About the Bill and Pat Medley Pre-College Piano Competition
The 2020 Bill and Pat Medley Pre-College Piano Competition is open to Wisconsin residents who are in 4th through 12th grade. Please click on the "Learn More" button for detailed information about the rules and requirements. Once you have read the rules and requirements page and your video is ready, the registration form can be found below.
Video submission deadline: May 1, 2020, 11:59PM
The inspiration for the 2020 inaugural Bill and Pat Medley Pre-College Piano Competition for the state of Wisconsin is two-fold:
(1) Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, our Wisconsin students are dealing with indefinite school closings and canceled recitals, competitions, and performances. We know that students benefit from specific and time-bound goals. The Bill and Pat Medley Pre-College Piano Competition was developed in order to help our students remain motivated and practicing during this uncertain time.
(2) Bill and Pat Medley were devoted to their students and they loved competitions. They found that their students thrived off of the experience, no matter the outcome. While it is exciting to win, the idea of competition is much more than winning or not. Bill and Pat also stressed the importance of competitions to be utilized as learning tools for their students to push themselves and to gain helpful feedback from others.
Below, you will find information about the 2020 Bill and Pat Medley Pre-College Piano Competition along with the entry form. You can also learn more about the Medleys’ career by perusing further down the page.
We would like to thank the private donors who generously supported this competition with monetary prizes.
If you have questions, please feel free to contact me through my website. Thank you for your interest and support!
-William P. Whipple, Founder and Competition Organizer
The adjudicators for the 2020 Competition are Dr. Brandon Bascom, Dr. Ann DuHamel, and Mr. Levi Gunardi.
Competition Registration
We are no longer accepting submissions for the 2020 competition.
About Bill (1926-2018) and Pat (1927-2019) Medley
"The demonstration of a high degree of perception and teamwork on the piano keyboard has brought widespread public applause to one of America's outstanding two-piano teams, William and Patricia Medley." ...from Par Records Production liner notes.
The Medleys (yes, that was their real name), two-piano career lasted more than sixty-five years. Promoted as, "America's most often re-engaged Two-Piano Team," the Medleys played more than one thousand concerts and recitals in forty-seven of the United States, Australia, and ten Canadian Provinces, including the first piano recital ever given in the Northwest Territory. For eight years the Medleys performed on a full-time basis, averaging around eighty concerts per year, and in the 1958-1959 season they appeared in one hundred and nineteen concerts, which broke the world record at the time for the number of two-piano concerts performed in a single year.
In addition to their performance career, the Medleys were prolific pedagogical composers. They were the authors of The Medley Way (an original piano method series published by Hal Leonard Music Company) and their pedagogical solos are available from the Willis Music Company, FJH Music Company, and the Alfred Music Company.
For more information about the life and career of Bill and Pat Medley, click on the "Learn More" button below.
2020 Competition Results
We had 70 students enter the competition this year! Thank you! Many thanks to our judges (Dr. Ann DuHamel, Dr. Brandon Bascom, and Mr. Levi Gunardi). Comment sheets and prize money will be emailed and mailed out over the next few weeks. Thank you again and we hope you will consider entering the 2021 Bill and Pat Medley Pre-College Piano Competition! ~William Whipple
Category I (Grades 4-6)
Adjudicator: Dr. Brandon Bascom, Fresno City College
1st Place: Emma Phillips Teacher: Casey Snyder
2nd Place: Evelyn Doyle Teacher: Kate Gierhart
Honorable Mention (in no particular order):
Andrew Petcu Teacher: Rebecca Wilkinson
Isabella Vue Teacher: Kathy Johns
Johnathan Chen Teacher: Casey Snyder
Lauren Harris Teacher: Kristin Benschine
Hannah Stone Teacher: Kate Gierhart
Madeline Edwards Teacher: Opala Bilhorn
Xiaosi Suzy Ma Teacher: Sandra Statz
Lydia Wesolowski Teacher: Rebecca Wilkinson
Emma Holmen Teacher: Cathy Seipel
Category II (Grades 7-9)
Adjudicator: Dr. Ann DuHamel, University of Minnesota, Morris
1st Place: Evelyn Rohrbach Teacher: Ivan Konev and Lois Wolfe-Steiner
2nd Place: Nathan Phillips Teacher: Nicholas Phillips
Honorable Mention (in no particular order):
Lauren Schiefer Teacher: Abby Patchet
Christina Chen Teacher: Nicholas Phillips
Quinten Anger Teacher: Cathy Seipel
Olivia McBride Teacher: Abby Patchet
Category III (Grades 10-12)
Adjudicator: Mr. Levi Gunardi, Life On Piano Music Center, Indonesia
1st Place: Ellie McBride Teacher: Nicholas Phillips
2nd Place: Ellie Brenner Teacher: Kate Gierhart
Honorable Mention (in no particular order):
Sarah Kauphusman Teacher: Deborah Lang
Kailyn Walukas Teacher: Terry Wilkinson
Shiann Her Teacher: Jennifer Wilkinson