Final Round of 15th Annual Kruschke Prize in Piano Performance to Take Place March 2nd at CSU, Chico’s Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall

 The final round of the 15th annual Earl R. and Marilyn Ann Kruschke Prize in Piano Performance Competition will take place on Saturday afternoon, March 2 beginning at 12 p.m.

 The auditions will be held in Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall on the CSU, Chico campus. The public is invited to watch and admission is free.??

 The four young pianists chosen to perform in the Competition finals on March 2 include Naoko Terakado of CSU, Chico; Jonathan Culbreath of Mother of Divine Grace School; Douglas Rowan of Golden Valley High School; and Han-Ah Sumner of Davis High School.??

 For the first decade in the fifteen-year history of the Competition, the Kruschke Prize in Piano Performance had been open solely to CSU, Chico’s piano students. No specific program was required of the contestants to be performed in the Competition, memorization of the pieces to be performed in the Competition was not required, and no professional adjudicators were invited to select the winners.??

 In 2009, the Competition went through the major changes in both its structure and content. Since then, the competition consists of two rounds — the preliminary round, for which the contestants have to submit a five-minute unedited video recording that best demonstrates their current level of performance, and the final round, for which every finalist should prepare a required repertoire.

 The Competition is currently open to outstanding California’s high school juniors or seniors, community college students and CSU undergraduate students. An outside judge is invited to evaluate the Competition finals every year. There is no age limit to enter the contest.

 The required repertoire for the 2013 Competition consists of two solo piano pieces representing two of the following four musical styles: Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary; the competition program cannot exceed a 20-minute time frame, and the works performed in the competition should be polished and completely memorized.

 The invited adjudicator for the 2013 Kruschke Piano Competition is Dr. Richard Cionco, Professor of Piano at CSU, Sacramento. Dr. Cionco will be offering a piano master class at CSU, Chico on Saturday afternoon, March 2. The public is invited to observe Dr Cionco's teaching and admission is free.

 “I enjoyed working on restructuring and strengthening of the Competition and using my vast experience with competitions to turn the Kruschke Prize in Piano Performance into a high-level professional, exciting and memorable piano event,” said Dr. Natalya Shkoda, Assistant Professor of Piano, Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at CSU, Chico, and Artistic Director of the Competition.

 The First Prize Winner will receive $2,000 awarded by Mrs. Marilyn Ann Kruschke. The Second Prize Winner will receive $500, and, the Special Prize Winner, competing for the best performance of a solo piano work by Johannes Brahms, will receive $100; both of these prizes are awarded by the newly formed Department of Music and Theatre at CSU, Chico.

 “I am very thankful to our wonderful sponsors and everyone who helped me with the numerous year-round tasks of organizing, advertising and directing the Competition,” added Shkoda.

 For more information, please visit the official Kruschke Piano Competition website at http://www.csuchico.edu/mus/organizations/kruschke.shtml or contact Shkoda at (530) 898-4043.