Eastside MTA
Willard Schultz Scholarship Competition
SOLO PROGRAM
Date: April 5-10, 2027
Venue: St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Bellevue
Scholarship Competition
Key Dates
September 28 , 2026: Competition rulebook available on line at EMTA.org.
January 15, 2027: Competition Teacher’s form along with ONE check for all the entry fees mailed to Yunbo Cassady received by January 15th.
January 15, 2027: Competition Application Deadline.
January 25, 2027: A blind drawing to determine the order of performances will be held at the general meeting (online).
Competition Info
SOLO COMPETITION
Competition: The Competition will have 2 judges for all divisions: Thomas Lanners and Jose Ramon Mendez.
Elementary Division:
Grades 1 and 2: 5 minutes of playing time (7 minutes total time), $70 non-
refundable entrance fee: 2 memorized pieces required which must include 1 piece from the Baroque or Classical era.
Grades 3 and 4: 8 minutes of playing time (10 minutes total time), $70 non-
refundable entrance fee: 2 memorized pieces required which must include 1 piece from the Baroque or Classical era.
Junior Division:
Grades 5 and 6: 15 minutes of playing time (17 minutes total time), $80 non-refundable entrance fee: 3 memorized pieces required which must include 1 piece from the Baroque or Classical era.
Grades 7 and 8: 17 minutes of playing time (19 minutes total time), $80 non-refundable entrance fee: 3 memorized pieces required which must include 1 piece from the Baroque or Classical era.
Senior Division:
Grades 9 and 10: 20 minutes of playing time (22 minutes total time), $90 non-refundable entrance fee: 3 memorized pieces required which must include 1 piece from the Baroque or Classical era.
Grades 11 and 12: 25 minutes of playing time (27 minutes total time), $90 non-refundable entrance fee: 3 memorized pieces required which must include 1 piece from the Baroque or Classical era.
CONCERTO DIVISION:
The Concerto Division will be open to 5th – 12th graders, $150 non-refundable entrance fee. To enter the Concerto Division the student MUST do their Solo Division as well. There is a 13 minutes playing time limit for the competition. The Competition will have 3 judges for the concerto division: Thomas Lanners, Jose Ramon Mendez, and Michael Miropolsky.
Concerto must be from the list given to us by the Conductor:
• Beethoven Piano Concertos 3, 4, or 5: movement 1 OR 2 and 3 together
• Edvard Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16: movements 2 and 3 together
• Franz Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major: whole concerto
• Mozart Piano Concertos No. 20( K. 466) and No. 21 (K. 467): movement 1
• Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18: movement 1 OR 2 and 3
together
• Ravel Concerto in G: whole Concerto
• Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2: movement 1 OR 2 and 3 together
• Schumann Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54: movement 1 OR 2 and 3 together
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 23: movement 1 OR 2 and 3 together
Scholarship Competition
Judges’ Bios
Professor Emeritus of Piano at Oklahoma State University, Thomas Lanners, has appeared as a solo and collaborative pianist and clinician throughout the U.S. and abroad. Lanners was the 2021 recipient of the Wise-Diggs-
Berry Endowed Award for excellence in the visual, performance or written arts at OSU, and a 2022 recipient of the OSU Regents Distinguished Research Award, presented each year to one arts and humanities faculty member at the university. He was designated the 2014 Distinguished Music Teacher by the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association and was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame in 2021.
Thomas has performed, presented master classes, and given lectures on various musical topics as a guest artist throughout the United States, in Mexico, Canada, Europe and Asia. In recent summers he has served on the faculties of the Shanghai International Piano Festival and Institute (in both 2018 and 2023), the Conero and AmiCaFest Piano Festivals in Italy, the 2025 and 2026 OpusOne International Music Festivals in California, and the 2024 International Keyboard Odyssiad and Festival in Colorado. Within the past five years, he’s performed and/or presented master classes at Rice University, Florida State University, the University of Washington, at Yonsei University in Seoul, in China at the Sichuan, Shanghai and Zhejiang Conservatories, the Shanghai Conservatory Middle School, and East China and Beijing Normal Universities, and in Mexico at the Unidad Académica de Artes de la Universidad
Autónoma de Zacatecas. Thomas served as a performer, teacher, and adjudicator at the Lee University International Piano Festival and Competition in Tennessee in 2021, having also been one of the three guest artists in 2012.
Thomas is an active writer on musical topics, with several feature articles, column contributions and reviews published in American Music Teacher, most recently in 2024. His writing has also been published in Piano Magazine, with a feature article appearing in the Winter 2024 issue, Clavier and Canadian Music Teacher, among others. Always in demand as a clinician, he has presented many sessions at national and international conferences, including six appearances at the Music Teachers National Association (most recently in 2025) and three at the China
International Piano Pedagogy Conference, hosted by the Shanghai Conservatory, which boasted 850,000 online attendees in 2021.
