Storrs Scholarship Winners in Recital March 17, 2016 at Westminster Presbyterian in West Hartford

 On Thursday March 17, 2016 at 10:00 am, The Musical Club of Hartford will proudly present nine of the spectacular pianists who received the Evelyn Bonar Storrs Scholarships this year in a recital at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT.

The accomplished young pianists who have been selected to perform on the recital are Sun-A Park, Henry Kramer, Hakyong Park, Mo Tian, Liana Panayeva, Anchie Donn and Augustin Muriago.

The impressive performances each of them has already given and the prestigious international prizes they have won are listed on the Musical Club of Hartford Facebook page.  Each of them is currently pursuing an advanced degree at music at schools such as The Hartt School of Music, Yale University, the University of Connecticut and New York University.

In 1990, Evelyn Bonar Storrs made a bequest to the Musical Club to establish a piano scholarship. Each year selected Storrs Scholarship recipients present a recital for members of the Musical Club and the general public.

Open to members of the Musical Club and to the general public, admission to this remarkable event is free.  The church is wheelchair accessible from the entrance near Mountain Road.

The Musical Club of Hartford is a non-profit all-volunteer organization. Membership is open to all those who share a love of music, including composers, performers and listeners. The club celebrates its 125th anniversary year this year and is welcoming new members.

Admission is free.

For more information please call 860-561-1588.

The Evelyn Bonar Storrs Piano Scholarship Fund

The intentions of Evelyn Bonar Storrs were stated in her will. “I have tried to express my appreciation for the enjoyment and pleasure in having been a member of the Musical Club of Hartford...With this in mind, I have established the Evelyn Bonar Storrs Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships for talented and advanced students of piano...”

This past year the Storrs Committee, which administers the Storrs Scholarship Fund, granted cash awards to the winners of the Musical Club High School Competition for Piano. Additionally, the Committee awarded individual scholarships to fourteen advanced college-level pianists attending area colleges, and gave organization scholarships to Hartford Chapter, CSMTA, for the Audrey Thayer Competition; The Hartt School; The Hartt Community Division; and the University of Connecticut.

About the performers

Taiwanese-American pianist Anchie Donn has performed in major cities across Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. As a member of The Heron Trio, she has been featured on National Public Radio. Ms. Donn is the recipient of The Mary Primrose Fuller Fund. She is completing her Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance at The Hartt School, where she is also a teaching fellow. Past degrees include a Master of Music from Boston University and a Bachelor of Music with highest honors from University of Michigan. Ms. Donn also serves on the faculties of The Hartt School Community Division and Quinnipiac University.

Henry Kramer, a Maine native, holds both a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School and an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music, where he received the Charles S. Miller Prize for the most outstanding first-year pianist. He currently pursues doctoral studies at the Yale School of Music, and was recently appointed as the Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano at Smith College.

Mr. Kramer has earned top prizes in the 2015 Honens International Piano Competition, the 2011 Montreal International Music Competition, and the 6th China Shanghai International Piano Competition. He was also a prizewinner in the 8th National Chopin Competition in Miami and received the 2014 Harvard Musical Association Arthur Foote Award. He is a winner of Astral’s 2014 National Auditions and of the 2015 William Petschek Recital Debut Award from The Juilliard School.

In the 2015-2016 season, Mr. Kramer is featured at Portland Piano International (Oregon), The Cliburn Foundation, Symphony in C, and the Portland (Maine) International Chamber Music Festival. He recently appeared as soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra under Yan Pascal Tortelier, and has also appeared with the Shanghai Philharmonic, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, Turkey, the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Montreal, and the Yale Philharmonia. In recent seasons, he performed Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 2 with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony and Toshi Shimada, as well as Beethoven’s Chorale Fantasy with Robert Moody and the Portland Symphony Orchestra. In the spring of 2012, Mr. Kramer made his European debut in a solo recital at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

Agustin Muriago is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in piano performance at The Hartt School in Connecticut, where he is the recipient of a music talent scholarship, studying under the guidance of Luiz de Moura Castro. In 2013 he graduated from New York University with a Master of Music degree in piano performance as a student of Dr. José Ramón Méndez. Mr. Muriago has also served as adjunct piano faculty at New York University. Agustin Muriago holds degrees from Rowan University in New Jersey (Bachelor of Music in Piano performance, summa cum laude), the “Manuel de Falla” Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires (Piano Pedagogy and Performance degree), and from the Catholic University of Argentina (Bachelor of Music in Composition)

Sun-A Park, born in Pusan, South Korea, began studying piano at the age of four with her mother and later studied with Seymour Bernstein of the New York University in New York. Currently she is studying at the Musik Hochschule in Hanover under the guidance of Professor Bernd Goetzke. Ms. Park won 4^th prize at the 2013 Sendai International Piano Competition in Japan and 5^th prize at the 2011 Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. She has performed at the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), and in Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Korea, and the United States.

Liana Paniyeva began her musical studies at the Special Music School in Donetsk, Ukraine. In 2007 she graduated from Donetsk Music Academy, Ukraine. Her international prizes include Third Prize at the International Competition in Memory of E. Gilels, First Prize at the International Competition in Memory of Prokofiev in 2002. In 2014, Liana was awarded The W. A. Cargill Foundation Prize in the Scottish International Piano Competition in Glasgow.

Ms. Paniyeva is a winner of the American Protégé International Music Talent Competition, recipient of the Grand Prize at the Metropolitan International Piano Competition, and winner of the AFAF Golden Era of Romantic Music International Competition.

 Hakyong Park earned a certificate in piano performance from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she studied with David Forbat. She is a graduate of Kaywon School of Arts and Yonsei University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music degree and worked with Youngho Kim. She holds a Master of Music degree from The Hartt School. For the past three years, she has been the recipient of the E.B. Storrs Scholarship. Hakyong Park now studies with Sasha Gorodnitzki at NYU, where she is also a member of the Adjunct Faculty in Piano Studies.

Ms. Park recently performed with the NYU Orchestra at Frederick Loewe Theatre as the Winner of the Steinhardt Concerto Competition. She finished a recital tour of Connecticut as the Second Place Winner of the 2014 Young Artist Piano Competition. She has won prizes in Korean competitions such as the Eum-Youn Piano Competition and the Suri Piano Competition. Hakyong Park performed at the Seoul Arts Center, Korea’s preeminent concert venue, as the winner of the Kaywon Concerto Competition. Also a chamber musician, Hakyong Park has worked with violist Rainer Moog, Principal Violist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, and cellist Woong Whee Moon of the Novus String Quartet. She is the pianist of the NYU Symphony and Philharmonia and former pianist of the Hartt Orchestra and Symphony Band.

Mo Tian has a B.A. from Brown University, an M.M. in piano performance from Indiana University and currently studies with Irma Vallecillo at the University of Connecticut in the Doctoral of Music Arts program in piano performance where he was awarded a graduate teaching assistantship. He is also piano faculty and teaches a studio of pianists of all levels and experiences at the Community School of the Arts. Prior to his undergraduate studies at Brown University, Mr. Tian studied at the Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra in solo piano and chamber music, both of which he finds equally exciting and challenging.  Mo is an active member of the Music Club of Hartford, which has generously supported him through scholarships for his higher music education.