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Watch and Listen: Regional Winners of Steinway Competition for Young Pianists Live at WRTI, Part 2

This is the second of our special live concert broadcasts with the winners of the inaugural Steinway competition for young pianists. You'll hear Emma Liu (age 10), Petrina Steimel (age 12), and Max Wang (age 14). WRTI's Kevin Gordon is host.

Watch the broadcast recorded live on the WRTI Facebook page.

The competition was held at Steinway showrooms across the United States and Canada. Here in Philadelphia, students from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Maryland performed at Jacobs Music. Judging the competitors were Temple University’s Charles Abramovic, Immaculata University’s William Carr and Philadelphia Young Pianist Academy founder Ching-Yun Hu.

Emma Liu won third place in the first division. She has won several competitions for young players that took her  to the Kimmel Center and Carnegie Hall. Emma will play the Chopin Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat.

Petrina Steimel started playing the piano at the age of four. The 6th grader is homeschooled and also loves ballet, singing, and martial arts. Petrina will play The Cat and The Mouse by Aaron Copland.

Max Wang won 1st place in the second division and has been studying piano since he was 5 years old. Max also plays oboe in his school orchestra and will attend the Curtis Summerfest Young Artist Summer Program. Max will play Suite de Danzas Criollas, Op. 15 by Alberto Ginastera.

A veteran broadcaster, Kevin garnered a wealth of experience in radio before taking the weekday classical host position from 2 to 6 PM at WRTI, where he was on the air until his retirement in March 2023.