Twenty-four teenage violinists, ages 13-18, arrived in mid-July on the campus of Oberlin College to compete in the annual Cooper Competition, which alternates between violinists and pianists. Hailing from eight countries and seven states, the elite group of young people competed there in preliminary rounds, before thee finalists were chosen to perform concertos onstage with the Cleveland Orchestra and conductor Gemma New on Fri 7/26.
The three included Beijing’s Shihan Wang, who played Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E Minor; Eric Charles Chen of New Jersey, who performed Sergei Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 2 in G minor; and Isabella Brown of Illinois, whose piece was Antonin Dvořák’s Concerto in A Minor.
Chen was chose as the winner, chosen by the jury in less than 20 minutes, snagging the $20,000 grand prize. Wang earned the $10,000 second prize, with Brown third, winning $5,000. All three earned full tuition scholarships to Oberlin Conservatory.
oberlin.edu/cooper-competition
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106