Prestigious Swiss Prize for Piano Performance awarded to Kevin Jansson from CIT Cork School of Music
Published on: Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Website: http://sommets-musicaux.ch/prix-thierry-scherz/
Kevin Jansson, who has been a piano student of Mary Beattie since the age of six at the CIT Cork School of Music, has just been announced as the joint winner of the Prix Thierry Scherz at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad Festival which took place in Switzerland earlier this month.
Kevin was one of eight international performers invited by German pianist Joseph Moog to perform piano recitals to compete for this award. At 15 years old he was the youngest participant with many of the others already pursuing professional careers as performers.
The prize gives Kevin the opportunity to record a debut solo piano CD which will be produced and promoted by the Swiss record label Claves later this year.
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Image courtesy of http://sommets-musicaux.ch/prix-thierry-scherz/ |
Kevin has already developed a reputation as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation in Ireland. He gave his first piano recital at the age of 12 and one year later was accepted onto the William Finlay Programme for Gifted Pianists, a mentoring programme run by the Dublin International Piano Competition. In May 2014 he received a standing ovation from a packed Curtis Auditorium when he was the soloist for Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D Minor with the CSM Chamber Orchestra directed by Dr Geoffrey Spratt. In November 2014 Kevin was one of 12 pianists selected worldwide to attend the Allianz Lang Lang International Music Foundation Junior Music Camp in Barcelona culminating in a public concert masterclass with Lang Lang. He has won the CSM Junior Concerto Competition on both piano and violin and has also won many competitions at Feis Maitiu and Feis Ceoil taking five first prizes in Dublin Feis Ceoil in 2015. He has been guest performer at the Allianz Business to Arts Awards in the Bord Gais Energy Theatre and has recently been soloist on piano and violin with the CSM Chamber Orchestra at the National Festival of Youth Orchestras at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. |
Kevin is also the current joint holder of the National Concert Hall Young Musician’s Award for Strings. Having begun his violin studies with Una Kindlon he has been a student of Ruxandra Petcu Colan at the CIT Cork School of Music since 2010. He has performed as soloist with the Cork Youth Orchestra in the Cork City Hall and the RTE National Concert Orchestra at the Cork Opera House 160th Anniversary Gala Celebration in June 2015.
Kevin has attended masterclasses on both instruments in Ireland, Austria, Germany and Romania and is currently studying for his Junior Certificate at Presentation Brothers College Cork.
