Jessica Jiang, Steenbock Youth Music Award winner of the 2018 and 2020 Bolz Young Artist Competition (The Final Forte), plays Beethoven and shares feelings about the piano and music.
Our next story features Jessica Jiang, Steenbock Youth Music Award winner of the 2018 and 2020 Madison Symphony Orchestra Bolz Young Artist Competition (The Final Forte). Jessica’s story opens with an eight minute performance of the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 4 in Eb major.
Following her performance, is a seven minute interview where Jessica shares feelings about music and the vast emotions that are possible to express playing the piano — from meloncholy, to playful. She reflects upon moments when she realized music was vital in her life — one of them during the preliminary rounds of the 2018 Bolz Young Artist Competition — about how she focused on just the music, and her love of playing. She goes on to describe how performing with our orchestra in The Final Forte was a life changing experience, how classical music helps bring people together as one, ideas for young musicians, and more…
About Jessica Jiang
Jessica is a sixteen year-old rising senior. She has been playing piano since four years old, and is currently studying with Mr. Bill Lutes. Jessica was the Steenbock Youth Music Award winner of the 2018 and 2020 Madison Symphony Orchestra Bolz Young Artist Competition (The Final Forte) in Overture Hall, where she made her debut stage. She has also won the 2020 Kristo Orthodontics Young Artist Competition, and the Jan and Thomas Brock Award in the 2020 Richard Record Rising Stars Concerto Competition, organized by the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra. Jessica was a winner of the National Steinway Junior Piano Competition (first place, 2018, Division II, Madison site; second place, 2019, Division III, Appleton Site), and advanced from the state-level MTNA National Student Competitions, representing Wisconsin as the state-level winner in the Junior Piano category in 2018. She was the third place winner of the 2019 Wisconsin Youth Piano Competition organized by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and PianoArts. Besides playing piano, Jessica has been studying violin since she was ten, and is an accoladed violinist. She is a member of the Youth Orchestra in WYSO and earned honorable mention in the Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition in 2018. She was second place in the Kristo Orthodontics Young Artist Competition and earned an honorable mention in the Forte’s 2019 Stars of Tomorrow Auditions, allowing her to perform side-by-side with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at the Audrey G. Baird Stars of Tomorrow Concert. She performed for and was instructed by James Ehnes at a Masterclass organized by the Madison Symphony Orchestra in 2019. Jessica was also a finalist in the 2020 UW-Madison Summer Music Clinic Tuition Remission Award Program on the violin. Aside from music, Jessica loves art and has had her drawings on display in her school gallery. She excels in math and writing and serves as a Co-Editor in Chief of her school paper. She is a captain of the Varsity Tennis Team and has won multiple Conference and Sectional championships..
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Experience Jessica Jiang’s video story that is a part of the “Home Is Where the Art Is, Young Artist Series”:
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