Brandon Stewart Wins the MTNA National Competition

Prize: $45,000.00 Steinway Grand Piano

From BYU Newsnet

After winning first place in a prestigious piano competition, a BYU student will fly to New York to receive his heavier-than-average trophy — a Steinway piano worth approximately $45,000.

Brandon Stewart won the Music Teachers National Association national collegiate-level music competition in Seattle on April 4. For winning the competition, Steinway & Sons, a piano manufacturer, brings the winner to New York to personally pick out a piano from their collection.

Stewart, a junior from Fountain Valley California, has played the piano since age 5. He won first place at the state and regional competitions in March to make it to the national competition. In Seattle, he competed against students from prominent universities and conservatories from across the country.

For the national competition, the competitors played in front of three judges for 50 minutes, and their performance included a full concerto and several solo pieces.

Stewart’s mother, sister and teacher, who attended the competition and awards ceremony, were “shocked but totally excited,” Stewart said.

"It was one of the most thrilling experiences of my teaching career," said BYU professor of music Irene Peery-Fox. Peery-Fox has been Stewart's piano instructor for the past five years.

"I am just so proud of Brandon," she said. "He is an incredibly gifted pianist, and he just did everything I ever taught him and more."

Stewart said his win shows how great BYU's School of Music is because its students have to balance music classes with classes from other disciplines, unlike students at music conservatories such as Oberlin and Julliard who only study music.

The competition was extremely tough, and since music competitions are judged subjectively, Peery-Fox was not sure if Stewart would win. She said after the awards ceremony, another music teacher told her that she sat behind the judges’ table and heard one judge tell another that Stewart was ‘just fabulous.’

Stewart said Peery-Fox is an incredible teacher because she is motivational and requires a lot of her students, but in the end the effort is worth it and she deserves a lot of the credit for his win.

Stewart said next year he plans to audition for several conservatories and he thinks this competition has opened the doors of those schools for him.

Peery-Fox, who has taught piano for more than 40 years, said she thinks Stewart’s win will promote his career.

"He is just a humble, teachable, trusting person," Peery-Fox said. "There is not a bit of arrogance in his performance, and when you combine that with his natural ability to communicate with the audience, that makes a prize-winning combination."

From: http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/55235

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Brandon Stewart Wins the MTNA National Competition

Prize: $45,000.00 Steinway Grand Piano

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