By Nicholas Beard
MusicalAmerica.com
September 13, 2005
Pianists Natasha Paremski and Yuja Wang have received Gilmore Young Artist awards for 2006; each gets a cash prize of $15,000 for continued musical study as well as a new work specially commissioned for them. The awards are made biannually by the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in West Michigan, and are decided upon by a (still anonymous) six-member panel of judges who travel to various sites to hear prospective candidates.
Paremski, Russian born, is currently studying at the Mannes College of Music with Pavlina Dokovska. Wang, from China, is matriculating at the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Gary Graffman. Both women are 18 and have already concertized widely; Paremski’s engagements have included the likes of the San Francisco Symphony, in 2004, and Wang played with the China Philharmonic last Spring at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
This year’s Gilmore Festival, which opens April 22 and continues through May 7, will offer performances by past Gilmore Artists such as Piotr Anderszewski and Leif Ove Andsnes, as well as the yet to be announced 2006 Gilmore Artist. Other performers include Dawn Upshaw, McCoy Tyner, and Peter Serkin.
The biennial festival and awards were launched in 1989 with funding from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, named for a local businessman (he died in 1986) who was an active arts patron.
Copyright © 2005, Musical America