YSM pianists participate in Rubinstein Competition
Two YSM students are competing at the 15th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Pianist Yevgeny Yontov '14MM, who's currently a DMA candidate studying with Boris Berman, is scheduled to perform a first-round recital of works by Haydn and Debussy on Saturday, April 29. And pianist Szymon Nehring, an incoming artist diploma candidate who'll also be studying with Prof. Berman, is slated to perform an opening-round program of music by Scarlatti, Beethoven, and Szymanowski on Sunday, April 30.
The competition's second and final rounds are scheduled to take place in the first week and a half of May and require each of those who advance to present a recital program of different pieces than they performed in the first round, along with chamber music and concertos. Thirty-one competitors are vying for medals, cash prizes, the chance to perform a string of concerts in Israel, Europe, Asia, and North America, and recording opportunities. The competition is a program of the Arthur Rubinstein International Music Society.
Before studying at YSM, Yontov graduated from Tel Aviv University's Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, where he studied with Arie Vardi. Yontov won the Gold Medal at the 2013 Wideman International Piano Competition and was a semifinalist in 2016 at the inaugural Olga Kern International Piano Competition. Nehring, who studied with Stefan Wojtas at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, Poland, was a finalist in 2015 at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, at which he also won the Audience Award and other prizes. That year, he toured Poland as a soloist with the Lusławice, Poland-based Santander Orchestra.
Watch Yontov and Nehring perform live on the competition's Facebook page (Yontov on Saturday, April 29, at 10:40 am EST; Nehring on Sunday, April 30, at 3:40 am EST.)
