International Piano Contest Kicks Off Monday
By Elizabeth Goodwin
Tico Times Staff | editorial@ticotimes.net
They'll Be the Judges: Fany Solter, top, and Baruch Meir, bottom, are among the premier international pianists on the judges' panel of the María Clara Cullell International Piano Competition.
Photos courtesy of María Clara Vargas
About 50 young pianists from all over Latin America will arrive in San José this week to compete in the fifth annual María Clara Cullell International Piano Competition. The musicians will face a prestigious group of judges as they compete in one of two levels in two rounds.
The intermediate-level competition, for pianists 14 to 20 years old, begins Oct. 20, while the superior level, for pianists up to 27, holds its first round the following day. The finals for each round are set for Oct. 22 and 23. On Oct. 25 at 7 p.m., the winners will hold a concert at the National Auditorium in San José's Children's Museum.
All participants must play some pieces by Costa Rican composers, including “Forest Echoes” by Juan de Dios Páez (1878-1937), and “Tlanéhuatl” by Alejandro Cardona.
The competition's judges consist of premier international musicians with an interest in the next generation of pianists, including Maria Asteriadou of Greece, Brazilian-born Fany Solter, Israeli Baruch Meir and Brian Ganz of the United States.
The competition is named after María Clara Cullell, a Costa Rican pianist who has worked to spread her music and knowledge of music throughout the world. An association in her name, together with the University of Costa Rica and the National University's schools of music, funds the competition.
–Elizabeth Goodwin
Thursday, October 23, 2008
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1 comments:
After reading this article, I can only scratch my head and ask, “Why?” This is the fifth “International Maria Clara Cullell Piano Contest.” Okay, that is nice. But who is, or was, Maria Clara Cullell? After scouring the internet I can’t find much about her and what I do find is mostly written in Spanish, so it is not very enlightening. It seems she was from Costa Rica and taught piano for over 30 years. Again, that’s nice, but so what? Why is this event publicized in the U.S.A.? Why was this article ever translated out of Spanish and into English? Well, Costa Rica is a strong democratic country which is trying to promote trade and tourism. Maybe this is an attempt to gain some attention in the cultural world. If so, “Bravo for them!” If not, then I’m back to scratching my head.
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