Weston Mizumoto
Age: 13
Birth Place: California
The American composer George Gershwin has been Weston’s inspiration since the age of 7 when his teacher shared with him a Piano Rolls CD of Gershwin’s music. Since then, he has become a Gershwin aficionado. This passion has been Weston’s incentive to study classical piano which has helped him develop his musical foundation.
In the past 4 years, Weston has received top awards from local, state, and international piano competitions, including winning first place in both the open solo and open concerto categories at the Southwestern Youth Music Festival (SYMF), and 3rd place at the Los Angeles Liszt International Piano Competition in 2006. Weston won 2nd place at the prestigious Virginia Warring International Piano Competition (VWIPC) junior concerto division. Weston also won a special audience award of 2 additional concerto performances from VWIPC. In addition to performing with the Cal State University Northridge Symphony Orchestra at the VWIPC; he also received 1st place in the 2007 California International young Artists Competition. Weston, at the age of 11, soloed with the Four Season’s Youth Orchestra at the Irvine Barclay Theater performing none other than his favorite - Gershwin Concerto in F. Weston was also awarded three performances with Rio Hondo Symphony Orchestra after winning 2nd place in a college-level concerto competition earlier this year.
Weston has performed solos in a variety of humanitarian venues such as for a tsunami relief benefit concert in Phoenix, Arizona, preschool benefit concerts, community and senior citizen centers, high schools and churches. He has also performed at the Nixon Library, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, and at the Disneyland’s Main Street Coca Cola Corner with ragtime pianist Rod Miller. There he established his own fan club by regularly performing a variety of fun and rhythmic pieces including the 4-hand version of Gershwin’s “I’ve Got Rhythm” with Mr. Miller.
Weston is a 8th grade GATE student at Parkview School of the Yorba-Placentia School District in Orange County, and improvises on the keyboard with the award winning Travis Ranch Middle School jazz band. Other hobbies include playing his pet potbelly pig “piggy”, and freelancing as a Mac Computer consultant. He is currently studying piano under the guidance of Ariel Yang and Ethan Dong of Opus119 School of Music and Mary Ann Cummins, chairman of the Elizabeth Mandell Music Institute in Santa Monica.
Repertoire:
Solo
Johann Sebastian Bach Sinfonia in C Major No. 1
Johann Sebastian Bach Sinfonia in g minor No. 11
Johann Sebastian Bach Invention & Sinfonia in B minor No. 15
Johann Sebastian Bach WTC Book II c # minor Prelude and Fugue
Anton Arensky Etude Op. 25 No. 3
John Novacek “Intoxication”
George Gerwhsin Prelude I, II, III
Frédéric Chopin Etude Op. 25 No. 10
Frédéric Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 2
Frédéric Chopin Polonaise in c # minor Op. 26 No.1
Kabalevsky Sonata No. 3 in F Major
W.A. Mozart Sonata in D Major KV 284
W.A. Mozart Sonata in D Major KV 576
Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata Op. 2 No. 3
Ludwig van Beethoven 32 Variations in C Minor
Sergei Prokofieff “Temptation” from Four Pieces Op. 4
Franz Liszt Etude “Wilde Jagd“
Franz Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1
Gyorgy Ligeti Etude No.13 “L’escalier du diable”
George Gershwin Concerto in F
Shostakovich Concerto No. 2 Complete
Ensemble
George Gershwin “I’ve Got Rhythm” 6 hands
Disney World “It’s A Small World” 4 hands
Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto in g minor