Thomas has served as a juror in state, division, and national MTNA competitions, and for numerous international piano competitions based in North America, Europe, Asia and South America.
Described as “an artist with a polished sound and tremendous
constructive power” and hailed by the Hoja del Lunes de Madrid, as “the
Spanish pianist of his generation,” Jose Ramon Mendez is one of the most
exciting Spanish pianists of today. Mendez first gained international
recognition when he performed Liszt’s first piano concerto under the
direction of Sergiu Commissiona at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Since then, he has concertized extensively in his native Spain, the United States, Italy, England, Portugal, Holland, and Japan to great acclaim. With his poetry, intellect, and masterful technique, he has been praised by
critics and celebrated by audiences around the world.
He completed his Bachelors and Masters Degrees in piano performance at the Manhattan School of Music with renowned pedagogue Solomon Mikowsky and went on to finish his Doctorate of Musical Arts under the tutelage of Byron Janis and Miyoko Lotto. During his stay in New York, he won top prizes in many international competitions, including Pilar Bayona International Piano Competition, Hilton Head Island Inernational Piano Competition, Heida Hermanns International Piano Competition, Frederick Chopin Competition
in New York, and Hermanos Guerrero International Piano Competition, among others.
Mendez’s professional teaching career began in 1996, when he was invited to teach master classes at the Gijon School of Music. Since then, he has given master classes in numerous cities in Spain, as well as in the United States at top music schools such as Oberlin Conservatory, The Yehudi Menuhin School of Music, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, Manhattan School of Music, Brown University, Cleveland institute of Music and Columbus State University to name a few. Mendez also taught as assistant teacher to Miyoko Lotto at the Perlman Music
Program. He has served in the keyboard faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, The New York University, The Pennsylvania State University, Bienen School of Music of Northwestern University, and Northern Arizona University. He is currently an Associate Professor of Piano at Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Michael Miropolsky began his artistic career as principal violinist with the Moscow State Symphony, performed with the Radio and Television String Quartet in many countries around the world, and recorded internationally on the Melodiya label. He came to the United States in 1990 and was Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Opera until his retirement in 2022.
In 1999, Mr. Miropolsky founded the Seattle Violin Virtuosi and three years later, the Seattle Chamber Orchestra. He has released eight CDs with the aforementioned groups on the Ambassador label. In 2002, he was chosen as the Music Director of the Cascade Symphony Orchestra. He released the orchestra’s first two CDs – Symphonic Treasures, followed
by The Seven, with soprano Christina Kowalski. In 2009, Mr. Miropolsky was elected as the Music Director of the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra and has continued to serve as such since the orchestra became the Lake Washington Symphony Orchestra. He led the Seattle International Film Festival Orchestra in the SIFF Gala of 2012, and from 2013 through 2015 he conducted the Thalia Symphony Orchestra. In 2011, with Rick Steves and the Cascade Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Miropolsky created the innovative program, Europe, a Symphonic Journey, which was released on both CD and DVD and received a 60-minute presentation on public television across the USA. In addition, the Maestro and the members of the Cascade Symphony published the orchestra’s first cookbook,
Measures and Pleasures.
In 2015, Mr. Miropolsky published his memoir, Theme and Variations: My Life’s Journey. In his book, which contains commentary by Rick Steves and Melinda Bargreen, Michael Miropolsky shares the story of his eventful 60 years’ journey through life.
Registration Form
1. Please submit all pertinent information. The repertoire committee must be able to read without question the information presented.
2. Include in the title all pertinent information: movement, tempo, opus, key number, catalogue listings, etc. (See sample provided on the repertoire page of the rulebook.)
3. For Grades 1-4, Two pieces in two different eras must be performed. For Grades 5-12, Three pieces in three different eras must be performed.
4. Accuracy in performance time for each piece is mandatory. Gross over or under stating of the performance time could cause the student to have pieces cut whenever or wherever the judges feel it is necessary in order that each piece can be heard. Three pieces must be heard in order to qualify for competitive standing. The time stated for each level is the maximum time allowed!
5. Competition Teacher’s form along with ONE check for all the entry fees mailed to Yunbo Cassady received by January 15th
Scholarship Competition Judges’ Bios
Bernadene Blaha‘s “brilliant command of the piano”, whether featured as recitalist, concerto soloist or chamber musician, has been heralded in performances throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Mexico. Piano and Keyboard magazine has reviewed her as, “a pianist of integrity, with lovely sonorities and total clarity of line.”
