By TIFFANY KUO

The hackneyed answer to the rhetorical question of how one gets to Carnegie Hall is insufficient today. Practice how? Practice what? Practice with whom?

The backgrounds of this year's Bachauer Competition winners, Teddy Robie (aka Edward Robie III) and Xiang Zou, suggest a new pedigree of pianists who are exploring alternate possibilities to the questions and shedding new light on what it means to be a performer in the 21st century. Despite the difference in distance traveled to Juilliard—Xiang from Hunan, China, and Teddy from North Carolina—they share parallel pedagogy: Both received intensive musical training in boarding high schools for the arts in their respective native countries before entering Juilliard and earning Bachelor of Music degrees, studying with Jerome Lowenthal.

Xiang Zou (Photo by Peter Schaaf)

Xiang's life as a pianist began, like that of many talented Chinese musicians, at the Shanghai Elementary School, affiliated with the city's famous Conservatory of Music, when he was 9 years old. The only child of a self-taught musician and a homemaker, he grew up in Hunan, a province known for its glorious natural beauties, surrounded by other relatives who also picked up instrument-playing as a hobby. Genetically predisposed to music-making, Xiang began playing the piano at the tender age of 4, and found himself at a "turning point" when he auditioned and was accepted into the Shanghai Conservatory.

Unlike Juilliard's Pre-College Division, the Shanghai School is a boarding school for children of all ages through high school. Xiang's mother moved to Shanghai for his transitional first year, assisting him with laundry, cooking, and other chores that most students do not have to deal with until college.

Leaving home once again—this time, halfway around the world, for Juilliard—Xiang was less prepared for the second stage of metamorphosis than most Western students. Life abroad was intimidating. "I didn't feel that I belonged here at the beginning," recalls Xiang. Despite miraculous efforts to pass the writing test, he claims that he did not comprehend the phrase "How are you?" as a conversational greeting. Equally difficult to become accustomed to was the cuisine. "I spent my first 19 years in China, so I had never eaten a fresh salad before in my entire life. Everything is cooked there."

In spite of the initial surprises, Xiang soon found himself assimilating within the most diverse city in the country, among other international students. After living in the Juilliard residence hall for three consecutive years, he decided to move uptown to International House—a dormitory established to provide recently arrived foreign students with housing and the opportunity to exchange ideas and values. Xiang speaks fondly of the recitals given at "salon night," which he describes as "a forum for fellow musicians to perform and interested residents to listen. Surprisingly, they were the most enthusiastic audience I have ever played for—not a single cough or sniffle was heard. And what was even more exciting was that they were all young folks."

Xiang's natural ability to communicate with the audience propelled his transformation from student to concert life. Over the period of a week in Calgary, Canada, he proved to be the "complete artist," winning the position of "first laureate" in the 2003 Honens International Piano Competition, which differentiates itself from other international piano competitions in its repertoire requirements, performance expectations, and engagements. Xiang has benefited enormously from the nascent institution's progressive four-year artistic and development program, resulting in several multicity tours in Canada and Germany, other concert engagements in Asia, a recording contract, and a Weill Recital Hall debut scheduled for March 2006. Those interested in following his burgeoning career can check out his Web site at www.xiangzou.com.

Teddy Robie

By all accounts, Teddy Robie is one of the most relaxed students at Juilliard. Always slightly disheveled, with a bashful smile, he is an all-American pianist, if such a thing exists. Born and raised in Raleigh, N.C., a middle child sandwiched between a brother and a sister, Teddy also grew up with a homemaker mom and a musical dad. "He was a rock-and-roll drummer in the late '70s and '80s, in a band called the X-teens," Teddy explains with a laugh. A garage band with the utmost decibel and energy, "they were so unbelievably loud that they had to soundproof the garage with old mattresses to appease the neighbors." However, his early interests in music were most influenced by his older brother John, a violinist, who attended the Eastman School of Music (and later, the San Francisco Conservatory), and now freelances in the Bay Area. Teddy attributes propitious piano nurturing in his early teens to teacher John Ruggero, a Juilliard alumnus.

It seems inevitable that Teddy would end up at Walnut Hill School, located in Natick, Mass., a suburb of Boston, and one of the three major boarding high schools for the arts in this country, which supplies a handful of incoming artists to Juilliard every year. Mingling with musicians, actors, dancers, visual artists, and writers outside of Boston, Teddy fortified his musicianship skills, taking weekly lessons at the New England Conservatory with Randall Hodgkinson.

Teddy admits his biggest challenge, like Xiang's, was moving to New York City. But what surprised Teddy was not a fresh salad but Gray's Papaya. "I was not used to going to places at 3 a.m. Curfews no longer existed—and I was free anytime, at anywhere, to do anything." A regular customer for several years for the "recession special"—two frankfurts and a papaya drink for less than a dollar—Teddy finds that, unfortunately, he can no longer finance his addiction after the price hikes.

It would be dishonest to paint Teddy's Manhattan life as that of a sedentary pianist who eats a lot of hot dogs. He is an avid recreational basketball player and fan. Growing up in North Carolina with a Duke alumnus for a father, he recalls watching the N.C.A.A. playoffs in grade school. Even though Teddy never played basketball seriously, he speaks proudly of attending the Duke basketball camp at age 9. "I was the knock-out champion of the camp for one day; possibly even two!" These days, you can find him playing with other Juilliard students at Riverside Park in the 70s, and sometimes on the courts near the School on Amsterdam Avenue, where Wynton Marsalis also shoots. "He's very good, very competitive," says Teddy.

Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition Winners Concert Paul Hall Wednesday, Sept. 14, 9 p.m. Free event; no tickets required.

This summer Teddy played tennis with viola faculty member Michael Tree, and concentrated on a variety of chamber music repertoire at the Taos Chamber Music Festival. He will be finishing his second degree (a master's) from Juilliard in the spring, with the prospect of obtaining a doctorate in the indefinite future. Also on the horizon will be Teddy's new abode: a three-bedroom apartment that will be packed with another Juilliard pianist of the same year and two Juilliard violinists, but no cooks.

Tune in to 96.3 WQXR-FM on September 14 at 9 p.m. to hear Xiang and Teddy performing the annual Bachauer winners' concert, in a live broadcast from Paul Hall on the McGraw-Hill Companies' Young Artists Showcase, hosted by Robert Sherman.

Tiffany Kuo (M.M. '01, piano) was a publicist in Juilliard's Communications Office before going off to N.Y.U., where she is now pursuing a doctorate in musicology.