Saturday, Oct. 7, 9-3 pm
Registration Deadline: Sep. 29
FAC 214
UMTA hosts Performance Evaluations across the state in early Fall. Participation ranges from 250 to 400 musicians each year. Well-qualified judges provide insightful comments which benefit students and teachers, alike. This is not a competitive event.
Judges in each region select the top performers (20%) per age division. These participants are then invited to perform at the Honors Recitals held in conjunction with the UMTA State Conference, the first weekend of November.
UMTA teachers are encouraged to send students with polished memorized repertoire to the regional events in all playing levels from beginning to advanced. All instruments are welcomed, including piano duets. (One piano provided at evaluations and honors recital.) The public is invited to attend the UMTA Honors Recitals at no charge. These recitals provide an excellent way to see some of the best performers within each age group from around the state.
Application Fees
| YC Students & YC Community All Access Pass Holders | Included |
|---|---|
| Piano K-12 Solo, Duet, Ensemble | $12 |
| Piano Collegiate and Adult Solo, Duet, Ensemble | $15 |
| Instrumental and Vocal Solo, Duet, Ensemble | $15 |
Repertoire Guidelines & Time Limits
- Solo Division: 1 or 2 pieces. Memorization is encouraged, but not required. All entries should be high performance quality. If the piece is unmemorized, an original copy must be used by the student and a second original copy must be available for the judge.
- Duet entries are allowed and may also consist of 1 or 2 pieces. The division entered is determined by the average of the student’s ages rounded down. Original music is required for the judges, and if the duet is not memorized the performers must also use original music. Duets do not have to be memorized to be duly considered for the state honors recital.
- Two piano duets are eligible this year. Please contact your region chair for more information on how to enter this division. No piano concertos will be accepted. Your region may not have two pianos available, and you may need to enter the online division. Please plan accordingly.
- Instrumental and vocal entries are accepted and are judged separately.
| Age | Repertoire Guideline | Total Time Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Grades K-6, 7-9 |
Any style and composer including arrangements | 7 minutes |
| Grades 10-12 |
Baroque, Classical, Romantic or Contemporary Repertoire (no arrangements) | 10 minutes |
| College & Adult | Baroque, Classical, Romantic or Contemporary Repertoire (no arrangements) | 10 minutes |
2023 Adjudicator
Kasman Laude appears as a guest artist and teacher at the invitation of such festivals as International Keyboard Institute and Festival, Southeastern Piano Festival, Utah State University Summer Piano Festival, Kyiv International Summer Academy (Ukraine), Baia Mare (Romania), Busan International Music Academy (South Korea), and PianoCity Milano (Italy). She has given solo recitals at such major venues as Steinway Hall in New York City, Yamaha Ginza Hall in Tokyo, Salle Cortot in Paris, and Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. In 2019, she was named a Young Artist-in-Residence of National Public Radio’s Performance Today, hosted by Fred Child. Her playing and interviews have been broadcast on NPR stations nationwide. This year, Kasman Laude performs for the Birmingham Chamber Music Society, Eisendrath Series of Ann Arbor, MI, InConcert Series of Apalachicola, FL, International Keyboard Odyssiad and Festival, Vivace International Music Festival, and pianoSonoma, and is a soloist with the Dayton and Ann Arbor symphony orchestras.
Kasman Laude has triumphed in numerous international competitions; most recently, she became a finalist in the 2022 Honens International Piano Competition (Canada). She has been a soloist with over a dozen symphony orchestras in the USA and abroad, including the Juilliard Orchestra and Calgary Symphony, and has appeared seven times with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. She has worked under the batons of maestros including Jeffrey Kahane, Neal Gittleman, Gregory Vajda, Jeffrey Milarsky, Yaniv Attar, Christopher Confessore, Jacques Cohen, Mykola Dyadura, Nazar Yakobenchuk, and Natalia Ponomarchuk. Kasman Laude is an advocate and experienced performer of contemporary music, premiering works of living composers Stewart Goodyear, Marc Migó, Nathan Daughtrey, Zachary Detrick, and Eric Mobley. In addition to her vibrant solo playing, Kasman Laude is an enthusiastic chamber musician and has collaborated with such distinguished players as Martin Beaver, Blake Pouliot, the Viano and Aeolus String Quartets, and the New York Chamber Players. She and her father Yakov Kasman have been an internationally-touring piano duo for fourteen years.
A native of Moscow, Kasman Laude began her musical studies with her parents, acclaimed pianists and pedagogues Yakov and Tatiana Kasman. She continued studying with her father at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and received an MM degree from the Juilliard School, studying with Robert McDonald. At UM, Kasman Laude is a Rackham doctoral candidate, studying with Logan Skelton. Kasman Laude maintains her own private piano studio and has lectured and taught masterclasses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lee University, Utah State University, Bowling Green State University, and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. She is passionate about music outreach and has given over one hundred educational performances in schools and community venues in large part as a Fellow of PianoArts of Wisconsin. In her leisure time, she enjoys beating her husband in chess and transcribing Soviet film music.
