Sumter piano students excel in S.C. Piano Festival

SUBMITTED

Sumter piano students Katie Hanson, 9, Ananda Bucci, 11, Ethan Geter, 7, Lauren Tomlin, 10, and Anna Krueger, 15, received top ratings of Superior Plus (1+) and Superior (1) in the South Carolina Piano Festival Auditions held on Saturday, March 1, at the University of South Carolina School of Music in Columbia. All five pianists are students of Jane Luther Smith, 304 W. Wesmark Blvd., Sumter.

In addition to winning the Superior Plus award, Ethan was chosen to play in the South Carolina Piano Festival State Honors Recital at USC School of Music in Columbia on Saturday, March 15, at 1:30 p.m. The public is invited. Admission is free. Ethan was designated as the Honorable Mention Winner for the entire Early Elementary Division.

Elementary, Junior and Senior Division students were judged by out-of-state adjudicators on their performances of three memorized pieces chosen from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary musical periods. Early Elementary Division students were required to play two memorized pieces from the above repertoire.