THE STECHER AND HOROWITZ FOUNDATION PRESENTS THE 18th NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION on JUNE 19- 24. 22 Young Pianists, Ages 16-21 Have Been Chosen From Across the Globe for a Week-long Event at The Manhattan School of Music.
The Eighth New York International Piano Competition (NYIPC), presented under the auspices of The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation of New York, will be held at the Greenfield Hall of The Manhattan School of Music from Sunday, June 19 through Friday, June 24, 2016. All events are open to the public. The competition will take place in four rounds, and will also include a seminar with Lowell Liebermann, this year’s chosen composer for the NYIPC Commissioned Composition, moderated by WQXR host Robert Sherman on Thursday, June 23 at 7:00 p.m., as well as a masterclass with a member of the jury on Friday, June 24, at 2:00 p.m. The week will close with an Awards Ceremony and Performance by the winners on Friday, June 24 at 7:00 p.m.
Twenty-two pianists, ages 16-21, will gather from across the globe for the week-long event, which includes four rounds plus a series of masterclasses and seminars. Awards are also given to the best duo, paired at the beginning of the competition, to perform in the ensemble round. The New York International Piano Competition’s policy of no elimination is unique to the competition; each contestant will perform in all four rounds and be judged by a jury of some of the most distinguished members of the music community. Every participant will return home either as a prize winner or finalist award recipient. The level of competition has been uniformly high over the event’s 12-year history; former winners have gone on to win the Gilmore Young Artist Award, The Juilliard School’s William Petschek Recital Award, the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts at Harvard University, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the 2010 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, and some to become National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Presidential Scholars. Among them, are Charlie Albright, Michael Brown whose own composition was presented as a World Premiere at the Walter Reade Theatre in early April 2016, Kate Liu, Adam Golka, Jeannette Fang, Frank Huang, and Larry Weng.
Monetary awards total $40,000, but just as important as the monetary awards are the opportunities for concert and recital appearances that are awarded to winners and finalists. Held every two years, the New York International Piano Competition is dedicated to providing artistic development, educational enhancement, seminars, master classes, and performance opportunities.
The internationally lauded composer Lowell Liebermann has been commissioned by the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation to compose a “required” piece for this year’s competition that will be learned and performed by all contestants. Called by the New York Times "as much of a traditionalist as an innovator." Mr. Liebermann's music is known for its technical command and audience appeal. Having written over one hundred works in all genres, several of them have gone on to become standard repertoire for their instruments, including his Sonata for Flute and Piano, which has been recorded more than twenty times to date, and his Gargoyles for Piano, which has been recorded fifteen times. A pianist himself, Mr. Liebermann has written a wealth of music for the solo instrument, much of which frequently appears on concert and competition programs. Mr. Liebermann was awarded the very first American Composers' Invitational Award by the 11th Van Cliburn Competition after the majority of finalists chose to perform his Three Impromptus, which were selected from works submitted by forty-two contemporary composers. In an interview with newscaster Sam Donaldson, Van Cliburn described Mr. Liebermann as “a wonderful pianist and a fabulous composer.”
The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation, a non-profit organization, is an outgrowth of the renowned Stecher and Horowitz School of the Arts which was founded in 1960 in Cedarhurst, New York. Until 1999 the school was Nassau County’s leading conservatory of music, attended by some 15,000 students during its thirty-nine-year history. The Foundation is now dedicated to an expanded concept that seeks to inspire and support outstanding young musicians worldwide.
Melvin Stecher and Norman Horowitz, Executive Directors of the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation, have devoted a lifetime to the musical education of young people. Internationally recognized as one of the most distinguished duo-piano teams of their generation, Stecher and Horowitz are equally renowned for their multi-faceted activities as performers, teachers, composers, and educational consultants – activities that have earned them a unique position in the world of music. Having been co-directors of the Stecher and Horowitz School of the Arts for 39 years, (1960-1999) it was apparent to both principals that the most important years for developing interested young musicians were the pre-teen years and into the early twenties, a good decade of concentrated and formative development. The New York Piano Competition was originally founded on this premise.
In 2009, the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation announced two major changes in its biennial New York Piano Competition (NYPC). For the first time the Competition accepted contestant applications from outside the United States effective for the summer of 2010, a change in the procedures of accepting applications only from students (American or foreign) who were pursuing studies in the United States. Since then Competition has been known as the New York International Piano Competition. In addition, it expanded its age category upwards from 14-18 years to 16-21 years – this allows contestants in their late teens to interact musically with promising young adults, serving as a challenging incentive toward greater achievement. The original concept of allowing all contestants to complete their participation without elimination remained the same, fostering the fullest musical interaction between contestants throughout the entire span of the competition. The New York International Piano Competition remains true to its predecessor’s philosophy that the primary goal of a musical competition is to further the musical development of its contestants