2009 Marimba Artist Competition Winners
The Classical Marimba League congratulates the winners of the 2009 Marimba Artist Competition! Three prize winners were selected from applicants hailing from 7 different countries. The CML is proud to present the 2009 award winners:
2009 Prize Winners
1st Prize - Yi-Chia Chen (Taiwan)
2nd Prize - Hiromi Kamiya (Japan)
3rd Prize - Yun-Ju Chou (Taiwan)
All winners have been awarded: an invitation to perform at The University of Minnesota; live recordings of the concert; as well as, a new work commissioned by the CML specifically for these winners. Yi-Chia Chen has also been awarded a private recording session during her stay in Minneapolis.
Information about the 2009 Prize Winners
1st Prize
Yi-Chia Chen (age 24) received a Bachelor's degree in Music Education from the National University of Tainan, Taiwan in 2006 and a Master's degree in Percussion Performance from Arizona State University in 2008. She has performed with the Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra and numberous orchestra and wind ensembles in south Taiwan, and was principal percussionist in the Percussion Ensemble of Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra from 2005 to 2006.
Yi-Chia Chen performed a showcase concert with the Arizona State University Contemporary Percussion Ensemble at PASIC 2006 and was the first prize winner of the 2007 PASIC Solo Marimba Competition. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Percussion Performance at Arizona State University, where she studies with Dr. J.B. Smith and Mark Sunkett.
Caméléon (Eric Sammut) | Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum (Claude Debussy) | Var. on Japanese Children's Songs (Keiko Abe)
* Use the fastforward button on the right side of the player to skip to the next track.
(Caméléon used with permission of Marimba Productions, Inc./Keyboard Percussion Publications)
2nd Prize
Hiromi Kamiya (age 24) received a Bachelor's degree in Marimba Performance from the Aichi Prefectural University, where she studied with Momoko Kamiya. She has appeared at the 2007 Percussion Festival in Nagoya, the 2006 Ludwig Albert International Marimba Summer Academy, and the 2004 International Marimba Festival in Linz. She was first prize winner in the 2003 KOBE International Music Competition, 3rd prize winner in the 2002 Japan Classical Music Competition, and semi-finalist in the 2006 INternational Marimba Competition in Linz and the 4th World Marimba Competition in Shanghai.
Hiromi Kamiya is currently pursuing a Graduate Artist Certificate from the University of North Texas, where she studies with Mark Ford.
HATO-OTO (Kitakata) | Merlin (Andrew Thomas)
* Use the fastforward button on the right side of the player to skip to the next track.
3rd prize
Yun-Ju Chou (age 23) was born in Taichung, Taiwan and began playing the piano at the age of three and percussion when she was eight. She studied percussion with Professor Yiu-Kwong Chung and graduated from National Taiwan Normal University in 2007. She is currently studying at the Taipei National University of the Arts with Professors Tzong-Ching Ju, Pei-Ching Wu and Shih-San Wu.
In 2002 and 2006 she won first prize in the Percussion Competition in Kaohsiung (Taiwan) and won third prize in the Marimba Competition in Taipei. Throughout 2006 and 2007, she was invited to be marimba soloist and performed the commissioned works in the final round of the 2006 Marimba Competition in Taipei. She has performed Chung Yiu-Kwong's "Marimba Concerto No. 1" on many occasions and has received great critical acclaim and honor.
Mvt. II Cadenza from Concerto for Marimba (Chung) | Dances of Earth & Fire (Peter Klatzow) | Marimba d'Amore (Keiko Abe)
* Use the fastforward button on the right side of the player to skip to the next track.
The Classical Marimba League would like to thank all who participated in the 2009 Marimba Artist Competition! There were many wonderful marimbists. We encourage all to take part in the 2010 Competition.
