2 Yale Students Embrace Friendship During Cliburn Screening Auditions

Arlington TX

06 March, 2022

5:59 PM

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By Cecilia Lenzen, Fort Worth Report March 5, 2022 Rachel Breen and Carter Johnson have one rule for their upcoming performances at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition screening auditions: It's not personal. "We very much don't treat competitions as competitions against each other," Breen said. "It's kind of always a question of 'How well can I play?'" The 25-year-olds met in September while studying for their Masters in piano performance at Yale. Now, the two friends are both auditioning to advance to one of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world, which is hosted in Fort Worth. A group of 72 international pianists will perform over the next week, and only 30 will be invited back for the June competition. Although their paths have now converged, the duo's journeys to becoming pianists were starkly different. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.