The Aspen Music Festival and School is the United States’ premier classical music festival and school, noted both for its concert programming and its musical training of mostly young-adult music students. The Simms/Mann Family Foundation knows how important it is for young musicians to be exposed to transformational artistic experiences by world class teachers and peers.
In 2000, this belief led the Foundation to endow a Piano Chair at the Aspen Music Festival and School. The Chair is awarded to a member of the Aspen piano faculty for special recognition of teaching prominence. This gift also supports two Aspen Music Festival and School piano students annually. Over the last sixteen years the Foundation gift has given over thirty young musicians the opportunity to attend the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Piano Chair Listing
- Ann Schein – Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute
- Yoheved Kaplinsky – The Juilliard School
- John O’Conor – Belvedere College
- Choong Mo Kang – The Juilliard School
- Richard Aaron – The Juilliard School
- Gabriel Chodos – New England Conservatory
- John Perry – University of Southern California
Piano Students
- 2004 – Michael Shinn, Liany Farinas
- 2005 – PuoChi Huang, Yuan Tian
- 2006 – Jose Menor, Esther Shin
- 2007 – Jose Menor, Esther Shin
- 2008 – Dariya Bukhartseva, Daniel Walden
- 2009 – Steven Lin, Hanbo Liu
- 2010 – Steven Lin, Hanbo Liu
- 2011 – Silvan Negrutiu, Dimitri Papadimitriou
- 2012 – Hyun Jung Kim, Amanda Gessler
- 2013 – Hyung-Do Kim, Carmen Knoll
- 2014 – Taek Gi Lee, Tsotne Tsotskhalashivili
- 2015 – Jiacheng Xiong, Qixuan Fan
- 2016 – Jiacheng Xiong, Dongxu Jin
- 2017 – Dongxu Jin, Harmony Zhu, Jonathan Heifetz
- 2018 – Elliot Wuu, Harmony Zhu, Eyul Esme Bolucek, Micah McLaurin
- 2019 – Harmony Zhu, Daniela Liebman, Yuval Hen