Fundraising Concert - Vivianna Shmanova Pearson and Simon Wu

ABOUT

Pianists Vivianna Shmanova Pearson and Simon Wu present a fundraising concert featuring solo piano works by Haydn, Chopin, Rachmaninov, SA composer Adrian More and more. They both will be moving to London in September to study at the prestigious Royal College of Music.

Vivianna Shmanova Pearson has been studying piano since the age of 7 and performing regularly since the age of 8. She studied under Ms Sue Paterson-Jones from 2013 until 2023 and she is currently studying at UCT under Prof. Francois du Toit. In September this year she will start her studies at the esteemed Royal College of Music in London.

She has been a finalist in the Johann Vos music competition since 2018, receiving second place in the Junior Section in 2021 and first place in the Senior Section in 2022. In 2023 she was the winner of the Pieter Kooij Music Competition and the winner of the senior section of the Western Cape Piano Festival. For the past two years she has participated in the Atterbury National Piano Competition held in Pretoria where she received second prize overall both times. Most recently, She was awarded 2nd prize, as well as the prize for the best concerto performance in the final round at the Hennie Joubert National Piano Competition held in Stellenbosch.

In 2020 as well as 2023 Vivianna was selected to play as a soloist in the annual Hugo Lambrechts Concerto Festival. In 2022, she took part in the annual Youth Classical Concert where she performed in the Artscape Theatre with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.

Vivianna is a keen chamber musician and has attended both the Franschhoek Chamber Music Festival and the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival since the age of 13, playing piano as well as flute. She has received masterclasses from both well established national and international pianists such as Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Megan-Geoffrey Prins, Anastasia Markina, Emanuil Ivanov, Mariel Ilusorio and Albie van Schalkwyk.

Simon Wu recently completed his BMus Honours in Piano Performance under Professor Francois du Toit and Dr. Esthea Kruger at UCT. He will be pursuing his master’s degree in the same field at the Royal College of Music in London at the end of the year. In 2015, Simon debuted as a soloist with the UCT Symphony Orchestra. He performed as a soloist at CPO’s Youth Music Festival numerous times. He has been awarded 1st prize in the junior, senior, and open category at the Johann Vos Music Competition. In 2019 at UCT, he won the Laura Searle prize for concerto playing. In 2022, he was awarded 1st prize for the instrumental category of the FMR Bursary Competition. He placed 3rd at the UNISA National Piano competition in 2023. Recently he was awarded the Lionel Bowman Prize for Beethoven’s work, and his ensemble was awarded 2nd prize at the Schock Chamber competition playing Bartok’s Sonata for 2 Percussions and 2 Pianos. In the same year, he also performed Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on the theme of Paganini with the UCTSO. He has received masterclasses from distinguished pianist such as Kate Liu, Gustavo Romero, Jan Jiracek von Arnim and Henri Sigfridsson.

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