The Lawrence University Conservatory of Music was well-represented at the 2000 Concert Artists Guild International Competition in New York City, when pianist Anthony Padilla, assistant professor of music, and bass-baritone Mark Uhlemann, '96, were named co-recipients of the Nathan Weeden Award, out of a field of 12 finalists and 305 competitors. In addition, Professor Padilla was awarded the Cascade Festival Prize, which includes a concerto performance at the 2001 Cascade Festival of Music in Bend, Oregon, and the WQXR-FM Prize, given by the radio station of The New York Times.
In the summer of 2000, he performed piano music by Filipino composer Francisco Buencamino, Sr., on a program celebrating Philippine Independence Day at the Philippine Consulate General in Chicago; presented two concerts at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Stocksee, Germany; and gave 12 concerts at the Bay View Music Festival in Petoskey, Michigan.
A member of the Lawrence faculty since 1997, Padilla, who is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, has established himself as a popular soloist with orchestras and on concert series and music festivals throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, and Germany. He was awarded the 1991 American Pianists Association Beethoven Fellowship and has received top honors from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the National Chopin-Kosciuszko Foundation, the Society of American Musicians, the Harvard Musical Association, the Theodore Presser Foundation, and the Music Teachers National Association.
Padilla is a laureate of the Walter Naumburg, Gina Bachauer, William Kapell, and Cleveland International Piano Competitions and serves as artist-in-residence at the Bay View Music Festival. Among his recent appearances were a lecture-recital on "The Element of Humor in Classical Music" at the national convention of the Music Teachers National Association in Los Angeles and residency appearances for the La Jolla Chamber Music Society's Discovery Series.
His debut recording of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Statements, Sonata No. 2 for Piano (1975), was recently released on the CRI label, and his New York debut concert was given in Merkin Concert Hall in December 2000.
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