Winners Named In Princeton Festival's Annual Young Pianist Competition

PRINCETON, NJ — Six young pianists emerged victorious from a field of 100 participants competing in six categories at the Princeton Festival.

The participants played a selection from a list of assigned pieces during the Princeton Festival’s annual Competition for Young Pianists at the Clark Music Center on the campus of The Lawrenceville School.

After the preliminary rounds on June 3 and 4, adjudicators Elena Lisitsian and Eun H. Yun sent winners of the preliminaries on to the final round of the competition on June 11.

The following is the list of winners for each category:

Elementary Artists (ages 6-9): Elijah Yoon of Glen Mills, PA, a student of Natalie Zhu

Junior Artists (ages 13-15): Elizabeth Yang of Belle Mead, NJ, a student of Grace Yang, pictured below

Senior Artists (ages 16-18): Qinghong Lian of Flushing, NY, a student of Jeffrey Cohen

Four Hands: Elizabeth Yang and James Yang of Belle Mead, NJ, students of Grace Yang

Open Class (under the age of 25): Ziang Xu of Boston, MA, a student of Victor Rosenbaum

Richard Tang Yuk Award for Outstanding Performance (and the winner of the Jacobs Music Grand Prize trip to Tanglewood): LiYuan Byrne of Verona, NJ, a student of Chiu-Tze Lin (pictured below)

Jacobs Music was again the sponsor for the Young Pianists Competition, which has been a highly anticipated feature of The Princeton Festival since 2008. Lois Laverty and Glenn Smith were Masters of Ceremonies.

The attached images were provided; Main Image via Shutterstock