“The Cincinnati World Piano Competition has undergone some key changes since Canadian pianist Gloria Ackerman established it in 1956. Now 60 years old, the competition is honoring its founder and former executive director with a 60th-anniversary concert” this weekend, writes Janelle Gelfand in Tuesday’s (7/26) Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio). “Two previous medalists, pianists Angela Cheng and Daria Rabotkina, will join the competition’s artistic director Awadagin Pratt as soloists in a program with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Saturday, July 30 … The orchestra’s associate conductor Keitaro Harada conducts the program. It is the only competition event this season…. Cincinnati’s is one of the few world-renowned piano competitions that performs with a major orchestra. It is also one of the few connected to a renowned conservatory, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where the competition is held…. In 2013, the year the competition announced its new partnerships with the Cincinnati Symphony and CCM, the audience turned out in unprecedented numbers. An anonymous donor doubled the prize money. The week was capped by sold-out finals. At the last minute, a live webcast was added, and the competition sold $5 tickets to a live feed in a recital hall.”
Posted July 29, 2016
