The Ross McKee Piano Competition has been a signature project of the Ross McKee Foundation each year since 1998.  Launched by the Foundation’s highly respected first executive director, John Cron, the competition celebrates the talents of young piano virtuosi in the San Francisco Bay Area and has become one of the premiere piano competitions for young artists in the Bay Area.  
 

Over the past 25 years, seven hundred teenage pianists have applied to enter the competition, and, of them, 148 young artists have emerged. We call them the McKee Laureates. They have received $152,000 in prize money as well as performance opportunities, professional-level recordings, and videos of their performances.  Many have continued their piano studies at conservatories and major universities across the country and some now have established careers as performers, educators and faculty members of major music conservatories and universities. They are an extraordinary group, not only because of their awesome talent, but also because of their serious dedication to music.  They perform the most difficult piano repertoire with the aplomb of artists twice their age.

 

2022 was the 25th anniversary of the competition, and to mark the milestone we expanded eligibility beyond the Bay Area to teenage pianists from all of Northern California.