Pianists Kevin Kong and Penny Luan, both students in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district, are winners of the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra 2011 Young Artists Concerto Competition. They will be featured in the season finale, “A Concerto Extravaganza,” on Sunday, May 22, at 7 p.m. at Princeton Alliance Church, 20 Schalks Crossing Road, Plainsboro. The concert will be conducted by Bravura’s music director and conductor, Chiu-Tze Lin. Tickets are $15 to $25.
Kong and Luan were selected from a group of more than 45 contestants from all across New Jersey to participate in the competition, which was held in late February.
Kong will be performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor. Luan will be playing Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor. Two other winners, flutist Jessica Hu of Marlboro and cellist Noah Lee of Oakland, will perform Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G Major and Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto in A minor, respectively. The orchestra will also perform Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony.
Kong, 14, is an eighth grade student at Community Middle School. He plays both piano and violin. He enjoys giving music back to the community and has performed in area nursing and senior citizen homes.
Currently studying piano with Chiu-Ling Lin of West Windsor, his former teachers include Chiu-Tze Lin and Michael Jacobson. Kong has won many piano competitions, including the first prize in the New Jersey Music Teachers Association (NJMTA) Young Musicians Competition for three years.
Most recently, Kong was chosen as a 2011 Elmer & Louis Menges Scholarship Award winner and will be featured as a soloist with the Ambler Symphony Orchestra in February, 2012. He is a two-time winner of both the Music Teacher National Association Junior Piano Division and the Greater Princeton Steinway Society competitions. Kong won the Golden Key Festival Auditions, and as a result, received the opportunity to perform at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In 2005 Kong received the highest score in the examination of the Associated Board of Royal School of Music (ABRSM) in the tri-state area.
Kong studied violin with Philip Pugh and Dezheng Ping and plays in Community’s orchestra. He was the winner of the Westminster Conservatory Scholarship Competition for violin.
Luan, 14, a freshman at High School South, also plays piano and violin. She is concertmaster of the String Ensemble, president of the Freshman Orchestra Council, and a member of the High School South Quartet. Luan is also on the track and swim teams.
A student of Chiu-Tze Lin for the past six years, Luan also has studied with Ingrid Clarfield and San-Wa Ching. She is the youngest person to receive the diploma from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (DipABRSM) in the tri-state area for piano performance, at the age of 12. She has won numerous competitions, including the Greater Princeton Steinway Society Competition, the NJMTA Young Musicians Competition, the Cecilian Music Club Young Artists Competition, and the Golden Key Piano Competition. Luan has performed at the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In addition, she has traveled with the Northeastern American Arts Troupe to China, where she performed at the Shanghai Grand Theater and the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center.
Aside from her piano, Luan is an avid violinist. She currently studies violin with Hua-Yi Wang. She was a member of the Central Jersey Music Educators Association Region II High School Orchestra, and also participated in the Manalapan Battleground Symphony Orchestra.
— Lynn Miller
A Concerto Extravaganza, Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, Princeton Alliance Church, 20 Schalks Crossing Road, Plainsboro. Sunday, May 22, 7 p.m. $15 to $25. 609-790-9559. www.bravuraphil.org.
