ABOUT OUR STUDENTS

    "I find the level of performing here [at Bowdoin] is

              higher than any I have heard in the past few years."

                                                                                                          Richard Goode

Festival alumni include the legendary pianist Emanuel Ax; violist Paul Neubauer and cellist Fred Sherry, artist members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Metropolitan Opera soprano Young Ok Shin; and the extraordinary violinist Sandy Cameron.

Each year the festival hosts more than 250 students from approximately thirty countries. During the school year, these students attend the leading conservatories and graduate programs in Europe, Asia, and America.

Recent alumni include prizewinners of such major international competitions as the Tchaikovsky, Van Cliburn, Naumburg, Queen Elisabeth, Fritz Kreisler, Sion, Montreal, Casadesus, Gina Bachauer, Sibelius, Kloster-Schontal, Concert Artists Guild, and BBC Young Musician of the Year awards.

Student News

In November 2007, Bowdoin Festival alumni pianists old and new crossed paths at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston: on November 3rd, Peng-Peng Gong '04 gave a recital. The next night, the world-renowned Emanuel Ax ('67-68) performed as part of the Celebrity Series of Boston.

Sebastian Currier won the University of Louisville's 2007 Grawemeyer Award, one of the most prestigious prizes in the world for music composition, for his chamber work “Static.” Sebastian came to the Bowdoin International Music Festival in the early 1980s as a composition student; for several years, he served as composer-in-residence with the Festival. The Grawemeyer, awarded in March and worth $200,000, is the latest in a long list of awards won by Currier, including the Berlin Prize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an academy award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

From studying under Julian Martin at the 2001 Bowdoin International Music Festival, Washington Garcia has gone on to a successful national and international career as a pianist, including engagements with Hong Kong University, the Chengdu-Sichuan Conservatory, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “Bowdoin played a crucial part in my success,” Washington says, “and everywhere I go, I tell others about Bowdoin and how it changed my life.”

On Super Bowl Sunday, the Manhattan Piano Trio performed on the Amadeus Concert series in Mclean, VA. A Washington Post review singled out Dmitry Lukin '04 as “highly impressive” and said of the Trio: “Everything that pianist Milana Strezeva, violinist Dmitry Lukin and cellist Dmitry Kouzov played was excellent.” Lukin and the Manhattan Piano Trio won the 2007 ABC Classic FM Listener's choice award at the Melbourne International Competition in Australia. Other recent accolades for Dmitry, a violin student of Lewis Kaplan's at the Bowdoin International Music Festival 2001-2003, include second prize at the 2005 International Violin Competition of Sion-Valais (Switzerland), where he was also the recipient of the "Audience Choice" award.

Maria Alanen ‘04-07 has been pursuing a unique, multifaceted career. On April 19, she will be performing the Prokofiev 1 st Violin Concerto with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Hameenlinna, in her native Finland, under the conductor Esa Heikkila. Currently pursuing her Masters at Juilliard, Maria will be returning to Bowdoin in 2008, but not before her first amateur boxing match: she fights at bantamweight, 119 pounds, out of the Church Street Gym in New York City under trainer Moises Sanchez. This winter, Maria was a guest artist at the Lyndon Institute in Lyndon Center, Vermont, where Bowdoin Festival Director of Residence Life Kevin Sullivan is the Instrumental Music Director. Maria met with classes during the day, and later taught a strings class with student from several local schools. That evening she conducted a chamber music class with Kevin's students. Kevin reports that “she did a fantastic job and the kids loved her.”

Members of Sergiu Schwartz's 2007 violin studio have distinguished themselves in national and international competitions, including Second Prize and Audience Prize at the 2007 Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition (Nadir Khashimov), semi-finalist in the 2007 Paganini International Violin Competition in Moscow and in the 2008 Young Concert Artists auditions in New York (Anastasia Agapova), winners of the Music Teachers National Association Southern Division Competition (Boris Abramov and Yaniv Gutman), and of the 2008 Schwob School of Music Concerto Competition (Elizabeth MacCorquodale, Nelli Jabotinsky, Michelle Cardenas). Solo concert appearances in the U.S. and Israel included Agapova with the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra, MacCorquodale and Jabotinsky with the Columbus State University Philharmonic Orchestra, and Gutman with the Israel Camerata Orchestra.

Kaija Lukas '07 , won 1 st prize at the ESTA Estonian Violin competition; Jia Zhang ‘07 won the Guildhall Concerto Prize (with Glazunov Concerto), and will be performing with the orchestra later this year. Both are students of Jacqueline Ross.

A student of Stephan Picard, Roman Patocka '07, placed 3 rd in the 2007 Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition in Pamplona, Spain.

Two new works by Matt Schreibeis '07 were given readings in Philadelphia this fall – one each by the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and the Daedalus Quartet. Schreibeis's “Shadowings” (2007) was performed by the Nextet Ensemble and by Matrix Music Collaborators (including performers from Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra).

Two recent Bowdoin Festival students received 2007 BMI Student Composer Awards: Matthew Peterson '07 for “The Binding of Isaac,” a chamber opera in five scenes; and Nathan Shields '03 for “Music for Piano, Winds and Percussion.”

A January 25th “Boston Connection” concert celebrated the 10 th anniversary of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project/New England Conservatory affiliation; on the program was the world premiere of “Common Ground” by Osnat Netzer '07. Osnat was the winner of the BMOP/NEC composition contest.

Peng-Peng Gong '04, Ha Eun Lee '05-'07, and Shawn Moore '07 each received Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Awards. Each received $10,000, performances on National Public Radio's From the Top , and participation in a cultural leadership workshop.

In 2007 Will Bristol '07 was awarded first place in the Ocy Downs Piano Competition, the Pine Tree Piano Competition, the New England Piano Teacher's Middle School Competition, and the Young Stars piano prize from Bay Chamber Concerts. In early 2008 he won the Clapp award as the concerto competition winner with the Bangor Symphony.

Henry Kramer , '04-06 a pianist from Cape Elizabeth, Maine gave a recital in March at the Franco American Heritage Center in Lewiston Maine. Henry has been featured on Public Radio International's From the Top twice as a soloist, and has performed chamber music and given recitals in Boston, New York, Seattle, and Alberta, Canada.