CHS Students Bring Home a Truckload of Awards from our Young Artist World Piano Festival!

Jo Anne and I have been on oxygen for three full days now, following our greatest Festival yet! We are now off the oxygen and have recovered enough to resume our Summer Term. We only averaged about four hours of sleep a night over the ten-day festival, but were fueled by this electrifying and intoxicating event!! It was an unforgettable experience!

All told, Jo Anne and I (with the incredible help and support of our parents) brought nineteen of our musical souls from our studio, out of a total enrollment of sixty-two festival attendees. This is a record attendance for our studio, and we brought home a record twenty-two awards. All of the awards were won during two full days of auditions at the beginning of the Festival.

Kenny Broberg celebrated his final Festival having attended seven consecutive years. And celebrate he did! Kenny was chosen for the Senior Honors Recital, once again, performing Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata. It is considered by most musicians to be the greatest sonata of the twentieth century by an American composer. One of the most difficult and complex works in the piano literature, Kenny learned this nineteen minute, four movement work, from scratch, in just six weeks! Yes, an amazing feat, but it was the astounding performance of the work that was most mind-blowing. It was the unanimous opinion of our artist-faculty that this was the greatest performance of this work any of us had ever heard – live or recorded – by any artist known to us. Kenny was also selected for the Alessio Bax Master Class, as well as a private special lesson with Pavlina Dokovska. Kenny will be leaving us in the fall as this is the end of his formal study with me. He will be attending the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, having received a “full ride” of a full tuition scholarship, room and board. He will be studying with the internationally respected teacher, Nancy Weems. A personal friend of Jo Anne’s and mine, I have every confidence that she is the one to guide Kenny at this stage of his development. Kenny will be joining another virtuosic student of mine, Josh Tan, also a full scholarship student at UH, who will be in his third year in the fall. Although Kenny is leaving our studio, he and I will always be joined at the heart, mind, and soul. He is my musical heir. He carries my musical DNA. Kenny came to me as a young gifted boy of the age of ten, and is leaving as a fully formed artist of the first rank. Over these past eight years, we have shared a magical journey together. We have shed much blood, sweat, and tears, in the service of our art. We have also experienced exaltation, and the deepest joy and satisfaction one can imagine. One cannot know joy without pain. A relationship such as we have is incredibly rare and one of the greatest one can have on this planet.

Austin Frohmader and Lucas Jones also had an extraordinary Festival. Both young men (along with Kenny) were chosen for the Senior Honors Recital. Kenny, Austin, and Lucas were three of the seven students selected for this prestigious event. Austin and Lucas were also selected (along with Kenny) to perform in the Master Class of our world-renowned Guest Artist, Italian pianist, Alessio Bax. Our three young men constituted the entire Master Class. They were the only students out of the entire Festival selected for this world-class event. Our entire artist-faculty was unanimous in assessing that this was one of the greatest Master Classes any of us had ever witnessed, and was the main reason Bax was asked to return next year. This return engagement is a first for our Festival in its twenty-one year history. Austin also won the right to perform in our other International Guest Artist Master Class with Pavlina Dokovska of the Mannes School in New York City. Austin was also chosen for a Dokovska private lesson, and was a finalist in the Senior Concerto Competition. Lucas was Chosen for the Paul Wirth Master Class as well as a special private lesson with Dokovska.

Nita Qiu, Noah Qiu, Daniel Qu, Matthew Qu, and Michael Tang were all selected for the Junior Honors Recital, and were five of the eight performers presented. Nita was also chosen for the Paul Wirth Master Class. Michael was also selected for a Dokovska special lesson as well as being named a finalist in the Junior Concerto Competition.

Stephanie Ye was honored with a performance in the Wirth Master Class. Along with Nita and Lucas, these three young stars of ours made up the full roster of the Master Class.

Christina Waldron was selected for the Herbert Johnson Master Class. Richard Chang, Lawrence Chen, Niels Wu, Mulan Zhu, Mandy Chang, Noah Chojnacki Stephanie Li, Karena Lin, and Anna Waldron all had a wonderful Festival and played gorgeously in the Final Recitals.

Last, but not least, our beloved Lillie Gardner, gave a sumptuous and scintillating performance of Chopin’s magnificent Barcarolle in the Festival’s Alumni Recital. Lillie will begin her fourth year at New York University’s Steinhardt School for the Performing Arts Professions in Manhattan. Having taught Lillie since the tender age of nine, she still coaches with me in the summers and whenever she is home on break. She has been a valued assistant to me with a number of my young students. As you can see from this report, we had unprecedented success at our incredible Festival. Jo Anne and I look forward with great anticipation to the new season. Our studio is the strongest – across the board – it has ever been!!

