SEPF Guest Artist Hugo Kitano

Hugo Kitano

Hugo Kitano

Praised in the International Piano Magazine as “unusual for a player of his age and an excellent augury for the future,” Hugo Kitano currently studies with Frederick Weldy at Stanford University, and has worked extensively with Hans Boepple and John Perry. He has been the first prizewinner in numerous national and international competitions, including the International Russian Music Piano Competition and the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition. He was also the highest prizewinner of the Moscow International Frederic Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in the summer of 2014. In 2015, he was a quarterfinalist at the National Chopin Competition of the United States in Miami.

Hugo has also been awarded first prize at the Young Pianist’s Beethoven Competition, the San Francisco Young Pianists’ Competition, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers’ Concerto Competition, and the San Francisco Chopin Competition for Young Pianists. In addition, Hugo has won awards at the California International Young Artists Competition as its youngest semi-finalist, the New York International Piano Competition, and the International Chopin Piano Competition in ASIA, held in Tokyo. He has been a semifinalist at the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Competition, the New Orleans International Piano Competition, and the Manchester International Concerto Competition for Young Pianists. In 2012, he was awarded “Best Chopin” prize in the MTNA National Finals in New York. In 2014, Hugo performed Chopin’s 1st Concerto with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra as first prizewinner of its concerto competition, and Beethoven’s 3rd Concerto with the South Carolina Philharmonic.