Piano star to play Western Friday

Twenty-two year-old Beatrice Rana will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 6 at the Western Washington University Concert Hall as part of the Sanford-Hill Piano Series.

Rana won Silver (2nd Prize) and the Audience Award at the prestigious Van Cliburn competition in June 2013; she had already attracted international attention at age 18, winning 1st Prize and all special prizes at the Montreal International competition in 2011.

Born in 1993 to a family of musicians, Rana made her debuts as a soloist with orchestra at the age of 9, performing Bach Concerto in F minor. She began her musical studies at four and achieved her Piano Degree at the age of sixteen with top marks, laude and honorable mention under the guidance of Benedetto Lupo at the Nino Rota Conservatory of Music in Monopoli, where she also studied composition with Marco della Sciucca. Lupo performed as part of the Sanford-Hill Piano Series in November of 2013.

Rana played in 2013 with Yannick Nézet-Seguin in Montreal, and in 2014 with the RAI Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Hall; and will play with the Detroit Symphony, the Accademia di Santa-Cecilia, the Queensland Symphony in Brisbane, the Filharmonica della Scala in Milan, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in 2015.

Rana was also selected in 2014 to perform at the International Music Festival of the Orpheum Foundation for advancement of Young Soloists at Zurich’s Tonhalle, with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducted by Zubin Mehta. She now studies with Arie Verdi in Hannover, Germany.

The quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, widely recognized as one of the world’s most important piano competitions, was organized by a group of music teachers and citizens from Fort Worth, Texas in 1962 to commemorate American pianist Van Cliburn’s sensational victory at the first Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow in 1958. His performance in Moscow heralded a new confidence in the quality of American music-making, as well as a new era in cultural relations between East and West. The completion celebrates Cliburn’s historic achievement and is dedicated to the discovery of the world’s finest pianists.
Tickets for Beatrice Rana’s performance are $16-40 and available at the WWU Box Office (360) 650-6146 or online at tickets.wwu.edu.

For the last 13 years, the Sanford Hill Piano Series has provided access to professional pianists from around the world for the students of Western Washington University and the greater community. The piano series is supported by its namesakes, Sibyl Sanford and WWU Emeritus Professor of Music, Ford Hill. Ticket proceeds benefits scholarships for WWU piano students. For more information about the series, visit wwu.edu/sanfordhill.