Originally from Canada, Ms. Blaha first came to international attention as a prizewinner in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition; the Young Keyboard Artists International Piano Competition, Grand Rapids, Michigan; the Masterplayers International Competition, Lugano, Switzerland; and the 11th Annual International Piano Competition, New York City. This latter award resulted in two highly acclaimed recital appearances, at Carnegie Recital Hall and the Lincoln Center Library. Soon afterward, Ms. Blaha was featured in the opening orchestra concert and a solo recital at the XXIX International Chopin Festival in Marianske Lazne, Czechoslovakia, followed by performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
In the summer of 1999, Ms. Blaha was invited by Canada’s “Piano 6” to perform with the group which included Angela Chang, Janina Fialkowska, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Angela Hewitt and Jon Kimura Parker in televised gala concerts in Lanaudiere and in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre. She remained an active touring member of the project through the completion of it’s ten year mandate in 2003.
A highly regarded chamber musician, Ms. Blaha has been a regular guest at international festivals including: The Newport Festival, Tucson Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, Festival of the Sound, Bard Festival, Banff Festival of the Arts, Round Top International Festival, Academie de Fourviere, Lyon and Festival de San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Ms. Blaha is a founding member of the piano trio Latitude 41, formed in 2009 with violinist Livia Sohn and cellist Luigi Piovano. Their debut CD of Schubert’s monumental “Trio in E flat Major” and “Notturno” was released in 2011 on the Eloquentia label to rave reviews. The group followed this success with a recording of the Saint-Saëns Trios and has a forthcoming CD featuring the Brahms Trios. Ms. Blaha’s discography also includes recordings for the CBC, Centaur and Analekta labels.
Also in demand as a teacher, adjudicator and clinician, Ms. Blaha has received the National Arts Foundation’s Outstanding Teacher Recognition Award and the 2017 Thornton School of Music Dean’s Award for Excellence in Professional Activities. She has been invited to serve on the distinguished jury of the Gina Bachauer International Artist Piano Competition, Virginia Waring International Competition and the 2015 International E-Competition.
Currently residing in Los Angeles, Ms. Blaha has been a member of the Keyboard Faculty at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California since 1993 where she is a Full Professor.
Steinway Artist, Alexandre Dossin, is Professor of Piano and Chair of Keyboard at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance. Originally from Brazil, Alexandre Dossin is a graduate from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Russia) and holds a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin (USA). Considered by Martha Argerich an “extraordinary musician” and by the international critics a “phenomenon” and “a master of contrasts,” he keeps an active performing, recording, and teaching careers.
A prizewinner in several international piano competitions, Dossin received the First Prize and the Special Prize at the 2003 Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other international awards include the Silver Medal and second Honorable Mention in the Maria Callas Grand Prix, and Third Prize and Special Prize in the Mozart International Piano Competition, in addition to several prizes in Brazil.
An active recording artist, he has numerous CDs released with several labels, including 9 CDs with Naxos. Dossin is an editor and recording artist for several Schirmer Performance Editions. Dossin’s edition and recording of complete piano sonatas by W. A. Mozart (2-volume edition and recordings, Schirmer Performance Editions) was released in the fall of 2023. Other recent releases include the complete piano works by George Walker in 2 CDs with Naxos. A performance edition of the same works published by Keiser Southern Music will follow by the end of 2024. Soloist appearances in 2023-2024 include the Eugene Symphony, the Austin Symphony, Porto Alegre Symphony in Brazil and Orchestra Sinfonica Santa Croce in Italy, in addition to the West Coast premiere of George Walker’s piano concerto with the University of Oregon Philharmonia.
Dossin’s work was praised in reviews by Diapason, The Financial Times, Fanfare Magazine, American Record Guide, Clavier and other international publications.
Michael Miropolsky began his artistic career as principal violinist with the Moscow State Symphony, performed with the Radio and Television String Quartet in many countries around the world, and recorded internationally on the Melodiya label. He came to the United States in 1990 and was Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Opera until his retirement in 2022.
In 1999, Mr. Miropolsky founded the Seattle Violin Virtuosi and three years later, the Seattle Chamber Orchestra. He has released eight CDs with the aforementioned groups on the Ambassador label.
In 2002, he was chosen as the Music Director of the Cascade Symphony Orchestra. He released the orchestra’s first two CDs – Symphonic Treasures, followed by The Seven, with soprano Christina Kowalski. In 2009, Mr. Miropolsky was elected as the Music Director of the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra and has continued to serve as such since the orchestra became the Lake Washington Symphony Orchestra. He led the Seattle International Film Festival Orchestra in the SIFF Gala of 2012, and from 2013 through 2015 he conducted the Thalia Symphony Orchestra.
In 2011, with Rick Steves and the Cascade Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Miropolsky created the innovative program, Europe, a Symphonic Journey, which was released on both CD and DVD and received a 60-minute presentation on public television across the USA. In addition, the Maestro and the members of the Cascade Symphony published the orchestra’s first cookbook, Measures and Pleasures.
In 2015, Mr. Miropolsky published his memoir, Theme and Variations: My Life’s Journey. In his book, which contains commentary by Rick Steves and Melinda Bargreen, Michael Miropolsky shares the story of his eventful 60 years’ journey through life.
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