Palm Springs International Piano Competition is deeply committed to ensuring the successful future for young pianists across the globe through many avenues.
One of the most invaluable opportunities a young pianist can have, is receiving feedback from and connecting with critically acclaimed concert pianists and leading pedagogues of today. The 2025 Junior Competition is no exception.
Pianist Scott Cuellar is an assistant professor of applied music and performance (piano) in the Setnor School of Music, where he teaches applied piano as well as other keyboard-related courses.
In reviewing Cuellar’s debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, David LaMarche of the New York Concert Review described Cuellar’s performance as “virtuosic in scope and expression, like a great man of the theater,” and praised his “ability to illuminate both the external structure and the emotional core of the work he plays.” He has been described by Cleveland Classical as possessing “nerves of steel, a formidable technique, and an architect’s understanding of structure.” The San Antonio Express-News praised his “luxuriant exploration” of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto, adding that his “technique was clean, his melodies and cadenzas were expressive, but most noticeable was his keyboard fluidity.”
Cuellar has given solo recitals at major venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, the Newport Music Festival, the Polytheatre Chongqing and the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in the People’s Republic of China, and has been a guest recitalist at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, the Gijón International Piano Festival in Asturias, Spain, the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Lima, Peru, Boston Conservatory, and at the University of Washington. He has presented masterclasses at Renmin University in Beijing, Lee University, Grand Valley State University, and has lectured at the Juilliard School. He has appeared as a soloist with the San Antonio Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Rochester Symphony Orchestra, the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, the Oberlin Orchestra, the Lima Symphony Orchestra, and several others.
Cuellar is featured on composer Gity Razaz’s debut album “The Strange Highway” (2022) with violinist Francesca DePasquale, released on BIS Records. He has performed with many of the world’s great artists, including Cho-Liang Lin, Jennifer Koh, Chee-Yun, Mark Nuccio, Desmond Hoebig, the Miró Quartet, and Timothy Jones. He is a founding member of the Rodin Trio, along with assistant concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Philip Marten and current Karajan Fellow Joshua Halpern. He has performed at the La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival and the Cactus Pear Chamber Music Festival. He has been heard on WQXR in New York, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Seattle’s King FM, Houston Public Media, and others.
Cuellar won the gold medal at the 2016 San Antonio International Piano Competition, where he also received prizes for the best performance of both a Romantic work (Schumann’s “Humoreske”), as well as of a Russian work (Prokofiev’s 4th Sonata). He was the gold medalist in the solo division of the 2013 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, where he was also awarded the silver medal in the concerto division, and was the winner of the Krenek Prize for the best performance of a sonata by Ernst Krenek. Additionally, he was the bronze medalist at the 2016 New Orleans International Piano Competition.
Cuellar holds a doctor of musical arts from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Jon Kimura Parker; he earned a master of music from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Julian Martin; and he received a bachelor of music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Alvin Chow. During his time at Oberlin, he won three of the largest prizes offered to pianists: the Oberlin Concerto Competition, the Arthur Dann Competition, and the John Elvin Prize for Juniors. He was previously an assistant professor at the Oberlin Conservatory of music, where he taught chamber music, secondary piano, and class piano.
Education
D.M.A., Rice University
M.M., The Juilliard School
B.M., Oberlin College
Pianist Esther Park has performed as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals across the United States as well as Asia and major European cities. Ms. Park has appeared as soloist with many orchestras such as Houston Symphony, Corpus Christi Symphony, Filharmonia Pomorska, Poland, Shanghai Philharmonic, China, the American Academy of Conducting Orchestra at Aspen, Shreveport Symphony, the Juilliard Symphony, and the New Jersey Symphony.
Ms. Park gave a five-city recital tour in Korea, and has performed at the Juilliard Theater in NYC, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Halls’ Weill Recital Hall, Salle Cortot in Paris, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Ms. Park is the winner of the 2013 Jose Roca International piano competition and Russian International piano competition (now San Jose International Piano Competition, 2009 “Prix Amadeo” and the 2009 Chopin Gesellschaft Klavierwettbewerb. She is the winner of the 2004 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition at the Juilliard School, and the 52nd Kosciusko International Piano Competition.
