Sejoon Park

Falls Church, Virginia

First Place Prize

Scholarship to the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes College of Music in New York City

Best Performance of a Duo

In March, 2009, Sejoon performed for a very enthusiastic audience at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield, Among his fans were many young concert goers who had enjoyed his programs in their schools earlier that month.

Speaking about himself, Sejoon says, "I am a normal teenager who happens to be in love with music.... to feel the connection between myself and the audience is extremely rewarding”…  something Sejoon Park tries to achieve everyday. When Sejoon is not performing or listening to piano music, he enjoys being with his friends, participating in athletics and listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart operas, Dimitri Shostakovich symphonies and Peter Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto. But when he was a young student in Seoul, Korea, he was not excited about taking piano lessons. Later on he experienced the joy of expressing himself at the piano and became “addicted to music.”

Sejoon was eleven when he moved to the United States to live with his aunt and to study at the Levin School of Music. When  he arrived, he could not speak English. Today, he is an honor student, graduate of McLean High School and college sophomore.

Sejoon attends the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University, where he studies with Boris Slutsky

In 2007 Sejoon won first prize in the Aspen Music Festival Piano Concerto and performed Edward Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Orchestra of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. In 2006 he won first Prize in the Southeastern Piano Concerto Competition and performed the Grieg’s concerto with the South Carolina Philharmonic. Other awards include first prizes in the Marlin-Engel and the Cogen Concerto Competitions, both sponsored by the Levine School of Music in Washington D. C., and first prize at the Alexandria Performing Art Association Competition, second prize in the Oberlin International Piano Competition, second prize in the PianoArts 2005 National Competition and third prize in the Eastman Music School International Piano Competition. Sejoon was selected for the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, which carries a generous scholarship and the opportunity to appear on the well-known "From the Top" radio show.

Paige Chun Li

Interlochen, Michigan

Jiang Su, China

Second Place Prize

Sean M. Yeh

Libertyville, Illinois

Third Place Prize

Sean has also won many honors as a solo pianist. In 2005 he was invited to perform at the Tenth World Piano Pedagogy Conference in California. Then in 2006 he won first place in the Sejong Music Competition and took the first prize in the East Central Division in the Music Teachers National Association Baldwin Junior Piano Competition. In 2008 Sean won the third prize with the Seventeenth Annual Steinway Young Artists Solo Piano Competition and

the first prize in the East Central Division in the Music Teachers National Association Yamaha Senior Piano Competition. Sean’s most memorable performance was his 2007 debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as

a pianist in Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals. He studies piano  at the Music Institute of Chicago with Emilio del Rosario and Matt Hagle and additionally studies with Alan Chow from Northwestern University. He also enjoys math, computer programming and playing video games. 

Brian K. Chang

Naperville, Illinois

Best Performance of a Duo

Brian Chang enjoys a challenge. He likes math, chemistry and music and being with people who can discuss those subjects. Brian is looking forward to the PianoArts competition, which he describes as “extremely challenging…. I enjoy the format: having to talk about each piece before playing it (to demonstrate some knowledge about the piece), being able to play a duo (displaying our ability to perform  with others), and being able to interact with all of the other participants. Best of all, I would love the excitement of playing the concerto with a great orchestra.” Besides classical music, Brian says he tries not to take anything too seriously and in his free time, he enjoys playing basketball, listening to jazz, and rapping.

A junior at the Illinois Mathematic and Science Academy in Aurora, Brian is a piano student of James Giles at Northwestern University.

Pianist Victor Rosenbaum is “one of those artists who make up for all the drudgery the habitual concertgoer endures in the hopes of finding the real, right thing,” (Boston Globe). His concert tours include performances in Europe, Asia, Israel and Russia. Among his many recitals in the United States are those in Chicago, Minneapolis and in New York City. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Rosenbaum has performed with artists such as cellist Leonard Rose and violinists Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt and Robert Mann, and with the Bretano and Cleveland String Quartets. Among the many festivals in which he has participated throughout the world are Tanglewood, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival.

A renowned teacher, Mr. Rosenbaum is on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music; the New England Conservatory, where he was chair of the piano department; and the Longy School of Music, where he served as Director and President from 1985 to 2001.

He was also a visiting professor at The Juilliard Schooland the Eastman School of Music. Well-known for his master classes, workshops and lectures, Mr. Rosenbaum has presented at prestigious institutions throughout the United States and at London’s Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, and Guildhall School; the Menuhin School at Stoke d'Abernon in England; Tokyo’s Toho School and the Jerusalem Music Center.

Classical Disc Digest described Mr. Rosenbaum’s recording of compositions by Franz Schubert on Bridge Records as “a powerful and poignant record of human experience.” He also recorded the last three sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, which was greeted with enthusiasm by American Record Guide critic Alan Becker as one of the top ten classical recordings of 2005. Susan Kagan of Fanfare wrote of that disc – “Victor Rosenbaum’s rewarding interpretation can sit proudly among the best.”

Nelita True made her debut at age seventeen with the Chicago Symphony in Orchestra Hall and her New York debut with the Juilliard Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall. Since then, she has been in demand as a performer and master teacher throughout Western and Eastern Europe, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Iceland, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia, Canada, in Hong Kong and Singapore, and in virtually every state in America. On fourteen occasions, she presented recitals and master classes in the People’s Republic of China. As a visiting professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, she performed and gave master classes. She also performed recitals on French national television and Australian national radio.

Ms. True is a respected jury member of piano competitions, including the China International Piano Competition (Beijing), the Queen Sonja International Piano Competition (Oslo), the National Piano Competition in Brazil, the Horowitz Competition (Kiev), the Concours de Musique in Canada, the National Piano Teachers’ Association of Japan (Tokyo), the Lev Vlassenko Competition in Australia. In the United States, she has judged for the Gina Bachauer, New Orleans, Hilton Head, and William Kapell International Piano Competitions.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Michigan where she studied with Helen Titus, Ms. True went on to The Juilliard School to study with Sascha Gorodnitzki, earned her doctorate with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory, and studied with Nadia Boulanger on a Fulbright grant.

Formerly Distinguished Professor at the University of Maryland, Ms. True is currently Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music

As a teacher, Ms. True continues to have a profound impact on thousands of teachers and students. Many of her students have won top prizes at national and international competitions, including an unprecedented five First Prizes in national Music Teachers National Association competitions. She was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, the "Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching" at Eastman, the 2002 Achievement Award from Music Teachers National Association, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from National Keyboard Pedagogy Conference.

SH Productions of Kansas City, a video company dedicated to classical music education, produced a set of four videos, Nelita True at Eastman, which is being used at schools on four continents. Ms. True was the cover story for the magazine, Keyboard Companion, and featured in Clavier, Piano Today, and The European Piano Teachers’ Journal. Along with the legendary teachers Rosina Lhevinne and Adele Marcus, Ms. True was highlighted in James Bastien’s book, How to Teach Piano Successfully.

“True is an extraordinary pianist and exemplary musician…many a lyric soprano would covet the way (she) can turn a phrase,” wrote a critic for The Boston Globe. Her most recent recital in Boston was cited as one of the “Ten Best Classical Performances of the Year.” In addition to her performances in concert halls, Ms. True has recorded over one hundred piano works for Advance, Mark, Educo, and Academy Records.