In 2013, Hugo Kitano won the Southeastern Piano Festival after just graduating high school. Alessandra Kasman was the runner-up. Five years later the pair is returning to Columbia to perform in an alumni showcase Wednesday, June 20 at 4:30 p.m.
"The artists and judges that come to SEPF every year are at the top of the field," Kasman said. "My year I was very excited to meet and work with Sergei Babayan."
Kasman willperform Nikolai Medtner's "Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 5," and Kitano will perform pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin and Maurice Ravel in the USC School of Music Recital Hall.
Kitano's love for music began at the ripe age of six but didn't become serious until high school. He heard about the Southeastern Piano Festival at the Young Arts festival earlier in 2013 from Marina Lomazov, SEPF's artistic director. She suggested he apply. After his big win, he was invited to play with the South Carolina Philharmonic in 2014 at the Koger Center.
Following high school graduation, Kitano attended Stanford University, double majoring in music and computer science. He is currently in the middle of a two-year degree program at The Glenn Gould School in Toronto studying music. Kitano's favorite composers include Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninoff, who he says are all very different.
"Beethoven is the earliest composer of them and he kind of bridges the classical and romantic styles," Kitano said. "Chopin and Rachmaninoff are more of the romantic style classical music.”
Born in Russia to a family of musicians, Kasman also began studying music at an early age. She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and studied with her parents. As a classical pianist, she graduated from University of Alabama Birmingham in 2017 with a music degree. She is currently pursuing her master's degree in piano performance at Juilliard while also teaching and performing there. She also does music outreach through Juilliard and PianoArts in Wisconsin, where she is an Artist-in-Residence Fellow.
Kitano says he's seen Kasman around in the music world since the 2013 festival, but Wednesday night they will perform together in the same concert.
"The festival is impeccably run and the memories of SEPF 2013 are wonderful and still fresh in my mind," Kasman said.