Dr. Henning Vauth, a professor of piano in Marshall University’s School of Music, traveled to Taipei, Taiwan, Feb. 6-18 to be a member of the faculty and jury for the International Maestro Piano Festival and Competition.
He also performed a piano solo portion in a shared recital with two others, Professor Andreas Frölich of the University of Cologne in Germany, and Professor Hee-Sung Joo of Seoul National University in Korea at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. Vauth performed pieces from Franz Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage, Vol. 1: Suisse (Chapelle de Guillaume Tell, Au Lac de Wallenstadt, and Le mal du pays), and Theodor Leschetizky’s Andante finale de Lucia di Lammermoor, Op. 13, for the left hand only.
Vauth also taught piano lessons to 28 students at the festival and adjudicated the semifinal and final rounds of the International Maestro Piano Competition as part of a 12-member jury, including renowned musicians such as Pascal Rogé, Abdel Rahman El Bacha and others. The final round consisted of a performance with the Taipei Philharmonic (National Symphony Orchestra). The four finalists performed concertos by Mozart, Chopin and Tchaikovsky.
Competitors and festival participants came from countries around the world, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Japan, Korea, France, the Philippines, Russia and Singapore, as well as the United States, Taiwan and others.
Vauth replaced Jerome Lowenthal of the Juilliard School, who was unable to come, on a three day-notice by request of Professor Chun-Chieh Yen, artistic director of the International Maestro and Piano Festival and Competition and associate professor at the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.
“The event was covered in national media and I got to shake hands with the Taiwanese Minister of Education. It was wonderful to see and hear so many young pianists (122 active festival participants) striving for musical beauty with total focus and dedication,” Vauth said. “One of the Taiwanese participants whom I had met at a different music festival in the U.S. a few years ago, sent me a private message and said he hadn’t been happy with his performance at one of the recitals and therefore went back to practice for two hours that night. He was one of several students I had previously met both in the U.S. and in Taiwan.”
“I was inspired and humbled in the presence of the renowned international jury—what an honor to be in the company of these world famous pedagogues and pianists,” he continued.
“Last, but not least, the food was amazing.”