2025 Concerto Competition Winners

The winners of the 2025 Concerto Competition are classical guitarist Eric Wang '26 and pianist Charles Li '25. Congratulations to Eric, who majors in Physics and Music, and Charles, who majors in Mathematics! Charles will perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K. 453, on Stanford Philharmonia's Spring Concert on 10 May 2025 in Bing Concert Hall. Eric will perform Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez on the Stanford Symphony Orchestra's Fall Concerts in Bing on 14 & 16 November 2025.
All of the students who participated in today's competition performed at an extremely high level and deserve commendation for their excellent preparation. Sincere thanks and acknowledgment to the superb collaborative pianists; to the instructors of all the participants; to SunYoung Park and Daniel Valdez for ably handling the production aspects of the competition; to the faculty who administered the Preliminary Competitions in November; and to all of the students who played in those competitions this past fall. I also wish to thank and acknowledge the outstanding judges of today's competition, violinist Nadya Tichman and conductor John Eells. Nadya Tichman was a member of the San Francisco Symphony from 1980 until 2024, serving as Associate Concertmaster from 1990-2022 and as Acting Concertmaster from 1998 to 2001. John Eells has been Music Director of the Golden State Youth Orchestra, Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra, and Rhode Island Philharmonic Community Orchestra, and has guest conducted throughout the US as well as in the UK and Russia.