Ms. Park is a founding member of a piano duo with her sister, Sun-A Park. Duo Amadeae has since won the Chicago International Duo Piano Competition, and has appeared in numerous festivals, concerto performances and in duo recitals. The duo has been heard on WQXR as well as part of the Horowitz & Stecher foundation’s piano series.
Ms. Park has received her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree from the Juilliard School, studying with Yoheved Kaplinsky. Ms. Park also studied at the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater (Hannover) under the tutelage of Bernd Goetzke, and has since received the Artist Diploma, Master of Musical Arts Degree and the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Boris Berman. Ms. Park has been serving as the associate professor of piano since 2015 and the director of Pre-College program at the East Tennessee State University. Starting in the Fall, Ms. Park will join the Schwob School of Music as visiting associate professor of music.
Acclaimed by the Baltimore Sun as “one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years” pianist Terrence Wilson has appeared as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Washington, DC (National Symphony), San Francisco, St. Louis, and with the orchestras of Cleveland, Minnesota, and Philadelphia and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has worked include Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Neeme Järvi, Jesús López-Cobos, Lawrence Renes, Robert Spano, Yuri Temirkanov, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Gunther Herbig and Michael Morgan.
Abroad, Terrence Wilson has played concerti with such ensembles as the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He has toured with orchestras in the US and abroad, including a tour of the US with the Sofia Festival Orchestra (Bulgaria) and in Europe with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov.
An active recitalist, Terrence Wilson made his New York City recital debut at the 92nd Street Y, and his Washington, DC recital debut at the Kennedy Center. In Europe he has given recitals at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, the Lourvre in Paris, and countless other major venues. In the US he has given recitals at Lincoln Center in New York City (both Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall), the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, NY, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, and for the La Jolla Chamber Music Society. An avid chamber musician, he performs regularly with the Ritz Chamber Players. Festival appearances include the Blossom Festival, Tanglewood, Wolf Trap, with the San Francisco Symphony at Stern Grove Park, and an appearance with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra on July 4, 2015 before an audience of over fifteen thousand.
During the 2021-2022 season Wilson returned as soloist with the Alabama and Nashville Symphony Orchestras. He also made his debut with the Roanoke Symphony and returned to the Boulder Philharmonic. In the fall, the Chamber Music Society of Detroit presented Wilson with the Escher Quartet performing Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor. He also appeared at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in April 2022 performing music by Julius Eastman and Clarence Barlow. In May 2021, Wilson performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, K.467 with the New Jersey Symphony, of which a video was produced and is available for viewing on YOUTUBE.
In the summer of 2022, Wilson appeared as a guest of the Aspen Music Festival, performing with the Aspen Chamber Symphony and Robert Spano. He returned for chamber music performances at the St. Augustine Music Festival in August, and made his debut on the Maverick Concert Series in Woodstock, NY. Wilson also returned as piano faculty at the Brevard Music Center in Western North Carolina, and had a teaching residency at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute.
In the 2022-2023 season, Wilson has numerous engagements as soloist with such orchestras as the Pasadena and Stockton Symphonies in California. He also performs recitals in Boston and Kansas City.
Terrence Wilson has received numerous awards and prizes, including the SONY ES Award for Musical Excellence, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Juilliard Petschek Award. He has also been featured on several radio and television broadcasts, including NPR’s “Performance Today,” WQXR radio in New York, and programs on the BRAVO Network, the Arts & Entertainment Network, public television, and as a guest on late night network television. In 2011, Wilson was nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Instrumental Soloist With an Orchestra” for his (world premiere) recording with the Nashville Symphony conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero of Michael Daugherty’s Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra – written for Wilson in 2007.
Terrence Wilson is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky. He has also enjoyed the invaluable mentorship of the Romanian pianist and teacher Zitta Zohar. A native of the Bronx, he resides in Montclair, New Jersey. In March 2021, Wilson was appointed to the piano faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music.
