It’s been over a year since the Final Concerto Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition (CIPC) and our winners received their medals. We thought we would check back in with each of them to see what they are up to and what we can expect to see next.
Photo By Roger Mastroianni
Following his triumph as the CIPC Mixon First Prize winner, James (Zijian) Wei describes his busy itinerary as a “happy dilemma.” As the winner of the G. Henle Verlag Urtext Prize, he was invited to Henle for a tour of their headquarters and a recital in Munich. He recounts the visit fondly, saying, “Although it was only for a short day, it deeply touched me. They pursue details and don’t let go of any part of the score, striving to provide the best score experience for students and performers, which is truly admirable.”
Thanks to his victory, James has more solo recitals than there are dates available on his calendar. In China alone, he gave 20 recitals, performing Liszt Piano Concerto No.1, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5, and Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3, among others. James made his debut in France, playing to an enthusiastic Salle Cortot audience, who took to sitting on the stairs once every seat in the house was filled. He also traveled to Brazil, playing to a sold-out crowd in São Paulo.
Throughout James’ travels, Cleveland remains close to his heart. In June, he returned to play ChamberFest Cleveland—the result of the special ChamberFest Prize he won during the CIPC. He will come back to Cleveland again this October to perform a recital as part of his residency with the Cleveland Institute of Music where he will teach alongside two fellow CIPC medalists and CIM faculty, Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Ilya Itin, as well as Daria Rabotkina. From Cleveland, James will head to New York City where he will make his Carnegie Hall debut concert playing a repertoire focusing on the theme of wandering.
I want to say that everything I have now is because of Cleveland. Thank you again, Cleveland, Piano Cleveland, and all of you in Cleveland. I look forward to our meeting in October. Music is the language of the world, and I will express my love for you all through music.
-James (Zijian) Wei
Since securing Second Prize at the 2024 CIPC, Evren Ozel has been able truly enjoy the life of a concertizing musician, playing solo recitals on wonderful series such as La Jolla Music Society, Capital Region Classical and Cal Performances using much of the repertoire he performed in Cleveland. He notes that since securing his CIPC medal he has had more international travel in one year than all his life prior to the award. He has played in Positano, Italy; Bogota, Columbia; St. Thomas, USVI; Eygalières, France; and, as a direct result of CIPC’s presentorships, Paris, France and Kraatz, Germany. He has also had chamber music collaborations in Tippet Rise, MT; Napa Valley, CA; San Francisco Performances; Vail, CO as part of Bravo!; Caramoor in Katonah, NY, a tour with Musicians from Marlboro; and several performances with Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society as a member of their Bowers Program. If anyone in the classical piano world didn’t know the name Evren Ozel, he remedied that by winning bronze at the Cliburn Competition as well as the prize for best Mozart Concerto.
If you want to hear Evren play but can’t make it to one of his many recitals, he has recorded two Mozart Concerti with the Vienna Radio Orchestra—the first of which has been released to critical acclaim, including a 5-star review from BBC Music Magazine!
CIPC Third Prize winner Maxim Lando has, like his cohort of fellow medalists, been a travelin’ man this past year, playing a 9-city US tour of Dvorak Piano Concerto with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Steven Mercurio and making debuts with the Columbus Symphony, Arizona Musicfest Festival Orchestra, Anchorage Symphony, Maryland Symphony, Pensacola Symphony, and San Luis Obispo Symphony. More recently, Maxim performed Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony and Manuel de Falla Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Liszt/Busoni Rhapsodie Espagnole in the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra at Millennium Park, Chicago. Somewhere in his schedule he also managed to squeeze in five performances at the Moritzburg Festival in Germany.
Following his 2024 The Playoff Audience Prize at the CIPC, Maxim turned around and won both the Audience Award and the Arnold Freymuth Special Prize at the 2024 International German Piano Award. This year, he was awarded the Khaledi Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Classical Music from Festival Napa Valley.
At the time of this writing, Maxim is touring with long-time Piano Cleveland partner, The Concert Truck. As part of the 2024 CIPC, contestants performed free community concerts with The Concert Truck What began as a mentorship between Maxim and The Concert Truck’s founder and director Susan Zhang evolved into a series of Cleveland/Akron area performances through Tuesday Musical.
If you didn’t get a chance to hear Maxim with The Concert Truck, he will continue his globetrotting with a performance of Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with The Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra at the Alte Oper Frankfurt this September. He also is working on a recording of Saint Saëns Piano Concerto No. 4 with ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna for the “New Talents Edition” of Capriccio label of Naxos.
Following his Fourth Prize and Beethoven Prize wins during the 2024 CIPC, Giuseppe Guarrera secured management with Keynote Artist Management in London, which has opened up many new doors for him professionally. He also performed at Salle Cortot in what he calls “an unforgettable experience.”
Giuseppe’s career has thrived with large-scale endeavors, including the organization of a music festival on Mount Etna as well as the project for his Arts Entrepreneurship Residency with Kent State University where he is working with Dr. Nick Petrella, assistant professor in the College of the Arts at Kent State and Entrepreneur-In-Residence in the John S. and Marlene J. Brinzo Center for Entrepreneurship.
Giuseppe has also devoted much of his time to teaching at both Barenboim-Said Akademie and in Palmero. In the past year, he counts his performance at the Verbier Festival as a highlight and is looking forward to returning to Montreal for a recital as well as making his concert debut in Toronto. He will also be performing at Piano en Valois Festival and Teatro Politeama de Palmero. In 2026, he will return to northeast Ohio for the in-person portion of his Kent State residency.