Keying into success

As the first overseas branch of the renowned New York-headquartered Juilliard School, the Tianjin campus broke ground in 2017 and offers a US-accredited master's degree from the Juilliard School. The Tianjin school's graduate program opened in the fall of 2020 with the first batch of students.

Twelve international artists are scheduled to join the piano festival, including pianist Robert Levin, who is a professor emeritus of music at Harvard University, and Polish pianist Katarzyna Popowa-Zydro, who served as the chair of the jury for the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

"We have assembled the highest level of pedagogues and performers from around the world to provide festival participants with an exciting and inspiring educational experience this summer. The variety of musical activities and the unique opportunities will make this an enriching and unforgettable festival for all," says Kaplinsky.

It will be the first time that Levin will visit the Chinese mainland, which is great news for Chinese piano students, teachers and music lovers, Wang says. He met Levin at the 17th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, which was held in Tel Aviv from March 14 to April 1, when Wang served as a jury member for the contest.

"He is a legendary pianist who is widely considered a leading Mozart authority, a scholar-performer with a particular focus on researching and performing works of the composer," says Wang, adding that Levin will give lectures about Mozart's concertos during the Tianjin festival.

Performing guest artists at the festival are Chinese pianist Chen Sa and Russian pianist Sofya Gulyak, the first woman to win the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2009. Wang will also perform.

The Suzhou Symphony Orchestra will perform in the final gala that will be conducted by Chen Lin, the chair of the conducting department at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

All 24 selected from the category of young artists, aged 7 to 28, will compete in the festival's concerto competition, and six winners will be selected to perform a full concerto with the Suzhou orchestra, conducted by Lai Jiajing.

All 48 participants in the junior category, aged 7 to 18, will have one rehearsal with the Qing Xin Ensemble, also conducted by Lai, playing one movement of a concerto.