Winners of the International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs™ represent diverse backgrounds, professionally and musically. Doctors, scientists, board members, politicians, homemakers: all have found a place at the Amateur Competition. The winners' accomplishments in their various fields are impressive, as can be seen in their bios from the competitions. Please note that these bios are as they were published in the competition program book, and may no longer be current unless otherwise noted.

AVERILL PIERS BAKER (Second Prize, 2004) - Legal Volunteer, Canada
At thirteen years of age, Averill Piers Baker left her birthplace of Halifax, Nova Scotia to study on scholarship at The Royal Conservatory of Music and later at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1963 from the University's coveted Artist Diploma program. In 1965 she married now Senator George Baker, whom she met while recording for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1963 when he was a CBC producer prior to his political career. Rather than a concert pianist, Averill became CEO of a family of four children and unofficial "home secretary" in her husband's Newfoundland constituency while he traveled to Ottawa for thirty years as a Member of Parliament, including a stint in the Federal cabinet before entering the Senate of Canada. Averill's musical activities were confined mainly to benefit concert appearances, part-time teaching, and volunteer choir directing. With three of her four children becoming lawyers, Averill has become an active legal volunteer, particularly on her daughter Averill's pro bono cases. When rare moments of free time occur, Averill and her husband head for the woods to hike, snowshoe, fish, and pick berries, according to the season.

UPDATE: Since her win at IPCOA in 2004, Averill Piers Baker has accepted numereous requests to give interviews for television, national radio programs, and musical publications in Canada and the United States. As a result, she has received an avalanche of email and letters.

ALEXANDRE BODAK (Audience Award, 1999) - Physician, France
Active as both a physician and a professor, Alexandre Bodak is the director of a geriatric care center near Paris. He is also the author of several publications dealing with electron microscopy, cardiology, and the cognitive functions of the elderly. A former student at the National Conservatory of Paris, he has been a prizewinner in the Maria Canals Competition and has performed solo recitals and with orchestras in Belgium, France, and the United States. Dr. Bodak was first-prize winner of the 1992 Concours des Grands Amateurs de Piano in Paris.

VICTORIA BRAGIN  (First Prize and Audience Award, 2002) - Professor of Chemistry, United States
Victoria Bragin, currently on leave from her position at Pasadena City College in California, is working on a project involving the use of technology as an active-learning tool in the teaching of chemistry and biology. From 1999-2001, she served as program director of the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. Originally from the Philippines, she started piano lessons at age eight and obtained a diploma in music with a major in piano at the age of sixteen. She came to the United States as a Fulbright-Smith-Mundt Scholar, earning her master's degree in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin. She also holds a master's degree in music education from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Mrs. Bragin is a docent for an art museum and has been an active performing member of two noted organizations for music enthusiasts.

UPDATE: Victoria Bragin won the 2003 Herald-Dispatch Award for the Arts in Huntington, West Virginia. She is also the Huntington Museum of Arts' first artist-in-residence, a position essentially created for her. Her latest project at the museum is Women for All Seasons, a concert of chamber music by women composers held in conjunction with an exhibit of works by women artists. Mrs. Bragin, who has retired as Professor of Chemistry from Pasadena City College in California, still works on a couple of science projects in her spare time, in addition to giving recitals in several states. In August 2005, she performed a special concert of Borodin for the American Chemical Society. Borodin, like Bragin, was also a chemist.

BARRY COUTINHO (Third Prize, 2011) - Family Physician, Pittsburgh, USA
Prior to entering medical school, Dr. Barry Coutinho studied piano with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music in London and reached the Semifinal Round of the 1982 BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. While completing his residency in general practice in London, he was also awarded the Associate diploma with honors in piano performance by the Royal College of Music in 1991. Since then he has completed further medical training and for the last 16 years has served as a faculty member in family medicine at the University of Pittsburgh MedicalCenter, Shadyside Hospital. Dr. Coutinho continues to give recitals that raise money for medical charities.

