Westfield Semifinals

We have not had any reports yet from the Westfield Center International Harpsichord Competition, but the Preliminary Round came to an end today. Tomorrow morning and afternoon, the ten competitors selected to continue in the competition will play in the semifinal round, which will occur in two sessions (9:30 am to 1:30 pm, 3 to 7 pm) at the Clarice Smith Center in College Park. After having played Bach, Marchand, and Scarlatti in the first round, all competitors are required to play one of the sets by Louis Couperin (Pièces in C minor, D major, or E minor), an British piece (Byrd's Walsingham, Thomas Tomkins's Barafostus' Dream, or Giles Farnaby's Up Tails All), and a Froberger toccata (from the second book) and the Tombeau sur la mort de M. Blancheroche.

South-African harpsichordist Leon Schelhase (9:30 am) is an accomplished performer, already on the faculty at the Curtis Institute. Wing Yin Wong (10:15 am), born in Hong Kong, is a DMA student of Arthur Haas (who is on the Westfield jury) at SUNY Stony Brook. Russian Elena Zamolodchikova (11 am) studied with Kenneth Weiss and has performed widely. Another of Arthur Haas's students, Julia Ageyeva Hess (12 noon) from Estonia, was a finalist at the Volkonsky Harpsichord Competition in Moscow in 2010. Sabina Chukurova (12:45 pm) is a student of Mitzi Meyerson in Berlin.

American harpsichordist Stephen Gamboa (3 pm) has studied with Davitt Moroney at Berkeley and Arthur Haas (both members of the Westfield jury). Marianna Henriksson (3:45 pm), from Finland, has studied with Mitzi Meyerson in Berlin and has recently played harpsichord on the Flying Bach tour with the breakdancing troupe Flying Steps. French harpsichordist Ronan Khalil (4:30 pm) has studied with Olivier Baumont and Pierre Hantaï. Justin Murphy-Mancini (5:30 pm), studying with Webb Wiggins at Oberlin, is the youngest remaining competitor (born in Massachusetts in 1989). Spanish harpsichordist Ignacio Prego (6:15 pm) begins advanced studies at Juilliard later this month.