For anyone who has ever been interested in music or has ever wanted to learn more about music, there is a spectacular event taking place right now in the Cleveland Play House that you must attend. The Cleveland International Piano Competition has been going on since July 27 and the finalist will be selected on August 7. The event features performances from 35 of the world’s most talented young concert pianists and within a ten day period only one can be named the best. With this distinct honor not only comes the Mixon prize, a $50,000 award, but also worldwide concert engagements and an internationally distributed compact disc recording.

The best of the best. There are very few instances in one’s life time where one has the opportunity to witness the most talented, driven, and hard working individuals perform on a stage something that they have been working on perfecting all of their lives. The years that these musicians have practiced will all come down to a few performances that will be exciting and wonderful.

Yesterday afternoon two performers, Hong Xu, and Grace Fong, were exceptional. The ease in which their fingertips danced up and down the keyboard made it appear they were playing on air--with eyes closed and body movements at times vigorous, these musicians seemed to be lost in the moment. The audience seemed to be captured by the moment in a state of complete awe. All the hours of preparation were being let out of the performers fingertips making a magical sound.

On August 5 at eight o’clock, two of the four finalist will perform and then again on August 6 at eight o’clock, the other two finalist will perform. These performances will take place at Severance Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra. The winner will be announced following the last performance of the evening. Do not not miss this very special opportunity to witness greatness.