The Lied Center for Performing Arts hosted the fifth annual Lied Center Piano Academy July 17-21, led by Paul Barnes, Marguerite Scribante Professor of Piano and artistic director of the program.
The academy is designed for students entering grades nine through their first year of college and is tailored to serious intermediate and advanced students interested in gaining professional-level instruction and guidance to raise their performance level and understanding of piano music.
Two student performances will take place on July 21 in Westbrook Music Building Rm. 119. A student chamber recital is at 11 a.m. A student solo recital is at 1 p.m. Both are free and open to the public.
“The 2023 Lied Center Piano Academy offers a unique opportunity to high school piano students to interact with inspiring faculty and meet other pianists their age in an atmosphere of exploration,” Barnes said.
The featured academy artist is Solungga Liu, who is a champion of early 20th century American music, under-represented works of standard repertoire and known as an uncanny interpreter of new music.
Liu enjoys an active career across five continents as a recitalist and concert soloist in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, Romania, Brazil, Greece, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. At the invitation of the Brazilian Government in 2022, Liu gave a series of recitals in Brasilia, the capital, for the public, as well as for the Cabinet of Brazil and the Supreme Labor Court. In the spring of 2024, she will perform the Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue with the physicians and researchers of the National Institute of Health’s Philharmonia in Washington, D.C.
Liu is professor of piano and piano area coordinator at the College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University. She is also a sought-after artist teacher at major international conservatories and competitions, including Eastman School of Music, the Atlantic Music Festival, Sicily International Piano Festival and Competition, the Thailand International Mozart Competition and the Corfu International Piano Festival in Greece.
Glenn Korff School of Music doctoral piano student Rebekah Stiles is also serving as a Lied Center Piano Academy instructor. She holds bachelor’s degrees in piano performance and Bible from Cairn University, and a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Also teaching sessions on improvisation and composition, respectively, are Tom Larson, assistant professor of composition in emerging media and digital arts and David von Kampen, lecturere.
The Lied Center Piano Academy is supported by the Lied Center for Performing Arts, Glenn Korff School of Music, the Piano Circle and the Anabeth Hormel Cox Lied Center Performance Fund.
