Piano Competition

Pianist Jessica J. Yam, DMA is active as soloist, chamber artist, pedagogue, and director of various artistic programs. Together with pianist Elias-Axel Pettersson, she formed duo Æterna Sirius in 2017; the pair has given masterclasses and toured across North America. Jessica has collaborated with numerous other instrumentalists, singers, and conductors, and has performed as guest artist with orchestras like New England Philharmonic, Baltimore, Young People’s Symphony, among others. She has won several accolades including the Chopin Foundation of the United States Scholarship as one of two national recipients of her year. Since elected Artistic Director of the nonprofit Arizona Piano Institute, she expanded its premier annual Summer Festival with internationally-acclaimed artists to include a Concerto Competition and other season programs. She has furthered her artistic outreach and collaboration with many prominent arts organizations in the community including MusicaNova Orchestra, Phoenix Chamber Music Society, Phoenix Youth Symphony, and the like. She also joined the faculty at Adamant Music School in Vermont in 2019, teaching gifted students alongside faculty-artists of global renown at their summer festival. Jessica has taught at various institutions including Arizona State University, Southwestern College, throughout the Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona, as well as many other schools. She has created curricula and taught various courses in piano, pedagogy, repertoire, song literature, and vocal diction, and guest presents seminars on myriad topics involving theory and analysis, performance practice and technique, and pedagogical practice.

Dr. Yam received training at New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Arizona State University under Faina Kofman, Douglas Humpherys, Yoshikazu Nagai, and Robert Hamilton. She has taught for over 20 years and maintains a private piano studio in Tempe, AZ.

Dr. Radmila Stojanovic-Kiriluk is a Serbian – American pianist from Arizona. She is an active performer, teacher, and lecturer and has performed solo as well as with a variety of chamber groups, orchestras, soloists, and choirs. Her recordings have been played on radio and television. Radmila published the first CD recording of complete piano works by the Serbian composer Marko Tajcevic through the English label, Toccata Classics. She edited two volumes of Tajcevic’s piano works for the German publishing company Schott and her work is also published by the FJH company.

Radmila studied with piano teachers of diverse music backgrounds. She completed Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Belgrade, Serbia, and later graduated with a DMA in Piano Performance at the Arizona State University in Tempe, under the guidance of an esteemed pianist and teacher, Dr. Caio Pagano.  Radmila currently teaches as a piano professor at Mesa Community College and regularly adjudicates piano competitions, exams, and festivals. She is currently serving as the president of the EVMTA association and as a board member for the Arizona Music Teacher Association. She resides with her husband and two children in Mesa, Arizona.

Described as “impressive and expressive” (Fanfare Magazine) and “superb…[with] great dexterity, rhythm, and touch” (American Record Guide), Hannah Creviston is Clinical Associate Professor of Piano Pedagogy, Director of the Music Prep Program, Keyboard Area Coordinator and Coordinator of Class Piano at Arizona State University. She received her B.Mus. in Piano Performance and Music Education with a Piano Pedagogy concentration from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, studying with Eugenia Tsarov. A researcher and presenter on the effects of music on children with autism, she holds an M.M. in Piano Performance and an M.MuED in Early Childhood/Elementary Music Education from the University of South Carolina where she studied piano with Dr. Scott Price and music education with Dr. Wendy Valerio. Prior to joining the faculty at ASU in Fall 2012, Creviston was on the faculty at the Crane School of Music.

An avid performer of contemporary music, Creviston has premiered numerous compositions, including works by Whitney Ashe, Cameron Britt, David Heinick, Katherine Hoover, Carter Pann, John Fitz Rogers, Timothy Sullivan, Brian Vlasak, Gregory Wanamaker and Mark Lanz Weiser. Most notably, in 2007, she premiered Stacy Garrop’s Pieces of Sanity at Carnegie Hall with saxophonist Christopher Creviston.

As a collaborative pianist, she regularly performs in festivals and competitions throughout the United States and abroad, including the World Saxophone Congress, International Viola Congress, Music Teachers National Association Solo Competition, North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) Biennial Conferences, NASA Solo Competition, Navy Band Saxophone Symposium, Great Plains Saxophone Workshop, Potsdam Single Reed Summit, Penn State Single Reed Summit, Crane Saxophone Chamber Music Festival, Cortona Saxophone Sessions and the Southeastern Piano Festival. She has collaborated with various artists, including Terry Barber, Elizabeth Buck, Joe Burgstaller, Christopher Creviston, Geoffrey Deibel, Anthony Kniffen, Joe Lulloff, Jeffrey Loeffert, Timothy McAllister, Jonathan Nichol, Stephen Page, David Pittman-Jennings, David Stambler, Peter Steiner, Deanna Swoboda, James Umble, Robert Young and members of the United States Military Bands.