Anna Han left yesterday and we will miss her! She is only 14 years old and was here for 9 days accompanied by her father, Wenhai Han and her piano teacher, Fei Xu. Anna was one of 43 competitors in the first annual Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano and Violin Competition which is sponsored by Oberlin College and The Cleveland Orchestra. These talented young pianists, ages 13 to 18, came from all over the world for the 9 day competition. After five elimination rounds, each of the final 3 performers had the honor of playing a concerto with the world renouned Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall. Joe and I listened in amazement as these young people performed pieces that we thought only adults could play after years of study and practice.

Anna, of course, was our favorite to win! We watched several rounds of the competition and were dazzled at how she could make the piano sing, so soft, so smooth, so strong. She was fluent with pieces by Beethoven, Chopin, Prokofiev, Wagner/Liszi, Ravel, Brahms, and I'm sure I've missed many other composers that are her friends! Anna was chosen as one of the 6 finalists and after a 30 minute concerto in the fourth round that was absolutely amazing, she finished in 5th place. She has already won several other competitions at her young age and we certainly do hope that she returns in two years to Oberlin for the next Cooper International Piano competition.

Next summer the competition will feature violin students, again, ages 13 to 18. We hope that one of them will stay with us here at Hallauer House so that we can enjoy another young person's talent and enthusiasm for music.

And Anna, thank you for letting us get to know you and see you perform. It was tremendously gratifying to us as Innkeepers to meet a talented and budding star. Someday we will see you play with the Cleveland Orchestra! Thank you for your autograph! And thank you Fei and Wenhai for bringing Anna to Oberlin. See you all in 2 years!

And to everyone else, mark your calendars for July 2011 and plan to come to Oberlin to see and hear some great violinists. We absolutely guarantee that you will not be disappointed! Our only advise - Reserve early!