Janice Carissa was not expecting to receive a phone call from the Gilmore Piano Festival’s executive director telling her that she was one of two pianists to receive a 2022 Gilmore Young Artist Award, so she let the call go to voicemail. When she realized what it meant and returned the call, she was struck by a sense of gratitude and good fortune when Pierre van der Westhuizen confirmed she had been given the $15,000 award and a series of debut recitals at the Gilmore Piano Festival.
Carissa, who grew up in Indonesia and was guided by her pianist mother, recently finished her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. It has been her school for the last 9 years.
She was hours away from her final school recital when she spoke with Cara Lieurance.
They reviewed the pieces on her performances for the Gilmore Piano Festival - works by Beethoven, Rzewski, Granados and Prokofiev, which she will perform in St. Joseph, Saugatuck, and Marshall. In Kalamazoo, she and Clayton Stephenson, the other 2022 Gilmore Young Artist, will team up for a concert of solo and two-piano works.
Carissa says she’s headed to The Juilliard School in New York City, where she looks forward to embracing everything the city has to offer. But it doesn’t have Sweetwater Donuts. “I wish it were everywhere,” says Carissa.
Full details on Carissa’s appearances are at herartist page on the Gilmore Festival website.