, Richard Danielpour, and Leonard Bernstein with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Several of Xiaohui’s performances are on Instant Encore and WHYY Video’s online productions of On Stage at Curtis.
Xiaohui Yang – 2012 PianoArts Programs |
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