2014 Paderewski Youth Piano Competition Winners
Paso Robles, CA – Winners of the 2014 Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles were drawn from twenty young pianists from three Central Coast Counties (Santa Barbara, Monterey and San Luis Obispo) competed for cash prizes of $100-$750, the opportunity to perform at the Youth Piano Competition Winners’ Recital on November 8 during the 2014 Paderewski Festival, and the chance to participate in the Festival’s 2015 Cultural Exchange Program in Poland. Presided by Marek Żebrowski, Paderewski Festival Artistic Director and Director of the Polish Music Center at University of Southern California, the competition jury included India d’Avignon, a Cal Poly Professor and Paderewski Festival Board member, and Paul Woodring, accompanist and coach at Cal Poly. The Competition was sponsored by the Hind Foundation of San Luis Obispo.
After hearing this year’s applicants, the jury decided to award the following prizes:
Daniel Ha
First Place, Senior Division:
Arroyo Grande High School Freshman Daniel Ha (15). A finalist of several Paderewski Youth Piano Competitions who also travelled to Poland on the Festival’s 2013 Cultural Exchange, Daniel has studied piano for five years with Debbie Lagomarsino, Neill Kauffman and Dr. Lynne Garrett. He performed George Frederic Handel’s Chaconne with 21 Variations, HMV 435 and Camille Saint-Saens’ Allego appassionato, Op. 70 at the winners’ recital.
Second Place, Senior Division:
San Luis Obispo High School Freshman Kannan Freyaldenhoven (15). A student of Dr. Lynne Garrett for the past two years, Kannan performed Franz Joseph Haydn’s Sonata in G minor, Hob. WVI:44 I. Moderato and Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s Menuet, Op. 14 no. 1.
Third Place, Senior Division:
Carmel High School Junior Yuan Tao (15). A student of Lyn Bronson, Yuan played Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s Chant du Voyageur, Op. 8 no. 5 and Auguste Durand’s Valse, Op. 83 no. 1.
L-R: Marek Zebrowski, Jack Raventos, Jane Yang, Holly Hadsall, Daniel Ha, Kevin Park, Yuan Tao, India d'Avignon and Paul Woodring
First Place, Junior Division:
Orcutt Junior High eighth grader Kevin Park (13), who has studied piano for eight years, most recently with Dr. Lynne Garrett, John Perry and Mina Hirobe-Perry. Kevin performed the Nocturne, Op. 27 no.2 by Frederic Chopin.
Second Place, Junior Division:
Santa Barbara fourth grader Holly Hadsall (9). A student of Lana Bodnar, Holly played Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Rondo in D major, KV 485.
Third Place, Junior Division:
Mission College Preparatory High School Freshman Jack Raventos (14) of San Luis Obispo. A multiple finalist in the Festival’s Youth Competition and participant in the 2013 Cultural Exchange Program, who studies with Dr. Lynne Garrett, Jack performed Polonaise in G-flat major, Op. posthumous (1829) by Frederic Chopin.
The Youth Piano Competition jury also awarded one Honorable Mention prize to Pacific Grove High School Freshman Jane Yang (14) who studies with Lyn Bronson. She played Franz Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3, S. 541 at the winners’ recital.
The Winners’ Recital was held at the Paso Robles Inn Ballroom, 1103 Spring Street, November 8 at 4 p.m. Cash prizes and medals from the Paderewski Festival were awarded during a ceremony immediately following the concert.
The 2014 Paderewski Youth Piano Competition Winners’ Recital was free and open to the public. To accommodate the highest possible number of concertgoers, reservations were strongly recommended and made by going to the Festival’s website – www.paderewskifest.com. Otherwise, seating was on a first-come basis.
The Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles is a non-profit that celebrates the legacy of Paso Robles’ most famous resident Ignacy Jan Paderewski with four days of concerts and special events featuring internationally renown artists , young pianists, master classes, film dance and wine tasting.
