Semi-finalists announced for 2014 Dubois piano competition

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Semi-finalists have been selected in the fourth annual David D. Dubois Piano Competition at the Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts. Contest winners will receive $3,000 for first place, $2,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place. 

Competing in the next round, to be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 15 in BGSU’s Kobacker Hall, will be:

Mark Bixel, from Bluffton, Ohio; David Geng, from Princeton, N.J.; Johan Hartsburg, from Moores Hill, Ind.; Karissa Huang, from Cleveland, Ohio; Geoffrey Kocks, from Grand Blanc, Mich.; Sabrina Kozak, from Torrance, Calif.; Megan Lee, from Hudson, Ohio; Wooju Lee, from Powell, Ohio; Raymond Liu, from Brunswick, Ohio; Evelyn Mo, from Oak Hill, Va.;  Lucas Myers, from Rochester Hills, Mich.; David Nie, from Sugar Land, Texas; Amber Scherer, from Winnetka, Ill; Sukruth Shashikumar, from Farmington Hills, Mich.; Alan Song, from Mason, Ohio; Jarrett Takaki, from Wilmette, Ill; Joseph Vaz, from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Zhanxian Zhang, from Rochester, N.Y.

Competitors from Interlochen Arts Academy include Sasha Bult-Ito, from Fairbanks, Alaska; Yingjun Chen, from China; Matthew Figel, from Midland, Texas; Jingyi Qu, from Shaanxi, China, and Kevin Takeda, from Indian Wells, Calif.

Pianists selected from the semi-final round will compete in the final from 9 a.m. to noon on Feb. 16. Judges for the competition include piano faculty from BGSU along with Dubois Piano Festival and BGSU Festival Series guest pianist Jeremy Denk.

Denk, who was recently selected as Musical America's 2014 Instrumentalist of the Year, will also be giving a master class for students at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 14 in Bryan Recital Hall. The master class is free and open to the public.

Denk will also be performing a recital at 8 p.m. Feb.15 in Kobacker Hall. To purchase tickets online for his performance, visit http://bgsu.edu/arts or call 419-372-8171.