MARK FULLER (Second Prize and Press Jury Award, 2007) - Lawyer, United States
As a partner in one of Arizona's largest law firms, Mark Fuller has a diverse practice in civil litigation. When his twins were born in 2000, he thought he might have to give up music completely, but instead decided to learn a new program for a public recital that very year. Setting and achieving goals in music and in his life has been an important focus for Mr. Fuller in recent years. Although he has been dealing with lymphoma and associated treatments for over three years, he managed to perform a recital in Prague in 2005 and was a semifinalist at the most recent Paris amateur competition. His recording of a work by Rodney Rogers for two pianos (with his principal teacher Robert Hamilton) is available on the Albany Records label.

CLARK GRIFFITH (Second Prize, 2011; Third Prize, 2007) - Database Programmer (retired), United States
Raised in Phoenix, where he studied with 1977 Cliburn Gold Medalist Steven De Groote, Clark Griffith was a composition major at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Employed variously through the years as a programmer, Web site developer, classical radio announcer, orchestral pianist, and freelance accompanist, he interrupted his retirement last year to make his stage debut as the onstage pianist in Moisés Kaufman's 33 Variations at Theatre Three in Dallas. He is also an enthusiastic participant in the monthly meetings of the DFW Amateur Pianists.

MICHAEL HAWLEY  (First Prize and Press Jury Award, 2002) - Director of Special Projects, MIT, United States
As a Professor of Media Technology at the famous MIT Media Lab, and now MIT's Director of Special Projects, Michael Hawley was principal investigator of Things That Think, a groundbreaking research program that explores the limitless ways digital media infuse everyday objects. He also directed Toys of Tomorrow, which engages many of the world's leading toy companies to invent wonderful new playthings. His research career has involved computer music under the direction of Pierre Boulez at IRCAM in Paris and pioneering work in digital cinema for Lucasfilm Ltd. As a principal engineer at NeXT, he helped develop the world's first library of digital books. A one-time Duncan yo-yo champion, Dr. Hawley was awarded a music scholarship at Yale, where he earned undergraduate degrees in music and computer science. He later earned his PhD at MIT.UPDATE: Michael Hawley has appeared in recital at Boston's Jordan Hall (December 2002), with the Boston Pops under Keith Lockhart's direction (June 2003), and with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (June 2004). His 2005 recitals included arrangements by Art Tatum and Leopold Godowsky. He was honored in 2004 by Yale University as a Tetelman Fellow and organized an exhibit of work from Bhutan for the American Museum of National History in New York City.

ANN HERLONG (Third Prize, 2004) - Homemaker, United States
Ann Herlong is a grandmother of four and a native of South Carolina. She began piano lessons with her mother, who taught her through her high school years. While she was completing her bachelor of music degree at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she studied in the summer months with Katherine Bacon at The Juilliard School of Music. Although she intended to enter Juilliard after graduation, she got married and raised five children instead. Mrs. Herlong returned to music after her children were grown, and now studies at Winthrop College with Eugene Barban, who encouraged her to enter the IPCOA in 2002.UPDATE: Ann Herlong has been invited to play at eight performances in the North and South Carolina area since her IPCOA win, each time being asked to repeat her winning repertoire. It has been a wonderful experience, but she says she is now ready to start working on some new material.

JOEL HOLOUBEK (First Prize and Press Jury Award, 1999) - Numismatist, France
A dealer in old coins since 1990, Joel Holoubek contributes to and edits catalogues related to his field. Based in Paris, he began studying the piano at age seven and won first prize in the 1994 Concours des Grands Amateurs de Piano. He performed the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Orchestre de la Garde Republican in April 1999.  DREW MAYS (First Prize and Audience Award, 2007) - Ophthalmologist, United States As a graduate student, Drew Mays pursued advanced music studies both at the Manhattan School of Music and at the conservatory of music in Hannover, Germany. He began working toward his PhD in medicine in 1987, the same year he earned a master's in music from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Dr. Mays has maintained a private practice, specializing in glaucoma, in Birmingham for eleven years, and he is on the staff of the VA Medical Center in Birmingham. He also serves as residency program director for the Department of Ophthalmology at UAB. In 2002, following a fifteen-year period of "musical silence," Dr. Mays started practicing again, in part to serve as an example to his four children. Four years later, he was named second-prize winner at the Rocky Mountain amateur competition.