Yours in Music – Joe & Jo Anne

CHS Students selected for the e-Junior Festival Master Classes and Evening Performances

Kenny Broberg, Austin Frohmader, Lucas Jones, and Michael Tang have been selected, by audition, to perform in the Master Classes and Evening Recital at the e-Piano Junior Festival.  This event is an intense one-day experience for 12 of the finest pianists in the region. The e-Piano Junior Festival will be held on Thursday, July 7, at Sundin Music Hall at Hamline University.  It is part of the International e-Piano Junior Competition held the week of July 4.  The four international judges for the competition will be the presenters of the Master Classes.  The four Master Classes are each two hours in length and go throughout the day.

Michael will be first to perform in the Master Class of German pianist, Sontraud Speidel, at 10:00-noon. He will be performing Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor, Wo Opus 80.  Kenny and Austin will both be performing for the Israeli pianist, Arie Vardi, in the 12:00-2:00 pm Master Class.  Kenny will be performing the first movement of  Samuel Barber’s Sonata in E-flat minor, Opus 26, and Austin with be performing the Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Opus 28 of Prokofiev.  Lucas will be performing in the final Master Class of the day, from 4:00-6:00 pm, for Jerome Rose. Lucas will be performing Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 11.

It is our hope that a number of our students and parents will be able to attend one of the Master Classes to support and enjoy our young men’s performances.  But we hope many of you will be able to attend the Evening Performance at 8:00 PM.  Kenny, Austin, Lucas, and Michael will be performing their works in their entirety in a regular concert setting.  They will constitute 4 of the 12 players selected for this prestigious event.

 

Yours in Music,

Joe & Jo Anne

CHS students’ achievements at Thursday Musical and Schubert Club Competitions

Austin continues his white hot streak!

On March 12, Austin continued his sizzling year by winning First Place in the prestigious Thursday Musical Young Artist Competition – High School Division - held at Augsburg College.  The repertoire requirements included two major solo works.  As a result, he received a significant cash award as well as a performance on the Winners Concert to be held at the Bloomington Fine Arts Center, Thursday, March 31, at 7:00 pm.  To date, Austin has won 7 awards this year including five First Place awards and two Second Place awards.  Austin is having one of the strongest competition seasons on record here at our studio.

Lucas reaches the finals of Schubert Club

On March 5, Lucas continued his super-strong year by reaching the Finals of the highly competitive and very prestigious Shubert Club Competition, held at the University of St. Thomas.  Lucas will offer three major solo works for the finals, held April 2, at Augsburg College.  This is the third year in a row that Lucas has reached the finals – all three years of the Junior High Division.  This is a very impressive and unusual achievement.

Daniel Qu receives important recognition

On March 12, Daniel Qu achieved an important break-through by receiving Honorable Mention in the Thursday Musical Young Artist Competition – Junior High Division.  This is very impressive as Daniel is just a seventh grader – the first year of eligibility for this incredibly competitive event.  This bodes well for Daniel as his development is really beginning to take off!

In additional news -

On March 6 – as all of you are aware – we had a huge day of performances at beautiful Sundin Music Hall, Hamline University.  Our studio presented four major Spring Celebration Recitals consisting of six and one-half hours of literature.  This is but one of our three major formal recitals each year.  There were many brilliant performances that day with most students presenting their personal best.  The recitals were amazing and very strong across-the-board.  In our youngest class – the Young Performers/Young Artist Prep Class – we have a number of exceptionally gifted and talented children.  Jo Anne and I are happy to announce the rise in status of the following students from Young Performers to Young Artist Prep: Chloe Chang; Jannie Chang; Mandy Chang; Leonard Chen; and Daniel Yang. This status places these students directly on the path to our great Young Artist Class.

Yours in Music –

Joe & Jo Anne

Austin sweeps top awards at Orchestra Hall! Lucas garners the Schmitt Prize.

Yesterday, our sixteen year old Junior, Austin Frohmader, won the coveted First Prize of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Young Peoples’ Symphony Concert Association (YPSCA) Concerto Competition. It is one of the most difficult and prestigious competitions in the nation, and Austin is the first of our many finalists – over the years – to win the top prize.  It has been a long time coming!  It has been a long and gruesome road to the top of this one!  Austin was awarded six performances (with the possibility of 2 more) with the world renowned Minnesota Orchestra at Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis.  He will be presented in a series of concerts for young people in the 2012 concert season.  He will be performing Liszt’s Hungarian Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra. As part of the top prize, he received $1,500.00.  Austin also received the prestigious Thelma Hunter Award ($200.00) and the Minneapolis Music Teachers Forum Recital Award ($200).  He will present a solo program for this organization on March 1, of this year.  I believe Austin has amassed at least $2.600.00 in winnings so far this year.  As Jo Anne and I like to joke . . . “Play piano – get check!”

