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Exceptional young artists hailing from seven countries and across America come together at ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï July 25-31 for the sixth-annual .

Presented by the ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï Conservatory of Music and the , the 2015 Cooper Competition features 21 musicians ranging in age from 14 to 18, each of them vying for a top prize of $10,000 and three full-tuition scholarships to attend the ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï Conservatory.

The competition begins with five days of performances on the ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï campus: Semifinal Rounds Saturday through Monday, July 25-27; a Concerto Round on Tuesday, July 28; and Recital Finals on Wednesday, July 29.

The excitement culminates with the Concerto Finals at Severance Hall on Friday, July 31, as three finalists each perform a complete concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra, under the direction of Jahja Ling.

All performances at ÍøÆسԹÏ—including an Honors Recital on Thursday, July 30—take place in Warner Concert Hall and are free and open to the public. Tickets for the Concerto Finals at Severance Hall range from $15-$25 and are available through the Cleveland Orchestra by calling 800-686-1141 or visiting . Complimentary admission is available for students.

Selected through video auditions, this year’s Cooper participants represent China, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. Each participant will be critiqued by a jury made up of distinguished performers and pedagogues including ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï violin faculty Gregory Fulkerson (co-director and jury chair), David Bowlin (co-director), and Marilyn McDonald. Also on the jury are five venerable teachers from throughout the world: Norwegian violinist and educator Peter Herresthal, Seattle Conservatory of Music founder and director Margaret Pressley, Austrian performer and educator Dora Schwarzberg, Central Conservatory of Music Professor Tong Weidong, and Northwestern University Professor Almita Vamos.

Jury members will present a total of eight master classes—all of them free and open to the public—in ÍøÆسԹÏ's Clonick Hall on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, July 28-30.

Follow ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï Conservatory on and for updates throughout the competition.

Cleveland's public radio station will broadcast the Recital Finals live from ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï (7 p.m. Wednesday, July 29) and the Concerto Finals live from Severance Hall (8 p.m. Friday, July 31).

For more information, including a complete schedule and participant information, visit www.oberlin.edu/cooper.

ABOUT THE COOPER COMPETITION: Sponsored by Thomas and Evon Cooper, the Cooper International Competition debuted in summer 2010 for pianists, followed in 2011 by a competition for violinists; the competition alternates annually between the two instruments. Both formats are open to musicians between the ages of 13 and 18. Mr. Cooper is a 1978 ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï College graduate and a member of ÍøÆسԹÏ’s Board of Trustees; his wife, Evon, is a pianist and private piano teacher. They reside near Boston.

OBERLIN AND THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA: The relationship between ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï and the Cleveland Orchestra dates back nearly a century, beginning with the philanthropy of John Long Severance, an 1885 ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï graduate and flutist who founded the Musical Arts Association, under which the Cleveland Orchestra was established in 1918. Severance and his wife were major donors for the construction of the Cleveland Orchestra’s home, Severance Hall. The Cleveland Orchestra first performed at ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï in 1919, and has returned each season since—totaling more than 200 performances to date.