International Keyboard Competition and Academy

WHAT: The Westfield Centers' International Organ Competition and Academy

WHEN: September 22, - 29, 2013

WHERE: Cornell University and Eastman School of Music campuses

ITHACA, N.Y. – March 24, 2013 - The Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies will host its first International Organ Competition and Academy, September 22-29, 2013 in collaboration with Cornell University, the Eastman School of Music and the Eastman-Rochester Organ Initiative.

The International Organ Competition will give young musicians from all over the world the chance to play for a distinguished group of performers and teachers in the field and to battle for prize money totaling $17,500 on three uniquely historic instruments. The first place winner will also receive a solo concert tour in the US and Europe and a CD recording with the Loft label.

Final date for receiving applications is May 1, 2013.

The theme of the Competition: "Cosmopolitan Encounters"invites participants to reimagine the historic encounters between great keyboard players of the past. How did travelling virtuoso organists handle the instruments they met, and how did they adapt their music and its national styles to instruments that may have been foreign to them?

Candidates will play repertoire on three outstanding instruments: the Craighead-Saunders organ at Christ Church, Rochester, modeled on the 1776 Adam Gottlob Casparini organ in Vilnius, Lithuania; the original 18th-century Italian organ in the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester; and the organ in Anabel Taylor Hall at Cornell University, based on the 1706 Arp Schnitger organ at Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin.

Judging the competition will be an international jury from both sides of the Atlantic, including Bernard Foccroulle (Belgium), Edoardo Bellotti (Italy), Jon Laukvik (Norway), Kimberly Marshall (USA), Jacques van Oortmerssen (The Netherlands), and David Yearsley (USA).

A recital by jurors Kimberly Marshall and David Yearsley will kick off the Competition and Academy on Sunday, September 22, at 3 pm in Cornell University's Anabel Taylor Hall.

Twelve competitors will be chosen from CD recordings submitted and will compete in the first round in Rochester, September 23 and 24. Six competitors go on to the second round in Ithaca, on September 26. Three finalists will perform in the third and final round in Rochester, at Christ Church, followed by a reception and award ceremony. The winners will play at a recital in Ithaca on September 29 at 8pm. All rounds of

the Competition are free and open to the public.

The Academy will begin Monday, September 23 in Ithaca, and will run concurrently with the Competition in Rochester. Christa Rakich, one of America's most important organists, will offer masterclasses at the Academy. Masterclasses will also be offered by some of the Competition jury members as well as Peter Planyavsky and other instructors from the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative Festival.

The Westfield Center, the country's preeminent organization for the advancement of classical keyboard music, advocates on behalf of classical keyboard instruments and organizes outstanding workshops, symposia, and publications. The International Keyboard Competition and Summer Academy series, a new venture made possible by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, has allowed the Westfield Center to bring

together leaders in the field of early music with young musicians who will be the leaders of the future with the goal of combining learning about and performing on historical (or historically-informed) keyboard instruments. The first two events in the series, the 2011 Fortepiano Competition and Academy and the 2012 Harpsichord Competition and Academy, were resounding successes.

A recital by the 2012 winner of the Westfield International Harpsichord Competition will be held May 16, 2013 to help raise funds for the International Keyboard Competition prizes.

For more information on the competition and academy, the concerts, or to donate, go to: http://westfield.org/competition or call (607) 255-3065.

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