DPU piano festival to finish Saturday with Van Cliburn winner

Courtesy photo

Sean Chen, the Crystal Award-winner in the 14th International Van Cliburn Piano Competition will be the featured performer during the DePauw Young Artist Piano Competition and Festival at the Green Center on Saturday, Nov. 9. The 7 p.m. concert will open with a performance by the grand prize winner, who will be announced earlier in the day.

Aspiring pianists from across the country will travel to Greencastle to participate in the DePauw University School of Music's annual Young Artist Piano Competition to be held all day Saturday, Nov. 9 at the Green Center for the Performing Arts.

This year's event, a part of ArtsFest 2013, has taken on a festival atmosphere with a full day of young artist activities, beginning at 9 a.m. and culminating in a 7 p.m. concert by guest pianist Sean Chen.

Chen is the Crystal Award-winner in the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and 2013 recipient of the American Pianists Association's DeHaan Classical Fellowship. The grand prize winner in the Young Artist Piano Competition, to be announced earlier in the day, will open the evening concert in Kresge Auditorium.

In addition, faculty pianist May Phang will be featured in recital at 2 p.m. Saturday, while judges are tabulating young artists' scores, followed by a master class for student pianists at 2:30.

Chen's recital, which has an early 7 p.m. start time, will feature several virtuosic works for solo piano, beginning with Alexander Scriabin's "Waltz in A-flat Major"; four impromptus by Frédéric Chopin, including the popular "Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp Minor"; and Maurice Ravel's own piano transcription of his orchestral tone poem "La Valse," arranged by Chen. Sergei Prokofiev's enigmatic "Piano Sonata No. 8," composed during the heart of World War II, concludes the program.

Both the concert and the master class are open to the public, as are all of the following festival events:

-- 9 a.m.-noon, Young Artist Piano Competition (Thompson Recital Hall).

-- 2 p.m., Featured Faculty Recital by May Phang (Thompson Recital Hall).

-- 2:30 p.m., Naming of the winner by Dean Mark McCoy (Thompson Recital Hall).

-- 3 p.m., Piano Master class with May Phang and festival participants (Thompson Recital Hall).

-- 7 p.m., Guest pianist recital by Sean Chen (Kresge Auditorium).

General admission tickets for the evening piano concert by Chen are $5 and are available online and at the Green Center box office. All other events are free, as are tickets for students, seniors and children, thanks to season sponsors Judson and Joyce Green.

For assistance with obtaining tickets, visit depauw.edu/music/tickets, stop by or call the GCPA box office at 658-4827.