Pianist Sejoon Park

PRELUDE RECITAL
Friday, June 4
Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
7:30 pm
Adults $15; Students $10

Sejoon Park, 2008 winner, sets the standard for the competition to follow. His program includes works by Robert Schumann, Domenico Scarlatti, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

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.

PIANOARTS AWARDS:
2008 First Place Prize

2006 Scholarship to the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes College of Music in New York City

2006 Best Performance of a Duo

Day 6: Promenades and Finals

Piano Promenades

At 6pm in the Wisconsin Lutheran College reception hall outside Schwann Concert Hall, 7 Semi-Finalists gave their last performances of the 2008 PianoArts Festival. It was a relaxed environment and their musical expression was greatly appreciated by a crowd of onlookers and admirers.

2008 PianoArts Final Round

At 8pm, the final round began. Sean Yeh led off, just as he had the day before in the second day of Semi-Finals. His performance of Beethoven's 3rd Concerto in C minor was passionate and virtuosic. As in the first round, accuracy was sacrificed for the sake of the intensity he wanted to communicate, and there were ensemble issues with soloist and orchestra. The second movement had pedal issues as chords were not resolved - perhaps the pedal was held longer for the sake of acoustics in the big hall, but still it sounded muddy. That aside, Sean's playing was emphatic, direct, blazing and daring, and the conclusion was exciting.

Paige Chun Li played nearly flawlessly with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Andrews Sill. She performed Beethoven's 1st Concerto in C major. Her clean technique and control of color and phrasing was magnified on the brilliant-sounding Steinway concert grand with a light-weighted action. Her musical expression was committed and the ensemble was wonderful. It was obvious that the orchestra loved playing with her.

Sejoon Park concluded the concert with a dramatic and moving interpretation of Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto. Although there were mistakes early on, it was a case of nerves that any pianist can relate to, and it never tripped him up. However, his rushing caused a problem for the ensemble particularly in the first movement. The second movement began surprisingly slow, but was carefully planned and beautifully cultivated. As in the other rounds, Sejoon's playing radiated musical beauty in the slow moments. The finale was invigorating and complete.

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Prizes and Awards

First Prize: Sejoon Park; $8,000
Second Prize: Paige Chun Li; $5,000
Third Prize: Sean M. Yeh; $3,000

Scholarship to the Mannes College International Keyboard Institute and Festival: Sejoon Park
Audience Communication Award: Paige Chun Li; $500
String and Piano Duo Award: Brian Chang; $500

There were no Wisconsin Contestants this year, so no award was given in this category.