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Piano at Western

James Masschelein, BMus (Piano Performance) graduate performing in von Kuster Hall

The Don Wright Faculty of Music offers piano students diverse course options, including solo & duo classes, piano pedagogy, piano literature, and collaborative musicianship. There are many performance opportunities for students including solo and studio recitals, weekly faculty-led masterclasses, and ensembles, plus competitions and awards including the Fred Pattison Piano Competition, Maritsa Brookes Concerto Competition, Young-Ja Park Chamber Music Competition and the London Music Scholarship Foundation Endowment Award.

Western Music also offers learning opportunities and masterclasses with international artists of renown. 

Our yearly Parsons and Poole Concert and Masterclass has featured world-class pianists including Marc-André Hamelin, Menahem Pressler, Angela Hewitt, Jon Kimura Parker and Yekwon Sunwoo. Western Music also offers additional learning opportunities with national and international guests of renown.

The Music Building and Talbot College house over 100 practice rooms, studios, and large and small rehearsal spaces, plus three modern performance venues with concert pianos and state-of-the-art recording capabilities. We have approximately 150 pianos of excellent quality and maintenance, including 75 grand pianos and 75 upright pianos, plus 25 digital keyboards. Our practice rooms hold 35 uprights and 15 grands, available for student use.

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In the Spotlight

August 2023
DMA piano student Jingquan Xie named one of two top finalists from Western at Chicago International Music Competition

May 2023
DMA (Collaborative Piano) student Gankun Zhang accepted to COC Summer Opera Intensive

January 2023
Terrence Wu wins 2022-2023 Fred Pattison Piano Award Competition

November 2022
DMA student Yumi Jang earns Gold Prize in 2022 International European Classical Music Pianist Award competition

February 2022
Piano students Liana Grace and Terrence Wu awarded 1st and 2nd place in the 2021-22 Maritsa Brookes Concerto Competition

In Performance & Behind the Scenes

Terrence Wu, BMus (Performance – Piano) 
On Dec 5, 2020, Terrence Wu, second-year Bachelor of Music (Honours) student and winner of the 2019-20 Fred Pattison Piano Competition performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op.37 with the Western University Symphony Orchestra. Conductor, Simone Luti.

Terrence Wu talks about preparing to play a piano concerto with orchestra for the first time, as well as his experience as a student at the Don Wright Faculty of Music.

 

Christian Golding, BMus'16, MMus'18
On April 1, 2017, Western Music alumni Christian Golding performed Beethoven's majestic "Emperor" Piano Concerto No. 5, Op.73 with the Western University Symphony Orchestra during their final concert of the year. In an interview with conductor Tyrone Paterson, Christian speaks about his performance and plays an excerpt from the piece.

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Alumni of Note

Brian Cho, BMusA’16, Artist Diploma’18, MMus’21 (Literature and Performance - Collaborative Piano)
Featured in Opera Canada’s “New on the scene” article, Winter 2022-23 edition

Dan Luong, BMus’15, MMus’19 
Among several recent accomplishments, Dan was the single keyboardist selected for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYO Canada) 2021 summer tour.

Francesco Milioto, BMus’96 (Music Performance – Piano) 
Appointed as Opera San Antonio's first Music Director. He is also on the music staff with the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra.

John Yun, MMus’12
Associate music director for the Alicia Keys musical Hells Kitchen, which opened on Broadway in April 2024. Performed at the 2021 Tony Awards and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, was associate music conductor on a worldwide tour of the musical West Side Story, and associate conductor of Tina: the Tina Turner Musical on Broadway. Read Western News article (April 18, 2024)