21-year-old Sijing Ye wins Orchestra Toronto piano concerto competition

TORONTO - March 25, 2013 - PRLog -- .

Twenty-one-year-old pianist Sijing Ye of Toronto is the winner of the third annual Orchestra Toronto Concerto Competition: Marta Hidy Prize.

Already an accomplished performer, Ye has won a scholarship of $1,000 and an opportunity to perform as soloist with Orchestra Toronto at its popular December youth-oriented concert at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. This season she performed at the Miami International Piano Festival in February and at the Naples Classic Chamber Concert Series in early March. She is scheduled to perform in Toronto in the Canadian Opera Company Concert Series on March 28.

A versatile virtuoso with interests not only in piano but also in singing, dancing, chess and sports, Ye is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in piano performance at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto under the tutelage of John Perry. Her teachers also include Hung-Kuan Chen and Dang Thai Son.

The Orchestra Toronto competition is an annual event for Canadian virtuosos aged 13 to 23 that focuses on a different instrument every year. It aims to showcase young Canadian musicians and help them make the transition to professional life.

The prize is named for the Canadian violinist Marta Hidy, whose legacy as a solo artist, orchestral and chamber musician, conductor, teacher and music professor it honours. Hidy’s passion for the violin and for young talent influenced the lives of generations of musicians and the concerto competition’s mission is to continue that influence.

Born in Southern China, Ye began studying piano at age six and went on to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing under Bao Hui Qiao. When she was 12, Ye won second prize at the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in Salt Lake City, Utah. She moved to New York two years later to study in New York with Yoheved Kaplinsky at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, from which she graduated in 2010.

Ye has given recitals in major music halls in the United States, China and Europe, including the Atheneum Roman Music Hall in Bucharest, the Benedict Music Tent in Aspen, Colorado; the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; the Lincoln Theatre in Miami Beach, Florida; the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas; the Peter Jay Sharp and Paul Recital Hall of Lincoln Center in New York, the Beijing Music Hall, the Zhong-Shan Music Hall in Beijing and the Hong Kong City Concert Hall.

Ye’s many awards include first prize at the Gina Bachauer International Young Artist Piano Competition in Salt Lake City, Utah; first place at the 69th Steinway and Sons International Children and Youth Piano Competition; first prize in the Competition Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest and second prize at The Canadian Chopin Competition in Mississauga. She is the youngest winner in history at the Academic Piano Concerto Competition at the Aspen International Music Festival.

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