Grand Valley alumna among WAMSO Young Artist Competition winners

Winners of the 52nd annual WAMSO Young Artist Competition, held in Minneapolis, on January 20, include Grand Valley State University alumna Ksenia Leletkina.

The $2,000 Third prize was awarded to Leletkina, a 24-year-old pianist who graduated from Grand Valley in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in Piano Performance. She also received the Mary Winston Smail Memorial Piano Award.

A native of Vladivostok, Russia, Leletkina graduated at age 18 from Vladivostok Music College. She came to Grand Valley to study with Aviram Reichert, winner of the Bronze Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1997. The pianist recently completed her master's degrees in Piano Performance and Collaborative Piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Anita Pontremoli. She currently works as a staff accompanist in the Department of Music at Grand Valley.

The Young Artist Competition draws musicians under the age of 26 to Minnesota to compete for more than $15,000 in cash prizes. This year's finalists were drawn from 58 applicants from schools in 11 Midwestern states or the provinces of Manitoba or Ontario, Canada.