User:Dbenford/Rubato prep

The Rubato International Piano Competition is a piano competition held annually at the Oxford Performing Arts Center in Oxford, Alabama, beginning in 2022. The competition is unique in its integration of the categories of classical and jazz music in a single competition. The founder, Julio Barreto, is a pianist; the Rubato features pianos from Steinway Piano. It awards $24,000 in prize money, with a first prize of $5,000, second prize of $2,500, and audience favorite prize of $500. The competition is divided into three categories: Classical Division Level A, for pianists 12-18 years of age; Classical Division Level B, for pianists 19-26 years of age; and Jazz Division, for pianists 12-26 years of age.

The judges for the inaugural classical piano competition were Yakov Kasman of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Van Cliburn Piano Competition medalist; Luis Sanchez of Texas A&M and the Frances Clark Center for Piano Pedagogy, and Janet Landreth, professor emerita of Colorado State University and a Steinway Teacher Hall of Fame inductee. The judges for the inaugural jazz piano competition were James Weidman of the University of Georgia, Jeremy Siskind of Fullerton College, and Leonardo Blanco of the Berklee College of Music.