Lawrence University Freshman Wins State Piano Competition

APPLETON — Lawrence University freshman Amy Lauters earned first-place honors at the annual Wisconsin Music Teachers Association Badger Collegiate Piano Competition May 17 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This was the second year in a row a Lawrence pianist has won the WMTA Badger competition.

A piano performance major from Manhattan, Kan., Lauters received $200 for her winning performance, which included Haydn’s “Sonata No. 60,” Chopin’s “Nocturne,” Ravel’s “Jeux d’Eau,” and “Vast Antique Cubes” by Joan Tower.

This was the second competition win this spring for Lauters. In March, she was named one of five winners of the state-wide Neale-Silva Young Artists Competition sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio. She is a student in the piano studio of associate professor of music Anthony Padilla.

Lauters also will compete in the upcoming PianoArts Competition June 19-24 in Milwaukee. She will be one of 10 national semifinalists vying for an $8,000 first-place prize.

Participants in the WMTA competition, which is open to students attending any college or university in Wisconsin, are required to play a solo recital of between 20 and 30 minutes in length. The program must include at least three selections from one of five historical periods: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic and Contemporary.