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Eric Siepkes was born in 1983 in Pittsburgh, PA, and began studying piano in 1998. He won first prize for piano that same year in the Century Club Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. In 1999 Siepkes began studies in both piano and chamber music at City Music Center at Duquesne University?s School of Music in Pittsburgh, with Professor Igor Krayevsky. In the summer of 1999 he was accepted as a student at Chautauqua Institution School of Fine Art for piano studies with a scholarship from the National Federation of Music Clubs. Siepkes spent 5 summers studying piano at Chautauqua. In 2002, he began piano performance studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY for his Bachelor of Music Degree. On admission to the Eastman School, he received the George Eastman Grant and the Howard Hanson Scholarship. He also studied harpsichord and organ as a secondary instrument at Eastman, and feels that it is necessary to be familiar with all predecessors of the modern piano as it influences our current notion of early performance practices. In 2005 he was awarded the Joseph Lawrence Noble Scholarship at Eastman for his pianistic merits. In the summer of 2005 he won a prize in the 11th Chautauqua International Piano Competition for the best performance of a lyric work, performing Schubert. In 2006, Siepkes won the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition in NYC and subsequently made his debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, with another invitation to perform there in 2007. Siepkes has played in chamber music master classes for London Baroque, the Avalon String Quartet, and the Eroica Trio. Chamber music is an important aspect of his artistic life, and he performs regularly in ensemble with colleagues. In 1999 he was featured in a chamber music performance on WQED Radio, Pittsburgh. In 2007 he won Best Collaborative Pianist award in the Lansing Matinee Musicale Club, of the National Federation of Music Clubs. Also in 2007 Siepkes was awarded Honorable Mention in the 5 Towns Music & Art Foundation Competition.
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