Some of Richmond’s most aspiring young pianists will perform on stage at Gateway Theatre this Saturday, at the 2018 Pacific Youth Piano Festival Gala.
Hundreds of piano students aged six to 19 years old from across North America are competing at the annual Pacific Youth Piano Festival, and the majority of the participants are from Richmond, according to the organizer.
Eighteen finalists will be selected from nine categories for the festival and will hit Gateway’s stage alongside a concerto performer at the gala on Saturday.
“Our slogan is, ‘to encourage the enjoyment, and appreciation of the music.’ That’s also the purpose of the competition,” said Peggy Yip, vice president of the Pacific International Youth Music Society, which hosts the festival.
“The other purpose of the competition is to bring out the excellence in aspiring North American artists and to try to bring out all the music talent and put them on a real stage to perform.”
This will be the sixth year the Society has held the festival. Young performers will also be honoured with medals and scholarships from $25 to $400.
“We would like the audience to enjoy the high standard of performances…we would also like the audience to appreciate the hard work and dedication of these finalists,” said Yip.
This year’s adjudicators are New York-based pianist Xiayin Wang, piano department chair of VSO School of Music, Dr. Sergei Saratovsky and Vancouver-based pianist Dr. Eugene Skovorodnikov.
Tickets are $20 on the Gateway Theatre website. For more information about the festival, see Piyms.org.
