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 [NEW LOCATION]
Judges: Sally Pinkas, Stephanie Rogers, and special guest judge Eliko Akahori
Registration due and mystery piece available: April 11
Eliko Akahori has appeared as a recitalist, chamber musician, and collaborative pianist to great acclaim in the United States, Europe, and Asia. This year's projects include a recording with Midori and A Far Cry for Midori's ORP Project, a world premiere of Reinaldo Moya's "It was turning in a circle (2024)" for two pianos and a recital with Karl-Heinz Schütz, principal flutist in Vienna Philharmonic. Past collaborators in recitals, chamber music concerts, recordings and radio/television broadcasts include members of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Chicago, Montreal, Boston and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, among others.
In the Boston area, Ms. Akahori has also appeared in concerts with A Far Cry, Winsor Music, Monadnock Music, and has performed regularly with Cantata Singers and Community MusicWorks. Eliko received the first prize, Coleman-Barstow Award, in the 57th Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition and has performed in many festivals including the Banff Centre in Canada, IMAI in Maine, and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. Eliko is currently a performance faculty and director of the music performance program at Wellesley College.
Eliko Akahori holds a Doctorate of Music in Collaborative Piano and Master's degree in Music Theory, both from the New England Conservatory of Music and Bachelor's degree in Composition from the Kunitachi College of music in Japan. Upon her graduation, Eliko was invited to perform for the Japanese Emperor's Family in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
2025
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 support Dartmouth's Financial Aid program, and in recognition of this a Tracy Scholar is selected each year. The Tracy Scholar is an 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.
The Tracy Scholarship recognizes a student's serious pursuit of an instrument, and their potential for further professional involvement in music. Selection as the Tracy Scholar is an honorary distinction that does not provide added financial benefit to the recipient, but indicates that the proceeds from the Tracy Scholarship Fund are supporting that student's need-based financial aid award.