4 Utahns vying for Bachauer prizes

In an international competition where only 39 of the 140-plus potential contenders were invited to attend, four of the chosen ones are from Utah.

Song Choi, 15; Ruby Chou, 17; Kamala Schelling, 17; and Joshua Wright, 17, will be competing in this year's Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition.

On Friday, all four will be performing in concert in Libby Gardner Concert Hall.

"We want to show that there are really strong pianists in Utah with the brightest pianists from all over the world," said Kimi Kawashima, manager of the Gina Bachauer Foundations. "And we also want to get Salt Lake City excited about our competition this June."

The concert, she said, will feature selections from the youths' first and second rounds.

Choi will play Schubert's Impromptus Op. 19. "(She's a) very sophisticated player; I've heard some of her playing," Kawashima said.

Chou, who studies with Ning Lu at the University of Utah, will play selections by Bach and Rachmaninoff.

Schelling, a student of Vedrana Subotic, will perform selections of Mendelssohn.

"Then we have Joshua Wright, who also is from Salt Lake, and he studies with Susan Duehlmeier at the U.," Kawashima said. "If people watch 'Everwood,' I guess there's a character on that show that plays the piano, and he's the piano double.

"I think he's recorded all the Chopin Etudes, so we're going to be hearing him play some Chopin."

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If you go

What: local Gina Bachauer contestants

Where: Libby Gardner Concert Hall, University of Utah

When: tonight, 7:30.

How much: $7 at the door

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E-mail: rcline@desnews.com