Jets crisscross from afar to bring Steinways and virtuoso pianists to the University of South Carolina

A dozen consummate pianists, five nine-foot Steinway Grands, and the South Carolina Philharmonic with Morihiko Nakahara, will be on the Koger stage June 15 to kick off the 2014 Southeastern Piano Festival with a Piano Extravaganza.

Music director Morihiko Nakahara, guest artists, esteemed USC music faculty Marina Lomazov (festival artistic director), Joseph Rackers (festival program director), Phillip Bush and Charles Fugo and SEPF alumni Susan Zhang and Zachary Hughes present works by Bizet, Adams, Saint-Saëns, Chopin, Mozart and Prokofiev.

Festival artistic director, Marina Lomazov said, "We are honored to partner with the South Carolina Philharmonic to showcase an array of pianists performing dazzling repertoire. The concert will feature amazing pianists from South Carolina and across the country."

There will be lots of activity leading up to the Festival's opening masterworks event. In addition to the arrival of notable guest artists and 20 competing young pianists from around the U.S., two of the five Steinways come to Columbia via jet from New York City. They will be picked up in Charlotte by Festival supporter Rice Music House and delivered to the Koger Center just in the nick of time for rehearsals. Tuning all five Steinways requires the expertise of two piano technicians working simultaneously to get the concert pianos in top condition.

The Festival continues all week with concerts around the city including at the Columbia Museum of Art, Trinity Cathedral and City Art Gallery. The week's events culminate in an international piano competition on Friday and the winners' concert on Saturday. See the full festival schedule of events.

Piano Extravaganza Concert

Sunday, June 15, 4:00 P.M.
Koger Center for the Arts

Piano Extravaganza Guest Artists

Dong Yeon Kim has won numerous awards around the globe. His daring musicality that "took the audience by storm with an incredibly virtuosic performance" (Columbia Free Times) has garnered top prizes in competitions such as Lynn Harrell Concerto, Han-Eum Music, Arthur Fraser International, Dallas Symphony, National Young Artist Institute, Wysong-Joplin, and Denton Bach Society Competition among many. Kim studies at the Peabody Institute of Music with Boris Slutsky.

Micah McLaurin has distinguished himself at several international competitions and has performed to great critical acclaim as soloist with the Orquesta Filarmonica de Montevideo, Orquesta Juvenil de El Salvador, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, the Youth Orchestra of the Lowcountry, the South Carolina Philharmonic, and the Perugia Festival Orchestra. He was one of eight pianists chosen worldwide to participate in the prestigious Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland in 2011. Immediately following the SEPF concert, McLaurin flies out to Santa Barbara, Calif., to take part in Music Academy of the West, one of the premiere music festivals on the west coast.

Rieko Tsuchida made her professional debut in 2011 with the California Symphony, and that year she was one of eight pianists selected from around the world to participate in the prestigious Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland. She has performed at Carnegie Hall as first prizewinner of the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition and has given recitals across the U.S., in the Netherlands, England and Japan. Tsuchida is a recipient of the Leon Fleisher Scholarship at the Peabody Institute, where she is pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance under the tutelage of Boris Slutsky.

The Program

BIZET (arr. G. Anderson) Carmen Fantasy for Two Pianos
Susan Zhang and Zachary Hughes, piano

ADAMS Grand Pianola Music
Joseph Rackers and Phillip Bush, piano

SAINT-SAËNS (arr. G. Anderson) Dance Macabre: Hootenanny for Five Pianos
Phillip Bush, Charles Fugo, Marina Lomazov, Joseph Rackers, Susan Zhang, piano

CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 (II. Larghetto)
Micah McLaurin, piano

MOZART (arr. G. Anderson) Papageno: Fantasy on Arias from The Magic Flute
Rieko Tsushida and Dong Yeon Kim, piano

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 1
Marina Lomazov, piano

Purchase Tickets

Tickets range from $16 to $46 and students 18 and younger may attend free.

• Koger Box Office, corner of Greene and Park Streets, Columbia, SC 29201, Mon. – Fri. from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• By phone at (803) 251-2222, Mon. – Fri. from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Online at www.capitoltickets.com

The Symphony League of the South Carolina Philharmonic sponsors the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition. Sponsors of the 2014 Southeastern Piano Festival are Steinway & Sons, Rice Music House, Symphony League, South Carolina Philharmonic, University of South Carolina School of Music and Free Times.