April 25, 2023

Leading up to the third edition of the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival, taking place this June in Dallas, Texas, the Cliburn presents a series of free Cliburn in the Community concerts this May, featuring two phenomenal past Junior competitors. Full schedule is below.

Korean pianist Jiwon Yang, now 21, took home third prize at the most recent Cliburn Junior in 2019. Currently studying on a full scholarship at the Mannes School of Music, she has since performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Steinway Hall New York, the Mannes Sounds Festival, and the American Yacht Club. Amir Siraj—who competed in the first-ever Cliburn Junior in 2015—has performed at the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, Millennium Park, and Carnegie Hall, and for the heads of state of Korea, Canada, and Jordan; now 23, he also graduated from Harvard last year with his master’s in astrophysics, was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2021, and made a scientific discovery that CNN called one of ten “extraordinary cosmic revelations” in 2022.