Soyeon Lee and Xun Wang, the two winners of the 2001 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, will perform on October 10 at 9 p.m. in Paul Hall. The hour-long recital will be broadcast live over radio station WQXR (96.3 FM), opening the McGraw Hill Companies’ Young Artists Showcase series, hosted by Robert Sherman. Ms. Lee will perform Chopin’s Nocturne in B-flat Major, Op. 9, No. 1 and Ravel’s La Valse; Mr. Wang performs Liszt’s Sposalizio (from the Années de Pèlerinage, Deuxième Année: Italie) and Stravinsky’s Mouvements de Pétrouchka. This extremely popular annual concert is free and no tickets are required; doors open one-half hour prior to the performance.

Xun Wang and Soyeon Lee. (Photo by Peter Schaaf)

Korean native Soyeon Lee recently earned her undergraduate degree from Juilliard as a student of Jerome Lowenthal, and began graduate studies this fall with Robert McDonald. While at Juilliard, she has been awarded a number of scholarships, including the Vladimir Horowitz Scholarship, William Petschek Undergraduate Scholarship in Piano, John and Eva Post Scholarship in Piano, Edna Reifsnider Scholarship in Violin and Piano, and the Lois Claire Archbold Smith Scholarship. She has earned top prizes in the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition, Nena Wideman Competition, and the Grace Welsh Prize for Piano, among others. Ms. Lee has been featured as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Music Academy of the West Orchestra, Shreveport Symphony, and the Juilliard Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall. She has performed at Alice Tully Hall, the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and in the Van Cliburn and Jessye Norman Tribute Gala Concerts at the University of Michigan, as well as the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, and Taos Chamber Music Festival.

Born in China in 1979, Xun Wang began his piano studies at the age of 5 and entered the Central Music Conservatory just two years later. Xun Wang is currently a third-year undergraduate student of Jerome Lowenthal, and has previously studied at the University of Cincinnati and the Manhattan School of Music. A featured soloist with the Beijing Philharmonic, the Tenerife Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Chinese National Youth Orchestra, Mr. Wang also has won top honors in the Xin Hai National, Stravinsky International, and the Senigalia International Piano Competitions and second prize in the Grace Welsh International Piano Competition. At Juilliard, he has been the recipient of the Maro and Anahid Ajemian Scholarship, Michael and Ethel L. Cohen Scholarship, Howard and Ethel Ross Piano Scholarship, and the John Seregi Scholarship in Piano.

In addition to performing in this live broadcast, the two Juilliard pianists receive full scholarships for the academic year, covering their tuition and living expenses. The Gina Bachauer Scholarship Fund for gifted pianists was established in 1979 with a bequest from Lillian Rogers of New Orleans, who had been a lifelong friend of Bachauer.