Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s Division of Music will host its annual Virginia Queen Piano Competition Friday, May 5, at 3 p.m. in McBeth Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

“The event was established nearly 40 years ago by Virginia Queen, a former Ouachita piano professor who just recently passed away.” said Dr. Lei Cai, professor of music at Ouachita. “She established the competition to encourage piano students to excel.”

Queen, who graduated from Ouachita in 1944 with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees, also earned a Master of Music degree from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. She joined the Ouachita music faculty in 1946 and retired in 1986 after 40 years of service at Ouachita.

“Virginia Queen had a long and successful career teaching piano at Ouachita,” said Dr. Gary Gerber, dean of Ouachita’s School of Fine Arts. “Her love and devotion to her students, the faculty and the school made her a hallmark of Ouachita. The naming of the annual Virginia Queen Piano Competition is representative of the admiration Ouachita had for her and her teaching.”

Dr. David Korevaar, Peter and Helen Weil Professor of Piano at the University of Colorado, will judge the competition. Korevaar also will present a free concert May 5 at 7:30 p.m., also in McBeth Recital Hall.

Students competing in this year’s competition include Elizabeth Anderson, a senior choral music education major from Salem, Ark.; Sean Carney, a freshman music and Spanish major from Little Rock, Ark.; Isabel Dodds, a senior piano performance major from Leslie, Ark.; Caroline Dunlap, a senior piano performance major from Little Rock, Ark.; Zhanxiu Lu, a senior music and art major from Shaoxing, China; and Tyler Sanders, a sophomore music major from Arkadelphia, Ark. Each student will play from memory two pieces from standard repertoire.

For more information, contact Dr. Lei Cai at [email protected] or (870) 245-5140.

 

By Kacy Spears

April 25, 2017