In the spring term of each year, the Department of Music holds the Gerald A. Tracy Memorial Piano Competition, in which undergraduate piano students perform and compete for first, second, and third prize awards.
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Competition: 11:00 a.m. in Sudikoff 143
Masterclass with Eliko Akahori: 2:00 p.m. in Sudikoff 143
Judges: Sally Pinkas, Stephanie Rogers, and special guest judge Eliko Akahori
Registration due and mystery piece available: April 11
Eliko Akahori is a pianist, teacher, and performer of piano and chamber music. At Wellesley, she is on the Senior Music Performance Faculty in Piano and is currently the Director of the Music Performance Program.
As a pianist, Eliko frequently performs chamber music in the Boston area. She enjoys collaborating with fellow musicians, including her colleagues at Wellesley as well as faculty at New England Conservatory and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to performance, Eliko's background in composition and music theory provides her with tools to consider music from different perspectives and influences her approach to the piano repertoire. Eliko enjoys playing all different periods of classical music, but, in particular, she enjoys Mozart and 20th-century music. During the summer, Eliko spends her time performing at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan with musicians from Europe, Asia, and the United States.
Eliko completed a dissertation on contemporary Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa's music, focusing on how Hosokawa accentuates the Japanese essence of his music by utilizing concepts from Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetics, earning a Doctorate of Music from New England Conservatory in 2015.
Away from music, Eliko loves baking, playing tennis, and reading mystery novels.
2024
2023
2022
(No competition held in 2020 or 2021)
2019
The Gerald Tracy Memorial Scholarship Fund was created in January 1983 with funds available from life income trusts established at the College by the late Pennington Haile '24 in memory of his friend Gerald Tracy. Annual revenues from the Fund are awarded each year to a Dartmouth undergraduate who is a serious piano student, who shows potential for a professional career as a concert pianist, and who also qualifies for financial aid under the conditions established by the College Trustees. Each spring the Music Department holds The Gerald Tracy Piano Competition, through which it hopes to identify outstanding piano students to be awarded first, second, and third prize awards.
Awarded to the highest-ranking winner of the Tracy Competition who is eligible for financial aid, the Tracy Scholarship recognizes the student's serious pursuit of an instrument, and his or her potential for further professional involvement in music. As the Tracy Scholar, the student receives, in addition to his or her competition award, an additional $100 in scholarship aid per enrolled term. Moreover, the Scholarship is recorded in official College transcripts and represents an important academic recognition.