2014 Youth Piano Competition Judge Biographies
Marek Zebrowski
Marek Zebrowski began studying piano at the age of five. After graduating with the highest honors from the Poznan Music Lyceum, he studied with Robert Casadesus and Nadia Boulanger in France and Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he received his Bachelor and Master degrees. Hailed as "firm and eminently musical" by the Boston Globe, "strong and noble" by the Washington Post, and accorded highest accodades by the world press, Mr. Zebrowski has appeared as soloist in recital and with symphony orchestras throughout the world. He has recorded works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Scriabin and Prokofiew for Polish Radio and works by Ravel and Prokofiew for Apollo Records in Germany, and his performances and compositions are featured on the Titanic Records and Hamonia Mundi labels. Recognized as a composer with a catalogue of orchestral and chamber works, piano compositions and transcriptions, and film and stage scores, Mr. Zebrowski has received commissions from Meet the Composer and The New England String Quartet, among others, as well as composition prizes in the Netherlands, Poland and South Africa. For the past several years, he has collaborated with director David Lynch and their album of free improvisations, Polish Night Music, was released in April 2008.
Marek Zebrowski has lectured for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Harvard University, and the The New England Conservatory of Music, and for several years was contibuting writer for the Boston Book Review. He has given master classes and coached various chamber music ensembles and chamber orchestras. His academic career includes teaching at the University of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of California, Los Angeles. Currently, Mr. Zebrowski resides in Los Angeles and serves as the Program Director for the Polish Music Center at the University of Southern California, and is Artistic Director of the Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles, California.
Marek Zebrowski is a Steinway Artist. He authored Celebrating Chopin & Paderewski, Paderewski in California and several other books about film directors and cinematorgraphers, published by the Tumult Foundation. The 2007 recipient of the Silver Gloria Artis medal from Poland's Minister of Culture and National Heritage, in 2011 Mr. Zebrowski was recognized wit the Telly Award for his score to a documentary film, The Labyrinth, and awarded the Golden Cross of Merit by the President of Poland. In April 2012, together with Lech Walesa and Professor Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Mr. Zebrowski was honored by TV Polonia with the Award for the Promotion of Poland and Polish Culture abroad.
India D'Avignon
Professor India D'Avignon has a Master of Arts in Piano Pedagogy and Choral Conducting from Ohio State University, and a Bachelor of Music Education from Wittenberg University. She is formerly a Professor of piano and chair of the piano and organ department at Capital University, and currently serves as Associate Professor in the Music Department at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). She has performed throughout the United States and abroad accompanying on the piano, harpsichord, fortepiano and harp. Ms. D'Avignon has held the offices of MTNA Mid-West Divisional Competition Chair, international President for Phi Beta Delta (an honor society for international scholars), Chair of the Undergraduate Faculty at Capital University, Academic Senator for Cal Poly, President of the Board of the San Luis Obispo Symphony, and a board member of the Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles. She is featured on the compact disk Christ Hallm, Homage a Marc Chagall as the Director of the Glass Music Ensemble, and co-produced a compact disk of The Philadelphia Sonatas by Alexander Reinagle on Titanic Records.
Paul Woodring
Paul Woodring specialized in organ performance at California State University, Northridge, studying under Sam Swartz and David Britton. While there, he won several prestigious awards, including first prize in the Western Regional American Guild of Organists Competition. He then studied organ and harpsichord in Vienna under Otto Bruckner and Elfriede Stadlmann.
As an accompanist, Paul Woodring has worked with some of America's finest concert choirs and opera companies, including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Mormor Tabernacle Choir and the Los Angeles Opera Company. In the San Luis Obispo area, he has worked with the Pacific Repertory Opera, Mozart Festival, Central Coast Children's Choir, Cuesta Master Chorale, Tolosa Strings and several musical theater organizations. Mr. Woodring is currently an accompanist and coach at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. He also serves the congregations of Mr. Carmel Lutheran Church as organist and choir director, and San Luis Obispo United Methodist church as organist.
