NEWS: Americans win silver, bronze medals at Van Cliburn Piano Competition

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Southern California News Group

Yekwon Sunwoo, a 28-year-old South Korea native, captured the Gold Medal today in the 15th quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Ft. Worth, TX.

Americans Kenneth Broberg, 23, of Minneapolis, and Daniel Hsu, 19, a native of the San Francisco Bay area, took the silver and gold medals. Hsu also won the Steven de Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music, and the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work.

Sunwoo received a cash award of $50,000; three years of individualized career management, including U.S. concert tours and, in association with Keynote Artist Management, international concert tours, and numerous promotional opportunitiers. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music and his master’s at The Juilliard School, and also studied with Richard Goode at the Mannes School of Music. He currently studies under Bernd Goetzke in Hannover.

Among Sunwoo’s award will be a performance with the Pacific Symphony on Sept. 9 at its new site, the Orange County Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa. The PS Web site lists Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 as the winner’s vehicle, presuming the winner either knows it or can learn it in three months. Information: www.pacificsymphony.org

Complete competition details are at: www.cliburn.org
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(c) Copyright 2017, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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