The Radford University Department of Music in cooperation

with the Ibla Foundation of New York City  presented the

2006 Bartok – Kabalevsky – Prokofiev Competition Winner

along with other IBLA International Grand Prize Competition

Winners in concert on Wednesday, April 11, 2007.

Here are provided some comments as written by students attending the concert.

I thoroughly enjoyed the IBLA concert presented last week-it was a great

opportunity to see some exceptional musicians from all over the world,

both our own age and much younger.  The music performed was very well

selected; nearly all styles of playing were well-represented, and as the

former winner of the Bartok competition stated, it really says something

that the university is willing to host a competition exhibiting such an

unconventional and still widely unaccepted genre of music. 

One performance that stood out to me was the Rachmaninoff Prelude.  As a

pianist, I have always appreciated Rachmaninoff's work, and I feel that

the performer really captured the mood of the piece.  It was also really

neat (albeit slightly unnerving) to see the 8-year old pianist sitting

behind him fingering the part on an invisible keyboard while it was

being played. 

              By Kerry Milan

    It was truly amazing to see such young musicians play such

difficult pieces.  There was also a wide range of genres of music which

was really nice to hear.  I was really impressed that the Winner of 2006

Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev Competition memorized almost 25 minutes of

music, very difficult music.  You can really see the dedication and self

discipline that these musicians have to get to this skill level at such

a young age.   There is also such passion in their music, every note

meant something.  You could see the emotion flow from their heart to

their hands.  One of the performers that stood out to me the most was

the violinist Lukasz Lagun Kuzminski.  The sound his violin made was one

of the most beautiful sounds I've heard.  The pianist who was the

accompanist for two of the performers also stood out to me.  I really

enjoyed listening to all the performers, their talent really inspired

me.

              By Carrie Beltz

On the evening of April 11th 2007, I attended the Gala Concert

featuring the winners of the Ibla International Grand Prize and the 2006

Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev Competition.  I greatly enjoyed the concert

and thought the level of expertise was very outstanding and inspiring.

All of the performers impressed me but I was really astonished by some

of the performers. 

In the beginning of the concert three children pianists played and they

really impressed me.   These young performers really blew me away.  I

was just completely shocked by the skill and control they had on the

piano.  The first performer was a nine year old pianist named Janice

Carissa. She played a piece that was technically and rhythmically very

difficult.  I loved the balance she kept throughout the piece by really

bringing out the melody in certain areas that rhythmically is very

difficult.  The entire time the three children performed I was

incredibly blown away.  I thought they all had very good dynamics and

excellent control of tempo throughout each of the pieces.

I also was very impressed by Kelsey Tamayo who played the marimba and

xylophone.  I was impressed by the amount of focus she kept throughout

the entire piece.  I was very impressed by how quickly her hands moved

while keeping the tempo precise.  I really enjoyed that piece and I

thought the climax of the piece was almost breathtaking.

              By Amy Donnellan