Juilliard pianists Yoonjung Han and Naomi Kudo open 31st season of the McGraw-Hill Companies' "Young Artists Showcase" with broadcast of a live concert on WQXR 96.3 FM on Wednesday, October 15 at 9 PM in Juilliard's Paul Hall

Longtime host Robert Sherman presents the winners of the 2008 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition, the broadcast series' traditional start since 1984

On Wednesday, October 15 at 9 PM in Paul Hall, The Juilliard School presents a concert featuring the winners of  2008 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition: pianists Yoonjung Han and Naomi Kudo (in her second appearance on the show). The concert will be broadcast live over WQXR, 96.3 FM and opens the 31st season of The McGraw-Hill Companies’ "Young Artists Showcase" with host Robert Sherman. Ms. Kudo performs two Scarlatti Sonatas - in D, K. 492 and in D Minor, K. 141; Albeniz’s Iberia “Triana”; and Chopin’s Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39. Ms. Han performs Granados’ Goyescas “El amor y la muerte” and the Liszt/Paganini Etude No. 3 “La campanella.” The duo concludes the program with Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, No. 2 in E Minor and No. 8 in G Minor
       
The McGraw-Hill Companies’ Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach this year will be awarded to pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe, who is an alumnus of both Juilliard and ACJW (The Academy – A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute.) The award carries a $10,000 grant to support ongoing projects in music education and community outreach and will be presented during the broadcast. Previous winners have included Airi Yoshioka (2007), William Harvey (2006), Alpin Hong (2005), and Jennifer Kloetzel (2004).

This special concert is FREE; no tickets are required. For further information, call the Juilliard Box Office at (212) 769-7406 or go to www.juilliard.edu. To get to Paul Hall, enter Juilliard’s newly-renovated lobby at 155 West 65th Street and take the elevator to the first floor.

The Bachauer competition awards young artists free tuition scholarships to Juilliard. Recent Bachauer winners include Michael Brown, Michael Bukhman, William Chen, Ran Dank, Ching-Wen Hsiao, Naomi Kudo, Soyeon Lee, Adam Neiman, Ian Parker, Edward Robie, Konstantin Soukhovetski, Chuan Qin, Xun Wang, Orion Weiss, and Xiang Zou.
 
Bachauer Award Winners:

Yoonjung Han received “The Most Promising Young Artist” award from the Korean Minister of Culture following winning grand prize at the Korea National Music Competition. She is a Gold Medal winner at the 2008 World Piano Competition in Cincinnati. She also won 2nd Prize as the youngest participant at the Ettore Pozzoli International Piano Competition and 5th Prize at the Helsinki Maj Lind International Piano Competition. At 23 years of age, Yoonjung Han has appeared worldwide in major cities in the United States, Korea and Europe, in venues that include the San Rocco Theater in Italy, Finlandia Hall in Finland, Eastman Theater, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Ishikawa Cultural Center in Japan, and Bertramka Villa/Museum of W.A. Mozart in the Czech Republic. In the 2007-08 season, she performed at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Steinway Festival, on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, and made solo appearances with the Fort Collins Symphony, Jefferson Symphony in Colorado, and the Shreveport Symphony Orchestras. She made her debut at the age of 13 performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the Se-Jong Concert Hall. She graduated from Juilliard’s Pre-College Division and holds a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. Ms. Han currently is pursuing her master of music degree at Juilliard and studies with Robert McDonald.

Named a 2008 Gilmore Young Artist, Naomi Kudo, was born in Washington, D.C. to Japanese-Korean parents. Now 21, Ms. Kudo is an undergraduate student at Juilliard and studies with Yoheved Kaplinsky. She made her orchestral debut at age sixteen performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and, later that same year, made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Orchestra Hall playing Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain. She was the only American finalist at the 2005 Fifteenth International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and the consecutive winner of the 2007 and 2008 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. She is an avid chamber musician, and her piano trio won the silver prize at the 2003 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Ms. Kudo’s appearances with orchestra include the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Reno Philharmonic, and the Ars Viva, Montgomery, Fort Collins, Northbrook, Everett, Oak Park, Southwest Michigan, and Fukui (in Japan) orchestras.

Robert Sherman Award Winner:

Pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe has captured acclaim from critics and audiences alike for her appearances as recitalist, orchestral soloist, and chamber musician. Ms. Roe’s wide-ranging career includes world premieres of new music, live performance broadcasts and interviews on TV and radio, and a variety of innovative artistic projects. A winner of the prestigious William Petschek Piano Debut Recital Award and one of Symphony Magazine’s “Young Artists to Watch,” Ms. Roe has performed at major venues around the world including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea, Salle Cortot in Paris, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Committed to arts advocacy, she was one of the inaugural fellows of The Academy—A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute. As part of this program, she was the resident teaching artist at a school in Queens, and she co-founded and co-directed the Children's Music Campaign NYC. She has also given community service concerts, conducted master classes for young musicians, served as an adviser to the PianoArts National Competition, and participated in an educational residency program for the Van Cliburn Foundation. In 2004 and 2006, respectively, she earned her bachelor and master of music degrees from The Juilliard School under a full scholarship.