JANE GIBSON KING (Press Jury Award, 2011) - Homemaker, United States
Born in Long Beach, California, Jane King earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in piano from Brigham Young University. In college she often performed inrecitals, master classes, and piano competitions. Ms. King has appeared as a soloist with the Utah Symphony, the BYU Orchestra, and the Music Academy of the West Orchestra in Santa Barbara, where she was a student of Jerome Lowenthal. In 1982, she studied with Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Steven De Groote at Arizona State University. Raising four children and being a full-time caregiver andadvocate for her youngest son Michael, who has autism, made it necessary to put practicing on hold for many years. Early in 2010, Ms. King resumed piano practice and is privileged to study with Eugene Watanabe in Salt Lake City.

PAUL ANTHONY ROMERO (Second Prize, 2002; First Prize, Press Jury Award, and Audience Award, 2004) - Composer and Porcelain Dealer, United States
Paul Anthony Romero was born and raised in Southern California. Paul taught himself to play the piano at the age of three and began formal music lessons at the age of nine. At sixteen he accepted a full scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied composition with Ned Rorem. Since then he has composed over fifty original musical scores for independent movies, documentaries, television commercials, and popular computer games. Paul is the award-winning composer of theHeroes of Might and Magic CD-ROM games, which have sold over twelve million copies around the world. Paul is also the composer for Sony'sEverquest, which is the world's number one computer game. In addition to composing, Paul is also an avid collector and dealer of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French, Bavarian, and Russian Imperial porcelain. He resides in Los Angeles with his partner, Dr. Brock Summers. Paul is the winner of several amateur piano competitions, including the Paris; Washington, DC; and Rocky Mountain. UPDATE: As part of his prize package, Paul Anthony Romero performed a recital in 2004 for the Smithsonian Associates in Washington, D.C. The Los Angeles Opera hired Mr. Romero as pianist for their October 2004 performances of Hans Krasa's opera for children, Brundibar. Increasingly in demand as a lecturer as well, he was hired by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a series of lecture concerts at the new Disney Hall to introduce its 2004-2005 concerts, and is also the moderator for the Pasadena Symphony's new Clazzical Notes concert lecture series (which focuses on the similarities and differences of classical and jazz music). He continues to write scores for computer games.

STEVEN RYAN  (Second Prize, 2000) - Computer Consultant, United States
In 1994, Steven Ryan co-founded RTFM Consulting, Inc., a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider which handles training for many of the major investment banks in New York. Raised on a farm, Mr. Ryan received his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Minnesota. He spent seven summers at the Aspen School of Music on fellowship as keyboardist with the festival orchestras, performing in more than 100 concerts and winning the concerto competition during his final year. An active freelance musician, he has worked as orchestral keyboardist with such orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the American Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has accompanied the Dessoff Choirs since 1997 and currently studies piano with Seymour Bernstein.

DEBRA SAYLOR (Third Prize, 2000) - Sales Associate, United States A native of Iowa, Debra Saylor received her bachelor's degree in piano and vocal performance from Clarke College in Dubuque. She went on to receive a master's degree in performance from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Ms. Saylor taught private voice lessons through her church in Iowa and sang for various civic and church functions in the community. She now resides in Omaha, Nebraska, where she works as a reservation sales associate for the Marriott hotel chain.UPDATE: Debra Saylor performed with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra in October 2005 in the Mainly Mozart series.

CHRISTOPHER SHIH (First Prize and Audience Award, 2011) - Physician, United States
Dr. Christopher Shih is a gastroenterologist from Maryland. He received his Bachelor's degree from Harvard and his Doctor of Medicine degree from Johns Hopkins. He works as a partner with the Maryland Digestive Disease Center, a division of Capital Digestive Care. Dr. Shih has previously won several amateur competitions, including those in Washington, D.C., Boston, and Paris. Fourteen years ago, he competed in the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.