Winnowed down from a field of 12, the six finalists in the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition were announced late Tuesday night at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.
According to John Giordano, jury chairman for this iteration of the Cliburn, those six pianists are as follows:
Sean Chen, 24, United States
Fei-Fei Dong, 22, China
Vadym Kholodenko, 26, Ukraine
Nikita Mndoyants, 24, Russia
Beatrice Rana, 20, Italy
Tomoki Sakata, 19, Japan
As Stephanie Allmon from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram notes, Chen, Dong, Kholodenko, Mndoyants, Rana and Sakata will each perform "one 'small' Beethoven or Mozart concerto (from a predetermined list), as well as one 'large' concerto of their choosing, with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra."
Maestro Leonard Slatkin will conduct both soloist and orchestra.
Here, then, is the schedule and programming for this week's Van Cliburn finals:
THURSDAY, JUNE 6
Final Round Concert 1 - 7:30 p.m.
Concerto #1
Beatrice Rana
BEETHOVEN, Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37
Concerto #2
Nikita Mndoyants
PROKOFIEV, Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16
Concerto #3
Fei-Fei Dong
RACHMANINOV, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
FRIDAY, JUNE 7
Final Round Concert 2 - 7:30 p.m.
Concerto #1
Tomoki Sakata
MOZART, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466
Concerto #2
Sean Chen
BEETHOVEN, Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73
Concerto #3
Vadym Kholodenko
PROKOFIEV, Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26
SATURDAY, JUNE 8
Final Round Concert 3 - 7:30 p.m.
Concerto #1
Nikita Mndoyants
MOZART, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466
Cocerto #2
Fei-Fei Dong
BEETHOVEN, Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58
Concerto #3
Beatrice Rana
PROKOFIEV, Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16
SUNDAY, JUNE 9
Final Round Concert 2 - 3 p.m.
Concerto #1
Vadym Kholodenko
MOZART, Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467
Concerto #2
Tomoki Sakata
TCHAIKOVSKY, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23
Concerto #3
Sean Chen
RACHMANINOV, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
The 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition awards will be given out at 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 9.
This year's winner will receive a cash prize of $50,000--the largest purse in the Cliburn's history--as well as international concert engagements.
All finalists, however, receive three years of no commission management by the Van Cliburn Foundation, in addition to concert tours for the first three post-competition seasons.
Based mostly upon her Scarlatti, Debussy and Liszt in the prelims, this go 'round, Classicalite's favorite to take it all is China's impeccable Fei-Fei Dong.
That said, with each performance streamed online at the Cliburn's site, you, yourself, can see if we're wrong.
