The 2018 Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival returns to Vicksburg every two years. The Gilmore has announced Elliot Wuu will be one of the young artists of exceptional talent who will play in Vicksburg. Wuu was presented with the Gilmore Young Artist Award (GYA) for 2018. The award comes after an extended period of critique by a six-member panel. The artists in question have no clue they’re being judged.
Wuu will take the stage on Sunday, May 6 at 3 p.m. in the Vicksburg Performing Arts Center as part of his concert tour in southwest Michigan.
The New York Times recently called The Gilmore’s selection process “the music world’s version of the MacArthur Foundation’s ‘genius’ grants: a prestigious prize that cannot be applied for or sought.”
Above and beyond the recognition of becoming a Gilmore Young Artist, alongside George Li, Yuja Wang, Jonathan Biss, Kirill Gerstein and 26 other established pianists, each winner receives a $15,000 stipend to further musical and educational endeavors as well as the commission of a new piano composition, to which the artist will have exclusive performance rights for one year.
Born in Fremont, California in 1999, Elliot Wuu began studying piano at age six. He was a pre-college student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and attended Valley Christian High School and Conservatory of the Arts in San Jose, Calif. Most recently, he has accepted a full scholarship to attend the Juilliard School.
In 2017, Wuu was named the winner of the National YoungArts Competition and was a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts semifinalist. He is a Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation and a 2016-2021 MTAC Young Artist Guild member, the highest honor bestowed to a California music student. In 2013, he was selected as one of the 12 pianists to participate in the inaugural Lang Lang Junior Music Camp in Munich, Germany.
Tickets for this event are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $5 for students 18 and under, and $25 for families of five or more. Reservations can be made by visiting vicksburgcommunityschools.org/pac or by calling the Vicksburg Performing Arts Center ticket office at 321-1193.