2026 Terrace Hill Piano Competition

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Funding provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation, as well as generations of families and friends who feel passionate about the programs they watch on Iowa PBS. 

And by -- the Estate of Margaret I. Haupt of Cedar Rapids -- to foster cultural programming and classical music performances on Iowa PBS. 

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[Travis Graven] Hello, I'm Travis Graven, and welcome to the 2026 Terrace Hill Piano Competition. We're here in Iowa's home, this beautiful historic mansion that is the residence of Iowa's Governor and First Family. For almost 40 years, the Terrace Hill Endowment for the Musical Arts has sponsored this event to showcase Iowa's finest young musicians. Over the next hour, we're going to highlight performances from the top finishers in both the junior and senior competitions. We'll begin with the juniors, which are students in grades 9-11. Enjoy. 

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[Dr. Anthony Olson] I love judging. It's amazing to see the end product in the work that the students have accomplished and what point they are in their development. 

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[Dr. Anthony Olson] You look for that musicality, that conviction, the sound qualities and textures and how they bring the music to life. 

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[Dr. Anthony Olson] Don't feel afraid to take risks, to have true conviction to the music itself and immerse yourself in the experience that the composer has laid out for you and how you can bring that to life and bring your own voice to it as well. 

[Travis Graven] Time now for our junior competition awards. Joining me, Cate Bryan, the Board of Trustees Chair of the Terrace Hill Endowment for the Musical Arts. She'll be handing out the prize awards as well, the cash money that goes along with these. Honorable mention, Isabelle Ryan from Johnston. 

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[Travis Graven] In third place and a $100 cash prize, Minerva Cao from Clive. 

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[Travis Graven] Second place and a $150 cash prize goes to Isabelle Turner from West Des Moines. 

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[Travis Graven] And in first place, a $250 cash prize, Lynda Sun from Ames. 

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[Lynda Sun] My name is Lynda Sun. I'm a junior at Ames High School in Ames, Iowa. I have been playing piano for I think probably over ten years now. As time goes on I'm kind of losing track of how many years because I've just been doing it for so long. But piano has definitely been a huge part of my life. The way you get to connect with the instrument while you're playing it is just something that honestly I can't even describe it in words. It's just so other worldly. But it's just such an amazing feeling and I think other musicians can probably relate to this as well. But just being on the bench and hearing the music come from your fingers, it's like connecting to the composer who wrote it so many hundreds of years ago, but getting to hear that same sound and getting to portray the same emotions that maybe they would have wanted to portray in the piece. It's just all so powerful and so empowering. 

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[Travis Graven] Now we move on to the senior competition. All of these students are seniors in high school. 

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[Travis Graven] It's time now for our awards for the senior competition. Again, I'm joined by Cate Bryan, the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Terrace Hill Endowment for the Musical Arts. In third place and a $1000 scholarship, Caleb Moetsch from Winterset. 

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[Travis Graven] Second place and a $2000 scholarship, Zoe Podlich from Johnston. 

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[Travis Graven] And our first place student and a $4000 First Family of Iowa scholarship, Evelyn Skeffington from Des Moines.

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[Evelyn Skeffington) My name is Evelyn Skeffington. I am 18 and I'm a senior at Valley High School. I started playing piano at about five years old. I start by learning the notes, of course, and then what takes the longest is remembering the musicality and kind of understanding what the composer is doing with the different melodies and the rhythms and the dynamics of course. It's kind of I'm using my whole body to put my emotions into the instrument, I guess. And it's just a really good outlet for showing people how I feel. I mean, I love it every single time I sit down. And then especially with an audience it's like ooh, I get to show this audience what I can do and what I can do with this piece of music and my interpretation and stuff like that. And I just really enjoy it. 

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[Travis Graven] Congratulations to the winners. And you can watch the full performances of all of the contestants on our website at iowapbs.org. For our entire Iowa PBS crew, I'm Travis Graven. Thanks for watching. 

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Funding provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation, as well as generations of families and friends who feel passionate about the programs they watch on Iowa PBS. 

And by -- the Estate of Margaret I. Haupt of Cedar Rapids -- to foster cultural programming and classical music performances on Iowa PBS. 

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