Jo Anne and I had a great time yesterday!  Since teachers are prohibited from accompanying their own students, we were able to just sit in the Hall and enjoy hearing our young men’s performances.  Austin gave an absolutely definitive and compelling performance of the Fantasy. He filled that huge place with layered, kaleidoscopic colors.  The cadenzas were very expansive and sensuous as well as explosive.  It was as if he was sitting on a powder keg of musical dynamite.  The vivace (closing section) is a Hungarian Can-Can of sorts, and he drove it right to the edge, without ever going over – always in control.  It was thrilling fun.  We could tell that he had absolutely captured the audience from the first note to the final octaves.  Jo Anne reported to me that the man behind her said he had “goose bumps” throughout the performance.  This is what it is all about!

Our dearest Lucas Jones, a fifteen year old Freshman, was the youngest performer in the final field of twelve musicians (along with another fifteen year old).  Lucas and Austin were two of just four pianists selected for the finals, as it is for all instruments.  Lucas received the very important Schmitt Prize ($500.00).  Lucas’ Chopin exhibited a deeply musical and artistic poetry.  And, although Lucas’ sound is completely unique and different from Austin’s, he also had the power to fill Orchestra Hall with sound.  This was an incredibly important experience for Lucas.  It will be an important part of the mosaic of his manly, artistic character, and his burgeoning virtuosity.  I received a wonderful note from the President of the Minneapolis Music Teachers Forum effusively praising both boys.  Believe me, Lucas’ development, as a young artist, will be watched closely.  One funny thing: Lucas’ mom, the beautiful, amiable, and intelligent Margaret Jones, was no-where to be found, although Lucas’ dad and sister were sitting right next to us.  Jo Anne and I brought brown paper bags (just kidding) in case of Margaret’s possible hyper-ventilating.  But no one could find her.  We think she was hiding in one of the doorways along the long corridors of the first tier – or perhaps in one of the Ladies restrooms!!  Well, hopefully, next time, Margaret!!

One twinge of wistful regret: that our own beloved teacher and mentor, Martin Marks, could not be there to hear the boys yesterday.  He was our musical father and the greatest influence on our artistic and personal lives.  We were incredibly close to him from the time I was fourteen to when he passed away six years ago.  Jo Anne and I thought of him so much yesterday.  He was a magnificently gifted and powerful artist, almost too sensitive to live.  He had the deepest, most compelling interpretive insight into the great piano literature of anyone I have known.  His too infrequent performances made everyone crazy with awe and excitement.  I think we thought of him so much yesterday, because the boys exemplified, so beautifully, our studio’s philosophy of service to the music first, last, and always.  Mr. Marks always talked to us, from the time we were teenagers until his physical passing, that if we wanted to serve ourselves and others – serve the music first.  Austin and Lucas played without any histrionics of any kind.  They made the event about the music – not about them.  They were there to deliver the body and soul of the music, and deliver it they did!!  He would have been thrilled how the boys played yesterday and would have talked about it for weeks.  Somehow, I know he heard it, as he lives on in Jo Anne and me.

Yours in Music –

Joe & Jo Anne

Austin and Lucas among Top 3 at Rising Stars Concerto Competition

We have more good news in this crazy-busy month of competitions!

Just this past weekend, Austin Frohmader and Lucas Jones traveled to La Crosse, Wisconsin to participate in the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra’s “Rising Stars” Concerto Competition.  It is a very fine regional competition of three states (Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) for young artists fourteen to eighteen.  In addition to cash awards, the First Prize Winner is awarded two performances with the orchestra, as well as a week of rehearsals, radio/television interviews, etc.  One of our illustrious alumni, Adam Birdsall, won this competition a number of years ago. 

Austin and Lucas were two of the three finalists with Austin taking Second Place, with the Third Place Award going to Lucas.  Both young men played beautifully and are in a great “groove”.  Jo Anne and I are very proud of their work, poised performances, and leadership.  The road trip was very excruciating as the snow created a very dangerous driving environ – especially for the Frohmaders.  Normally a two and one-half hour trip, it took the Frohmaders five hours to get to La Crosse, witnessing the results of numerous serious accidents.  But (as we all know) when we travel – all bets are off.  So – hats off to Austin – who got up the next morning after arriving extremely late the night before and “delivered the goods”.  Of course, this is a very valuable experience.  This is what happens in real life as a traveling pianist!!

Yours in Music!

Joe & Jo Anne