WINNERS IN THE PRINCETON FESTIVAL’S YOUNG PIANISTS COMPETITION: Randy Brown of Jacobs Music Company presents the Richard Tang Yuk Award for Outstanding Performance to LiYuan Byrne of Verona, N.J. Byrne’s Grand Prize includes a trip to Tanglewood. Six young pianists were declared winners in the annual event held at the Clark Music Center on the campus of The Lawrenceville School. Jacobs Music of Lawrenceville sponsored the competition.

On Sunday, June 11, six young pianists were declared winners in The Princeton Festival’s annual Competition for Young Pianists. The annual event was held at the Clark Music Center on the campus of The Lawrenceville School.

The Competition began with over 100 participants, competing in six categories, each playing a selection from a list of assigned pieces. 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.

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.

Winners were named in the following categories:

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

Intermediate Artists (ages 10-12):  No winner named in this category

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

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