Piano Forum

Hi all,

First sorry for the long post. I want to give as much info as possible to get the best help as possible!

I am an incoming college freshman this upcoming school year (2022-23) and will be attending Cornell University. While I am not majoring in music at Cornell, I still plan to keep it as a central part of my education and life for that matter.

Every year Cornell has a concerto competition. I plan on throwing my hat in the ring for this. With that said, I have never played a concerto but have performed in a wide variety of ensembles and accompany many soloists on their instruments. I lead my own saxophone quartet who consistently recieves the top award at local evaluations, a woodwind choir, and am conducting/playing keyboard in a pit orchestra for the musical Catch me if you Can at a local theater. I am also an avid bassoon player/admirer and perform in my school's ensembles. To give you a scale of my piano abilities, I'll list some of my repertoire below:

Solo Works:
Ravel:
Gaspard de la Nuit - Ondine
Sonatine
Prokofiev:
Sarcasms mov. 1
Toccata op. 11
Haydn:
Hob 50, 52, and 49
Liszt:
Paganini Etudes no 5 and 3
Vallee d'obermann
Mephisto Waltz 1
Bartok
Suite op 14
And many others
Ensembles:
Beethoven Trio for Clarinet and Cello in B-flat major
Poulenc Sextet
Jaques Ibert Concertino da Camera
Many wind ensemble accompanist pieces (Traveller by Maslanka, Aurora Awakes by Mackey, etc.)
Piano Four Hands:
Ravel Ma Mere L'oye
Poulenc Sonata for Four Hands
Kapustins Sinfonietta

I also sacreligioisly performed the harp part Mahler's Adagietto from his 5th Symphony on the piano with my school district's honors orchestra ensemble.

All of that just to give you a scale of my abilities as a soloist and ensemble member. I have a few recordings as well that I'll link below.

I was thinking about trying one of the following for concertos:
Prokofiev No. 3
Moszkowski Op. 59
Ravel Concerto in G Major
Kapustin Concerto no. 2

I adore Prokofiev's concerto and seeing that I'm very good with highly rhythmic pieces of music, I think it might be doable. I honestly don't know many other concertos at my level (only of course the most famous), but these ones have been on my mind for quite some time now. I'm looking for any suggestions you may feel is within my skill range.

Thank you so much!

First link is to a playlist from my four hand piano competition. The others are Ondine and Haydn Hob 50. I'm aware they're still messy. They're still a work in progress!