By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
Fayetteville resident Kaelem Michel will be one of eight teenage competitors striving for the $10,000 first-place prize awarded in the Young Pianists Competition of Alfred University’s MostArts Festival.
The sixth annual, week-long festival begins on July 7 at 7:30 p.m. on the university campus, celebrating classical music and art while drawing contenders from across the nation.
The finalists in this year’s Young Pianists Competition originate from locations as distant as Michigan and California.
Michel, 14, will be performing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor on Thursday, July 11 in Miller Theater. He will be accompanied by an orchestra conducted by Steven Thomas.
Michel started playing the piano at age eight and has since performed at the 2016 and 2018 Central New York Association of Music Teachers Advanced Piano Competitions, placing first both years.
The young classical pianist also earned top placement at the 2017 Lyra Music Festival and Workshop in New York City, in addition to first place in the Onondaga Civic Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition in 2017 and the Civic Morning Musicals and Symphoria Concerto Competition in 2018.
Michel also received high honors at the 2016 Nazareth College Piano Competition, the New York State Division of the 2016 Music Teachers National Association Competition and last year’s Thousand Islands International Piano Competition.
“He’s a very active musician,” Michel’s mother, Heejung, said. “Considering he’s only been playing for five years, I think that he made really good progress.”
Encouraged by his mother to take joy in playing instruments while growing up, Michel gravitated toward the electric keyboard and later the piano.
Since 2015, Michel’s primary teacher has been Patricia DeAngelis.
He also studies with instructor Steven Heyman, a traveling concert pianist and an associate professor of piano at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music.
Apart from daily practice structured around improving his technique, Michel learns music theory and history from his teachers.
Michel, who is home-schooled, has also worked on composing his own pieces while performing solo and duet recitals at local venues, sometimes with his younger brother on clarinet.
Over the course of the two nights of the Young Pianists Competition, audience members can cast votes for their favorite out of the eight performers, all of whom are between the ages of 13 and 18.
“You have a lot of students and young people who play all kinds of instruments that come and watch these performers,” Lisa Lantz, the creator of the MostArts Festival and its artistic director, said. “It’s a little like watching great athletes. It’s very inspiring for everybody.”
Three judges will later officially decide on the first, second and third place winners and announce their names at the festival’s Gala Concert on Saturday, July 13.
Aside from obtaining the cash grand prize, the winner of the competition will become eligible for admission into the Young Steinway Artist program, a community of acclaimed, emerging artists sponsored by piano company Steinway & Sons.
The first place winner will be invited back for next year’s MostArts Festival, where they will perform a complete concierto with the festival orchestra.
For the competition, a pool of applicants submitted a form and a YouTube video showcasing their skills for consideration.
The university also holds a pizza party for the finalists, who stay in the dorms and practice together, cultivating what Lantz calls a “friendly” atmosphere among the competitors.
To purchase tickets and view a complete schedule of the week’s events, visit the MostArts website at alfred.edy/mostarts, email [email protected] or call Lisa Lantz at 607-871-2562.
