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CANADIAN PIANIST WINS THE 2001 OBERLIN INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL COMPETITION
AUGUST 9, 2001-- Pianist Darrett Zusko, 16, of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, has won first prize in the seventh annual Oberlin International Piano Competition and Festival, which concluded Sunday, July 28. One of seven finalists, Zusko performed works by Beethoven, Scriabin, and Balakirev. A student of Ronald Turini (a faculty member at the University of Western Ontario), Zusko is a past winner of the Bartók-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition. He received a $4,000 prize in the Oberlin competition.
Eun Taek Kim, 13, and Ji Yeon Shin, 15, both of Korea, shared the second prize. Each were awarded $1,500. Kim studies in the pre-college division of the Seoul Art Center School with Jong Pil Lim. Shin, who this year won the Yewon Art School Concerto Competition, is a student of Seung-Hye Choi.
The Oberlin competition, for pianists ages 13 to 18, took place in the Conservatory's Warner Concert Hall, and included entrants from five countries. Jurors for the competition were Jerome Lowenthal, Professor of Piano at The Juilliard School, Gary Amano, Director of Piano Studies at Utah State University, Monique Duphil, Oberlin Professor of Pianoforte, and Dean of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music Robert K. Dodson.
The pedagogical nature of Oberlin's Piano Competition and Festival makes it unique among international competitions, according to Festival Director Robert Shannon, Oberlin Professor of Pianoforte.
"We provide students and teachers attending our festival with an intensive, in-depth opportunity to expand their knowledge of music history, theory and pedagogy,"
says Shannon. "We make clear to them--through the presence of and the presentations by renowned educators such as Jerome Lowenthal and Gary Amano--the vital connection of these elements to on-stage performance."
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, founded in 1865, is the nation's oldest continuously operating conservatory, and the only major music school in the country linked with a preeminent college of arts and sciences. The Conservatory offers intensive professional training to aspiring musicians, with majors in performance, composition, music education, music theory, electronic and computer music, jazz studies, music history, and a double major in piano performance and vocal accompanying.
The Oberlin facilities include 175 Steinway grand pianos, 150 practice rooms, and a music library equal to that of any major university. Oberlin students and alumni have won prizes in such international piano competitions as the Van Cliburn, the Fryderyk Chopin, the Queen Elisabeth, the Arthur Rubinstein, the Walter W. Naumberg, the Concorsco Pianis-Otico Internazionale F. Busoni, and the University of Maryland, among others.
More than 400 public concerts are presented on the Oberlin campus each year--most of them free--including performances by student ensembles, faculty members, and performances and master classes by guest artists.
For more information about the Oberlin International Piano Competition and Festival, or about the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, please visit.
Media Contact: Marci Janas
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