Igor Pikayzen ’11MM selected as finalist for King Award
SALINA SYMPHONY ANNOUNCES KING AWARD FOR YOUNG ARTISTS
NATIONAL MUSIC COMPETITION SEMI-FINALISTS AND SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Twelve musicians from the finest music schools in the nation have been invited to compete in the Salina Symphony’s King Award for Young Artists National Music Competition April 16-17. Competing in the strings division will be: Anna Burden, cello, Manhattan School of Music; Ko-Hsin Chang, cello, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne; Esther Kim, violin, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University; Deborah Pae, cello, The Juilliard School; Igor Pikayzen, violin, Yale University; and Itamar Zorman, violin, Manhattan School of Music.
Competing in the piano division will be: Anna Bulkina, Texas Christian University; Frank Huang, The Cleveland Institute of Music; Jannie Lo, San Francisco Conservatory of Music; Weiwen Ma, The Cleveland Institute of Music; Igor Pancevki, San Francisco Conservatory of Music; and Yekwon Sunwoo, The Curtis Institute of Music.
The semi-final round for the strings division will be held Friday, April 16, from 1:00-4:30 p.m. at Sams Chapel on the campus of Kansas Wesleyan University, 100 E. Claflin Ave. The final round will take place at the Stiefel Theatre on Saturday, April 17, from 9:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m. with the award ceremony following at 4:00 p.m.
Cash prizes for the Competition will total $22,000. One of two division gold medalists will receive the 2010 King Award for Young Artists. The King Award recipient will be awarded a total cash prize of $10,000 and will return to Salina in the fall of 2010 to solo with the Salina Symphony. Competition activities are free and open to the public. For more information and to view the schedule of events, please visit www.kingaward.org or call the Symphony office at 785-823-8309.
Igor Pikayzen was born in Moscow to a musical family. He started his studies at the age of five under his grandfather, violinist Viktor Pikayzen. At the age of eight, Igor gave his solo debut with Mozart’s Concerto No. 2 and by the age of twelve had already performed with orchestras such as the Moscow Radio Symphony, the Ankara Philharmonic, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and others. In 1999 Igor moved to the USA to study at the Manhattan School of Music with Keng-Yuen Tseng. He then studied with Stefan Milenkovich and Stephen Clapp as a full scholarship student at the Juilliard School. By the time he finished his Bachelor’s Degree, he has amassed numerous accolades and awards, such as first prizes in competitions in Manhattan, Massachusetts, Ridgefield, and Greenwich, as well as prizes at the Kloster-Schontal International Competition in Germany and the Lipizer International Competition in Italy. Igor also had the honour of giving recitals and performances in halls such as the Small Hall and Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, the Presidential Hall in Istanbul, the Royal Conservatory Hall in Brussels, Paul Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, and others.
