Warmest congratulations to Gary Beecher and his duo-partner Erika Baikoff, who have just won 1st Prize in Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Voice-Piano Competition.
Gary Beecher is currently in the second year of the Taught MA in Piano Performance at the CIT Cork School of Music, studying with Michael McHale.
Gary started piano as a young student in CSM with Susan Čáp and subsequently finished his BMus studies here with Jan Čáp. He won the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year Competition in Dublin in 2014, representing the CIT Cork School of Music, and was featured as a soloist with the RTE Symphony Orchestra.
He then started his Taught MA studies under the supervision of Dr. Gabriela Mayer, and went on to the Guildhall School of Music to pursue a specialized course in collaborative piano.
Gary is very active as a performer and has won several prizes for his excellent lied accompaniment. Most recently, Gary won the "Rudolf Jansen Pianist Prize" at the IVC Lied Duo Competition in the Netherlands.
The Competition took place at the famous concert hall of the Ancien Conservatoire, now Conservatoire national supérieur d’Art dramatique in Paris.
Concert engagements and a substantial monetary prize make this a very significant win for Gary and Erika.