The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music education: The three winners of the 29th annual Beethoven Sonata Competition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music are named, and two of the three will perform a FREE concert on Sunday afternoon.

By Jacob Stockinger

The results of the 29th annual Beethoven Sonata Competition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music have been announced.

Two of the three winners will perform a FREE concert this Sunday afternoon at 3:30 pm in Morphy Hall with a reception to follow.

The winners (below in a photo by Katherine Esposito, the concert and public relations manager for the UW-Madison School of Music) are Zijin Yao (below right) of China, who will play the “Eroica” Variations; Oxana Khramova (bellow left), a Russian native, who played the Sonata in D Major, Op. 10, No. 3, but has an injury that will prevent her from performing on Sunday; and Yana Groves (below center), a native of Ukraine, who will perform Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1 (heard at the bottom played by Alfred Brendel in a YouTube video.)

Zijin Yao is a doctoral student in piano performance and pedagogy who studies with professors Martha Fischer and Jessica Johnson. Oxana Khramova is a doctoral student in piano performance and pedagogy who studies with Professor Christopher Taylor. Yana Groves will finish her master’s degree this spring and begin doctoral studies next fall in the studio of Christopher Taylor.

The judge for the competition was Karen Boe from UW-Whitewater, who also awarded an honorable mention to Haley O’Neil, who studies with Christopher Taylor.

The competition, now in its 29th year, is sponsored by former UW-Madison Chancellor Irving Shain (below).

Read more here: http://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/beethovencomp2014/