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Ticket form for official guests of the 2025 Cliburn Competition

Adriana Morales grew up in Colombia, where she studied piano from early childhood through high school. A scholarship to Texas Christian University brought her to the United States, where she earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in piano pedagogy (teaching). During her studies, Ms. Morales developed an interest in jazz and joined the Curt Wilson Big Band. She also won the Young Artist Performing Series Competition in her hometown and performed in one of Colombia’s finest concert halls, the Library Hall Luis Angel Arango.

On Jonathan Mak’s third birthday, his sister’s piano teacher decided to give him a trial lesson; he has been actively studying both piano and viola ever since. He made his orchestra debut with the Canadian Sinfonietta just one year later, at the age of 4.

Born in Perth, Australia, Shuan Hern Lee started taking piano, vocal, music theory, and composition lessons with his father, Yoon Sen Lee, when he was 2½ years old. His childhood home was filled with music at all hours of the day, as both parents taught piano.

Till Fellner’s international career began in 1993 with the first prize at the renowned Concours Clara Haskil in Vevey, Switzerland. Since then, he has been a sought-after guest at the major orchestras and the music centers of Europe, the United States, and Japan, as well as at numerous festivals. He currently teaches in Zurich and Graz.

When she was 6, Elizaveta Kliuchereva—who was born in Moscow into a family of visual artists—was walking in the corridors of her art school and found a very old piano standing in the corner. She says: “From the moment I saw the piano and opened the keyboard, I realized that it is going to be my life, and I would not be able to live without music.”

When he was a child, Ziyu Liu’s parents discovered that he could memorize melodies of songs and play them, without any instruction, on their electric keyboard. They bought him a piano, and he started learning on his own. At the age of 11, he decided that he wanted to become a professional pianist because of the joy he got from communicating with others through music.

After Vitaly Starikov completed his studies at the Ural Special Music School in his native Yekaterinburg, his “dream came true” when he began studying with Vera Gornostayeva, one of the world’s most venerated teachers, at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. At that time, her student, Vadym Kholodenko, had just won the 2013 Cliburn Competition, which “greatly inspired” Vitaly: “and it was then that the thought was born to someday participate in this competition.”

Nicholas Mcgegan, Conductor

Yangrui Cai began his piano studies at age 4, though none of his family had any music- or art-related background. When he was 15, a first-place finish in the national auditions earned him a spot in China’s Xinghai Conservatory of Music Middle School. Upon his graduation with distinction in July 2019, the Hunan native was admitted to several prestigious conservatories in the United States with full scholarships. He is currently a third-year undergraduate student at Oberlin Conservatory, under the tutelage of 2001 Cliburn Gold Medalist Stanislav Ioudenitch.