State Competition: Winners will represent our district in the annual State Conference in June!
3 Recital Times: 1:15pm, 2:15pm, 3:15pm
Judges: Dr. Beverly Serra-Brooks & Dr. Kay Zavislak
Kay Zavislak:
American pianist Kay Zavislak enjoys a multi-faceted career as a performer, teacher, adjudicator, and clinician. Spending her formative years in Japan, Ms. Zavislak attended the Toho Gakuen High School of Music, one of the most prestigious conservatories in Japan. Ms. Zavislak then moved to the U.S. and earned the degrees Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan.
As a performer, Kay Zavislak has given solo recitals and chamber concerts regionally and nationally, in addition to public performances in Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, and Poland. In collaboration with flutist Leonard Garrison and saxophonist Bill Perconti, Ms. Zavislak has also recorded two commercial CDs for Centaur Records.
In 2001, Ms. Zavislak was named a winner of the concerto competition at the University of Michigan. Her other awards include first prize in the Frances Walton Competition, second prize in the Richardson Young Artist Award Competition, second prize in the All-Tohoku Piano Competition in Japan, and third prize in the William Byrd International Concerto Competition.
Many of Ms. Zavislak’s university and pre-college students have received top prizes and honors in a number of regional piano festivals and competitions, such as the Music Fest Northwest in Spokane, Sonata-Sonatina Festival in Ellensburg, Northern Idaho Piano Festival, Spokane Piano Competition, Music Teachers National Association Idaho State and Washington State Competitions, and MTNA Northwest Regional Competition.
Before joining her family in Bellingham in 2013, Ms. Zavislak was an Assistant Professor of Piano and the Keyboard Area Coordinator at the University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of Music. In addition, she has held teaching positions at Schoolcraft College, Albion College, and the University of Michigan. She studied piano under the guidance of Arthur Greene, Logan Skelton, Yoshie Kora, and Miyoko Hamamoto, harpsichord with Edward Parmentier, and organ with Marilyn Mason.
Dr. Beverly Serra-Brooks
The American pianist, Beverly Serra-Brooks, studied with James H. Shearer in Pasadena, California, with Dr. Reginald Stewart at the Music Academy of the West, and with Leonid Hambro at the California Institute of the Arts where she received her B.F.A. She received her Masters of Music diploma in piano at the California State University in Northridge, her Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Piano from Claremont Graduate University, and her Artist Diploma at the American Conservatory in Fountebleau, France, where her piano coaches included Michel Béroff and Idil Biret. She also studied with Jerome Lowenthal in New York and with Jörg Demus in Austria.
Beverly Serra-Brooks is a winner of numerous prizes and awards including the Harpo Marx Foundation, James Irvine Foundation and Pillsbury Foundation Music Awards, the Music Arts Club, the Simone Belsky Piano Competition and Fellowships from the International Institute for Chamber Music in Germany and the Music Academy of the West. She is a recipient of an American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France Performance Scholarship, where she was featured in the famed Salle du jeu de Paume Recital Series. She won Gold Medals at the Artists International Competition and the Music-Arts Competition.
A favorite with audiences for her sensitive and exciting interpretations, Beverly Serra-Brooks hails from a long line of Romantics. A winner in the 1997 Artists International Competition, she made her New York Recital Debut at Carnegie Hall on January 11, 1998. She made her west coast Debut in 1993 at the Japan-America Theater in Los Angeles and since then has been performing in concert halls across the USA. Abroad she has concertized in Austria, Germany and France as well as Guest Artist appearances in the American New Music Consortium's Concert Tour of Italy. She gave solo recital on the Schumann-Haus Festival Series in Leipzig, Germany, and concerto performance of Rhapsody In Blue with the Tigard Symphony. Serra-Brooks concertized in Paris, France this past summer and has recently performed at Johns-Hopkins University in Shriver Hall, as Guest Artist in the Carmel Performing Arts Festival in northern California and in a live recital over KUSC radio from the Bing Auditorium in Los Angeles. She has also been a Guest Artist on the List-Glen Festival Young Artist Series, Kawai-America & Cerritos College subscription series, Fullerton Symphony Concert Series, Prescott College Elks Theater 90th Anniversary Series, Verde Valley Concert Association Series and Gila Valley Concert Series in Arizona. She participated in the West Coast Premiere in Los Angeles of Aaron Jay Kernis' Trio In Red for Piano, Cello & Clarinet with Erika Duke, cellist and Roy Sanders, clarinet.
Her recordings include: "From The Musical Tree: Works by Bach, Beethoven, Debussy & Liszt" (Eroica Classical, 2000), and "Song of A Country Priest: American Solo Piano Works" (Eroica Classical, 2007). Two new CD's with Eroica Classical CD Recordings are slated for release in early 2010 - the works of Arnold Schoenberg Op. 19, Haydn Variations in F minor, and Johannes Brahms Intermezzi, then a CD of Robert Schumann works & Frédéric Chopin Nocturnes for the 2010 anniversarys; and, in 2011 - more J.S. Bach keyboard works.
Beverly Serra-Brooks, who has been performing on the professional stage for more than a decade, was named as “One of the World’s 100 Best Classical Musicians” by the International Who’s Who of Music and Musician’s Board in Cambridge, England. She received the award at a ceremony in early Spring 2005 in Europe. She was especially honored by the nomination since it is one that the board in England decides on their own after reviewing a musician’s work and visiting ‘live’ performances, rather than a competition in which the musicians vie. Ms. Serra-Brooks will also be published by the International Biographical Center, and her recording, reviews and biography are placed in the Museum of International Musicians in London, England. In 2000 she was elected as one of Most Notable Women In America (Millennium award), and also received the California Maguire Award for Music.