A Festival Report
by Suzanne Gillman
 

The Well-Prepared Pianist Institute Festival and Second International PianoTeams® Competition was held at Northern Arizona University July 31 - August 4. There were over 400 registered attendees, including students, parents and WPPI teachers. The Festival was supported by Steinway & Sons.

Festival events included masterclasses for teachers and students with N. Jane Tan and Seymour Bernstein. There were also Story Suite presentations from various WPPI studios, wherein stories were dramatized and set to music by students, teachers, siblings and parents.

There were three evenings of concerts. The PianoTeam "V", a performing team of teachers from Wisconsin, debuted N. Jane Tan's arrangement of Chabrier's "Espaná", dedicated to Jane's lifelong friend Bea Steinberg and to the memory of Bea's late husband Arthur. Bea Steinberg was present in the audience.

On another evening, the three finalists from the House Concert Competition each performed a solo 10-minute segment in a concert. WPP House Concerts are the showcases of every student's cumulative learning in each level where they perform entire repertoire of that level "by heart" in solo concerts at home. The three finalists were Olivia Crocker and Noelle Farr, students of Suzanne Gillman from the State of Washington, and Aaron Rodriguez, student of Naoko Wallace from Illinois. These students were selected through videotaped performances of their House Concerts. Both the students and their teachers received plaques of recognition.

Festival attendees also heard10-year-old Joey Chang performed a solo concert. As an encore, he improvised on musical motifs and images supplied to him by Seymour Bernstein, renowned composer, author and performer; David Engle, former editor for Willis Music; and Frank Mazurco, vice-president of Steinway & Sons. Joey's performance demonstrated his youthful mastery of musical styles and total freedom on the piano keyboard, both of which are trademarks of all WPP students. Joey is a student of WPP teacher, TehLing Chiang from Arizona.

The highlight of the Festival was the PianoTeams® Competition. There were a total of 22 teams- 8 in the Junior Division and 14 in the Senior Division. The WPPI was honored to have two teams from China competing. Three finalists were selected from each division and performed all three of their competition pieces on the final night of the Festival. Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams. Their directors received cash awards.

The winning teams were:

Senior Division
1st Place- "Dancing Phoenix"
Shin Chang, David Granger, Jocelyn Hu,
Jonathan Hu, Iris Lee
Director - TehLing Chiang of Arizona

2nd Place- "Encore"
Deng Qianyi, Pan Shandi, Shen Xing,
Zhang Zhengwen, Zhuo Siyun
Director- Yevdokiya Petrychenko of Foshan, China

3rd Place- "Celestial Cranes"
Ruth Chen, Colin Ho, Cindy Huang,
Carrie Zhao, Sherry Zhao
Director- TehLing Chiang of Arizona

Junior Division
1st Place- "Fantasia"
Jenny Fu, Weiyi Le, Kathy Rao,
Lya Yang, Ruyan Zhang
Director - Ya Liu of Utah

2nd Place - "Five-Pointed Star"
IanJoe (Joey) Chang, Rachel Ganger,
Jessica Liu, Maggie Wong, Alfred Yue
Director - TehLing Chiang of Arizona

3rd Place- "The Honeybees"
Sophia Crowley, Jerry Fu, Crystal Gianvecchio, Bailey Jiang, Sara Ma
Director - Ya Liu of Utah

N. Jane Tan was awarded Steinway's highest award for artists, the Steinway "Standard of Excellence" Award. The award was presented to her by Steinway VP, Frank Mazurco, for her dedication to teaching as evidenced by founding the WPPI and for inventing and writing for PianoTeams^®, which is WPPI's musicianship-training for pianists. Steinway also presented gold pins to Joey Chang, the House Concert Finalists, the winners of the PianoTeams^® Competition, and to each of the WPPI teachers who attended the Festival.

The next Festival will take place in 2008 at a location yet to be determined. Look for upcoming posting of festival photos!