Speaking of Pianists

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition announced today the 30 pianists who will compete in the 13th annual event.

They are, listed alphabetically:

Stephen Beus*, 27, USA

Evgeni Bozhanov, 25, Bulgaria

Yue Chu, 25, China

Ran Dank, 27, Israel

Alessandro Deljavan-Farshi, 22, Italy

Yoonjung Han, 24, Korea

Kyu Yeon Kim, 23, Korea

Naomi Kudo, 22, USA/Japan

Natacha Kudritskaya, 25, Ukraine

Eduard Kunz, 28, Russia

Andrea Lam, 27, Australia

Soyeon Lee*, 29, Korea

Ang Li*, 24, Canada

Michail Lifits, 26, Germany

Spencer Myer, 30, USA

Ilya Rashkovskiy*, 24, Russia

Mayumi Sakamoto, 26, Japan

Yeol Eum Son, 23, Korea

Victor Stanislavsky, 26, Israel

Chetan Tierra, 25, USA

Nobuyuki Tsujii, 20, Japan

Mariangela Vacatello, 27, Italy

Vassilis Varvaresos, 26, Greece

Lukas Vondracek, 22, Czech Republic

Di Wu*, 24, China

Amy Yang, 25, China

Feng Zhang, 23, China

Haochen Zhang, 19, China

Ning Zhou, 21, China

Zhang Zuo, 20, China

*Past Cliburn competitor

See this link for more information about the announcement:

Auditions for students in piano, strings and brass, woodwinds and percussion were held on Sunday, February 22, in Vancouver, Washington for the fifteenth annual Young Artist Competition of the Orchestra.

2009 Winners in the Piano Division were:

First Place: Stephanie Cai of Lake Oswego, OR (Jean-David Coen, teacher), Second Place: Mighten Yip of Portland, OR (Dorothy Fahlman, teacher), and Third Place: Mary Stone of Washougal, WA (Barbara Roberts, teacher).

All winners receive scholarships, and the first place winner in each category will also perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the April 18 & 19 concerts.

Go to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra web pages for more information.

Congratulations to these young artists and their teachers!