Edisher Savitski Triumphs at Third Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition; Republic of Georgia Native Prevails at High-Tech, High-Caliber Classical Music Contest.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Edisher Savitski, a 29-year-old from the Republic of Georgia who resides in South Bend, Indiana, was named First Prize winner of the third Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition in Minneapolis.

Savitski began his musical studies in his birthplace of Tbilisi, Georgia, attending the Central Music School with Maya Beridze and later, the Tbilisi Conservatory with Nana Khubutia. A frequent performer in recitals and as a soloist with orchestras, he received a special grant from the President of Georgia in 1998.

In 1998, Savitski joined the piano studio of Alexander Toradze at Indiana University South Bend, where he earned his Masters degree and Artist Diploma. The following year, he won second prize at the William Byrd International Piano Competition and was invited to spend the summer studying at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. In 2001, he was one of six pianists to be invited to the prestigious Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. In the same year, he also took first prize at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. Savitski placed fourth in the first Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition in 2002.

Savitski has performed at Carnegie's Weill Hall, New York; Mozarteum, Salzburg; Wigmore Hall, London; and Mariinsky Theater, St. Petersburg; as well as in other venues in Japan, Israel, New Zealand and throughout Europe and the United States. He has also appeared in major music festivals, including the Salzburg Festival, Austria; the Ruhr Festival, Germany; the Ravenna and Stresa Festivals, Italy; and the Gilmore Keyboard Festival. His performances have often been broadcasted on television and radio, including on NPR's "Performance Today."

Next year, Savitski will be pursuing his doctoral degree at Michigan State University, where he received the single fellowship for music students.

Gregory DeTurck, from the United States; Einav Yarden, from Israel; Victoria Korchinskaya-Kogan, from Canada; Mikhail Mordvinov, from Russia; and Ryo Yanagitani, from Canada, were the five other finalists who emerged from the competition's earlier rounds.

The 2006 jury for the Recital and Final Rounds in Minneapolis - St. Paul was chaired by Alexander Braginsky of the United States, and included Oxana Yablonskaya, Claude Frank and Awadagin Pratt of the United States; Piotr Paleczny of Poland; Shi Shucheng of China; Alexey Skavronsky of Russia and Dubravka Tomsic of Slovenia.

As grand prize winner, Savitski will receive a cash prize of $25,000 furnished by the Grand Hotel Minneapolis and perform in a special recital on July 14 at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Savitksi will also embark on a prestigious recital tour including a November 2006 debut recital at Salle Cortot in Paris, as well as a fall 2007 New York City debut performance at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, sponsored by Yamaha Corporation of America. The prize package also includes a CD release on the Ten Thousand Lakes label and a Yamaha DC3M4 Pro 6'1" Disklavier polished ebony grand piano. He will also perform on a live broadcast on Minneapolis Public Radio, as well as in engagements with the Minnesota and Richmond Symphony Orchestras. Second- through sixth-prize winners will receive cash prizes totaling $65,000.

At invitation-only screened auditions held in Shanghai, China; Paris, France; Los Angeles, California and New York City, sixty young pianists - chosen from a pool of over 130 applicants from around the world - entered their digitally videotaped and recorded MIDI performances on Yamaha Disklavier concert pianos, in the initial rounds of the competition.

Audition recitals and final round performances are available for the general public to download as MIDI files onto their own computers, or on their own Disklavier pianos, from the Piano-e-Competition home page. To learn more, visit www.piano-e-competition.com. For a multimedia presentation on the competition and how it works, visit http://www.piano-e-competition.com/ecompetition/howitworks.asp.

For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622, telephone [phone], email [e-mail] or visit www.yamaha.com.

About Yamaha

Yamaha Corporation of America manufactures a complete line of musical instruments, professional audio products, customer-driven support products and computer-based products targeted to both the amateur and professional markets.