Huge congratulations to DBA Academist Akari Bastiaens, who took home not only the first prize but also audience prize and press prize for her performance at the International Piano Competition for Young Musicians in Enschede, NL on Friday!! Akari (11) played alongside participants aged till 16 in her category. She worked closely with professor Tatiana Abayeva over the last weeks in preparation for this and the Steinway Competition, Belgium in which she is currently a finalist.
Akari's 1st prize is the third major success in an international piano competition this month, after Ivan Petrenko's 1st prize at the Volodymyr Krainev Competition for Young Pianists in Zurich, Switzerland and Yulianna Beziazychna's 1st prize at the Bela Bartok Piano Competition in Graz, Austria
