Compete to play a debut recital in Carnegie Weill Recital Hall
The competition is open to all PianoSummer students up to age 32.
- 1st Prize Winner: A debut recital in Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in spring 2025
- 2nd Prize Winner: $3,000 Feltsman Piano Foundation Scholarship Award
- 3rd Prize Winner: $2,000 Feltsman Piano Foundation Scholarship Award
Participant Requirements:
Jacob Flier Piano Competition is open to all admitted PianoSummer at New Paltz students up to age 32.
Prescreening
- First 4 PianoSummer at New Paltz faculty lessons
First Round
- 25-minutes maximum
- One preludes and fugues from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier
- Two etudes: one Chopin etude & one etude of Liszt, Rachmaninoff or Scriabin
Final Round
- 30-minute recital of your choice
- A movement of below listed piano concertos
- Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Grieg, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Prokofiev, Gershwin, Barber, Shostakovich
Yifan Wu
2024 Jacob Flier Piano Competition Winner (1st Prize)
Born in a non-musical family, YIFAN WU began his professional study of piano at the age of 14. Enrolled in the middle school affiliated with Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2019, he is currently a student of Professor Yunlin Yang. In 2023, he got the fifth prize in the final round and the best cooperation prize of Mozart piano concerto in China Shenzhen International Piano Concerto Competition. He also entered the 10th Scottish International Piano Competition and became one of the three Chinese semifinalists. His past winning record includes the first prize and the classical sonata prize in the fifth Singapore International Piano Competition in 2023. Wu has performed in many cities in China and beyond, including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Singapore; and in concert venues such as SOTA Concert Hall in Singapore, Qintai Grand Theatre in Wuhan, Shanghai Symphony Hall, and He Lvting Concert Hall in Shanghai Conservatory of Music. His concerto performances with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra and Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra were highly praised by the audience.
Hyelee Kang
2024 Jacob Flier Piano Competition Winner (2nd Place)
HYELEE KANG was born in 1995. She graduated with excellent grades from Seoul National University, receiving a scholarship with highest honors. In 2020, she won both first prize and special prize at the Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition. In 2021, she performed in the 18th International Chopin Competition, and was one of 12 solo finalists at the Busoni International Competition. In 2022, she won the first Sound of the Land of Fire International Competition. She had the honor of being selected as a music scholarship recipient by world-renowned vocalist Sumi Jo in 2023. Kang is currently studying Konzertexamen-Klavier in HfMT Köln with Professor Claudio Martinez Mehner.
2024 Jacob Flier Piano Competition Winner performs in NYC on Saturday, March 22, 2025
Past Winners
2024 - Yifan Wu
2023 - No winner
2022 - Jiyoung Kim
2019 - No winner
2018 - Takeshi Nagayasu
2017 - Polina Kulikova
2016 - Soyoung Choe
2015 - Ryo Kaneko
2014 - Hui Shan Chin
2013 - Ketevan Kartvelishvili
2012 - Hidemi Minagawa
2011 - Baron Fenwick
2010 - Jun Luke Foster
2009 - Joey Chang / Yinfei Wang
2008 - No winner
2007 - Timur Moustakimov
2006 - Hyung-Min Suh
2005 - Jennifer Shinyoung Ju
2004 - Alexander Beridze
2003 - Michael Berkovsky
2002 - Daniel Shleyenkov
2001 - No winner
2000 - Oxana Mihailhoff
1999 - No winner
1998 - Daria Rabotkina
Jacob Flier (1912 - 1977)
The Jacob Flier Piano Competition was established to honor this distinguished Russian pianist who taught for many years at the Moscow Conservatory and who brought up generations of prominent musicians including Vladimir Feltsman.
