Dear Friends,
Yet another year passed since I wrote on this wall. It’s been a good year, with busy concert and festival schedule, rewarding teaching experiences, and students triumphs.
Some of the highlights of the past year include performing Mozart K. 466 Piano Concerto with the Rochester Philharmonic under the baton of Jherrard Hardeman, coming back as Guest Artists to the Southeastern Piano Festival, where we performed a piano duo concert, and judged the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition, unforgettable concerts at the Vivace Music Festival and many other memorable and important moments.
The many accomplishments of mine and Joe’s wonderful students make us extraordinarily proud. Caleb Borick (ESM BM), Joe’s student since Caleb was 13, has swept Bonn Beethoven International Piano Competition, gathering the First Prize and several more and embarking on a busy concert tour in Europe and Asia. Ke’er Wang (USC BM, ESM MM, DMA) has won GOCCA grand prize and a tour engagement in China, where she performed in 8 cities to major critical acclaim. Nick Zehao Bai (USC BM, ESM MM, DMA) has just received his first faculty position at the University of Toledo. Xiaoliang Qian (ESM MM, DMA) won Lewisville Symphony Grand Prize and will perform full concerto with them in 2024-2025 season. Jiaxi Li (ESM BM, MM) was named Yamaha Young Performing Artist winner. Anduo Chen (ESM MM, DMA) was busy judging major piano competitions in China this summer. Ana Maria Otamendi (USC Artist Certificate) has accepted the position of collaborative piano at the University of Michigan, following in footsteps of her teacher and legendary pedagogue Martin Katz. The achievements of our students are too numerous to recount in full, but needless to say that we love, support and cheer each and every one of them.
We will start the new academic year by performing as part of Eastman Artist Faculty Series, a piano duo recital on September 8 at 3:30 PM in Kilbourn Hall of the Eastman School of Music. We would love to see all our friends there and say hello!
