Mansfield Piano Festival to be held in March

The former Mansfield Piano Competition is expanding its format to become the Mansfield Piano Festival, with the first festival to be held on Saturday, March 2, 2024. 

The mission of the new Mansfield Piano Festival is to encourage music education among motivated students, to provide performance opportunities for developing pianists, and to spread the joy of piano studies in the Mansfield community and beyond. A highly educational event, the Mansfield Piano Festival welcomes pianists of all ages who reside in Pennsylvania and nearby states: New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, Delaware, and Connecticut. 

There are two categories pianists can participate in: Festival Recital and Scholarship Audition.

FESTIVAL RECITAL (Open to all ages, including adults)

This category is open to pianists of all ages who would like to perform in a recital setting while receiving feedback from professional musicians. Multiple recitals will be scheduled throughout the day, presenting all festival participants. Each pianist may perform one or two compositions in a festival recital. Total performance time for each pianist is limited to 7 minutes, and memorization is required for all pieces. A panel of adjudicators will provide constructive comments for each performer.

SCHOLARSHIP AUDITION (Open to High School Grades 11 and 12) 

This event is open exclusively for high school pianists in grades 11 and 12. Each student will perform two contrasting pieces from memory, followed by a musicianship test. Mansfield Piano Scholarships totaling $5,000 may be offered to best-qualified students. (Scholarship recipients must be academically admitted by CU-Mansfield, enrolling as a Piano Performance major, piano concentration in Music Education, Music Technology, or Music Business, or a BA Music piano track.)

Total performance time should be between 6 and 12 minutes, and memorization is required for both pieces. Students are to perform two contrasting pieces in the classical style chosen from the following list.

1. A contrapuntal work or a dance movement by J.S. Bach, or a sonata movement by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert.
2. A piece from Romantic, Impressionistic or Contemporary classical repertory.

REGISTRATION PROCEDURE 

All applicants must register by completing the registration form and purchasing a ticket for $12 at mansfield.booktix.net. (At the ticket site, click the blue "View Performances" button to purchase tickets.) Registration will close on Saturday, Feb. 17.  Event details will be emailed to each student by Saturday, Feb. 24. For more information, please contact the festival director, Dr. Eun-Joo Kwak at (570) 662-4715 or ekwak@commonwealthu.edu.