The 14th Oberlin International Piano Competition and Festival, the Conservatory's annual event for young pianists, will take place Saturday, July 26 through Sunday, August 3. The weeklong competition culminates in a final round held in Warner Concert Hall on Saturday, August 2, at 8 p.m. The pianist named first-prize winner on that night will take home $10,000, the largest first-prize offered by a youth piano competition internationally, and will receive orchestral concert engagements in Beijing and Shanghai, China. Up to six additional prizes will be awarded, including a $100 Audience Prize decided by popular vote.

Free and open to the public, the finals round will also be broadcast live on 104.9 FM WCLV, Cleveland’s classical music radio station, and available worldwide by streaming audio from wclv.com. Robert Conrad, cofounder and president of WCLV, will serve as the master of ceremonies; Jacqueline Gerber, the host of WCLV’s morning show First Program, will be the on-air host.

Young pianists travel from around the world to participate in the festival. This year’s 39 competitors hail from Australia, Hungary, Columbia, China, Korea, Canada, and the United States. Directed by Oberlin Professor of Piano Robert Shannon, the competition is expressly for pianists between the ages of 13 and 18, and the winners are chosen through a selective five-round audition process. Pianists must first audition for acceptance into the competition by CD recording or at live auditions held in China. Of the pianists chosen to compete in Oberlin, 12 to 16 will be selected from the next stage, a live performance round, and will advance to the third round of competition. The six pianists remaining after the third round will perform in the competition concerto round and finals.

In addition to the $10,000 cash prize, the first-prize winner will receive engagements with the Chinese National Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the Shanghai Philharmonic.

Competition judges include faculty members from the Oberlin piano department and several special guests on campus for the festival, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Jason Hardink, and Nelita True. Ioudenitch comes to the festival from Park University in Missouri, where he is Artistic Director of the Youth Conservatory of Music and the International Center for Music; he won the Gold Medal in the 2001 Van Cliburn competition, and completed a worldwide tour in 2004. Hardink is a 1997 graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and currently holds the position of Principal Symphony Keyboard and Opera Rehearsal Accompanist for the Utah Symphony and Opera. True has an international performing career and is Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music.

Members of the festival faculty will offer private lessons, master classes, recitals, and lectures throughout the week to festival attendees as well as to competition participants, providing them with intensive and in-depth opportunities to expand their knowledge of music history, theory, and pedagogy, as well as the vital connection of those three elements to on-stage performance.

A number of festival events this year are inspired by the theme, “Messaien and the French Tradition,” in celebration of the centennial of the birth of organist and composer Olivier Messaien, born in Avignon, France in 1908. On the eve of the final round, Friday, August 1 at 8 p.m., guest artist Jason Hardink will play the complete Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus for piano by Messaien, the composer’s masterpiece two-hour contemplation of the Christ child. The free concert will be held in Warner Concert Hall at the Conservatory.

More information about the competition and festival is available by calling Anna Hoffmann at 440-775-8044 or by visiting oberlin.edu/con/summer/piano.

Click here for a full calendar of festival events open to the public, including information about semifinal rounds.