Studio of Leah Brammer: 10/01/2010

Friday, October 22, 2010

The 16th Fryderyk Chopin Competition

The 16th Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw finished this week. Many of the most famous pianist in the world including Martha Argerich, Garrick Olson, Maurizio Pollini, Yundi Li,and Krystian Zimmerman have won this competition at the beginning of their career. The admissions committee began it's process in February and the live preliminary auditions were in April. The first stage auditions began on October 3, with the finals finishing on October 20. There were 78 performers to enter the first stage, forty participants went on to stage two, 20 participants were chosen for stage three and 10 performers were selected for the finals. Each stage had specific requirements. The final stage included the concerto with orchestra,

There were so many wonderful pianists from all over the world, and many incredible performances. I feel it is inspirational for piano students to be able to watch these young performers as they begin their careers.
Therefore I would like to share with you excerpt performances of the finalists.
The links to watch their complete performances at the Chopin Competition on the competition website are at the bottom of the post. The audio quality is better on those links, but it is more difficult to get to specific pieces as you cannot fast forward, and there is no embed code for a blog/website. So, I have taken the best clips I could find off You-tube. When you are watching the excepts below, you can click on the full screen button in the far right corner of the video to enlarge the video, and then press the escape key to get back to this blog.

Evgeny Bozhanov, age 26 from Bulgaria is my personal favorite of all the performers. He finished in 4th place. Below are two excepts from his performances:

Next Daniel Trifonov age 20 from Russia came in third place. Interestingly he misses the repeated notes in the very beginning, but goes on to play a wonderful performance.

Next is Lukas Geniusas(spelled wrong on the You-tube link) from Russia/Lituania who at 19 years old tied for second place:

The other second place was Ingolf Wunder, age 26 from Austria:

Next is the first place winner Yulianna Avdeeva age 25 from Russia performing the famous Polanaise op. 53 from the second round of the competition, and then the third movement of the Concerto in e minor in the final round of the competition:

First Place -Juliana Andeeva -Link to third stage performance:
http://konkurs.chopin.pl/en/edition/xvi/video/3_Yulianna_Avdeeva/stage/3

Second Place -Lukas Geniusas -Link to third stage performance:
http://konkurs.chopin.pl/en/edition/xvi/video/14_Lukas_Geniusas/stage/3

Third Place -Danill Trifonov -Link to the third stage performance:
http://konkurs.chopin.pl/en/edition/xvi/video/72_Daniil_Trifonov/stage/3

Fourth Place -Evgeny Bozhaov -Link to third stage performance:
http://konkurs.chopin.pl/en/edition/xvi/video/5_Evgeni_Bozhanov/stage/3

Enjoy!
Leah Brammer

Core Education Principles

1. Life Ability
Core Education develops life ability- the ability to live life optimally.

2. Natural Learning
Core Education utilizes and preserves natural learning, which is direct learning from the environment.

3. Whole Learning
Children learn through absorption of the total environment rather than part by part. This is sometimes called ”right-brain learning” Whole learning is a better way to describe this absorption as it involves both the right brain (learning through the senses/intuition and left brain (analytical) types of learning working together.

4. Ability Development
Pattern recognition and the forming of relationships between these patterns can be developed through repetition for optimum learning. This then includes physical ability, mental/memory, emotional balance and spiritual development as well. This is the balancing concept of whole learning and involves understanding of learning in relationship to sequencing and the development of ability through the acquisition of foundation skills

5. Integral Learning
Core learning involves recognition and support for the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of development in combination with mental/cognitive learning to form life abilities.

6. The core focus principle of nurturing:
This principle is that the most fundamental aspect in a child’s learning must always be addressed rather than focusing on the content of what is being learned. It is finding the core aspect of the process that will produce the easiest and quickest way to learn. It is closely connected to Ability Development.

7. Positive affirmation
Core education involves affirmation as a critical component of feedback for the child. Using verbal acknowledgment of that which is correct will accelerate learning. It is not a judgment such as good or bad, but is a positive statement of fact to the child about how they are learning.

Through understanding and applying these principles teachers and parents can recreate the concept of education from the learning of facts to the development of ability.