Waiting for 7:45

That's the time that the three finalists of the William Kapell piano competition will be announced on the University of Maryland website. We went this afternoon to see the final (of 3 days) of the semi-finals in the chamber music competition. My hope is that Sofya Gulyak, who played a Schumann trio with two U. Md. faculty members makes the finals. Having only heard four of the nine semi-finalists, I cannot say that she is the best pianist but I thought she was in the lead this afternoon.

And that is saying something because they are all excellent. The competition, now held every four years, had 27 invited entrants, ranging in age from 20 to 33, and from many countries. Their bios in the program show them all to be early prodigies, well schooled, and with quite a bit of performance experience of various types.

The requirements are to play solo, chamber music, concerto excerpts and, for the three finalists, a concerto with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night. More to report then.