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A Rising Montgomery Talent

Elbert Gong is an 8th grader in Montgomery Upper Middle School.  He is not only an all-around honor roll student, but also has emerged as a talented musician. At the age of four, Elbert started his piano study at Westminster Conservatory with Mr. Michael Jacobsen. In September 2008, Elbert was successfully admitted to the Juilliard School Pre-College division, studying piano performance under the tutelage of Mr. Julian Martin.
Over the years, has won numerous competitions including the Westminster Conservatory Scholarship competition (2005, 2007), the Westminster Conservatory Concerto competition(2006), the Greater Princeton Steinway competition (1st prize, 2008), and the Goldblatt Scholarship competition (1st prize, April 2010). In the 2010 Princeton Festival Piano Competition, on top of winning the first place in the Junior Artist category, Elbert also won the Richard Tang Yuk Awardas the Most Outstanding Performer in the entire competition. For two summers in a roll (2009, 2010), Elbert attended international piano summer camps with merit scholarship because of his superb performance. This year, Elbert receives a full scholarship for his study at the Juilliard Pre-College from winning the prestigious Gina Bachauer Competition at Juilliard.
Elbert has appeared in many concert halls, including New York’s Steinway Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Princeton University’s Taplin Auditorium and Juilliard’s Paul Recital Hall. He also performed in the master classes of Alessio Bax and Sean Schulze.
Elbert’s passion for music and his willingness to help also led him to perform outside of the formal stage many times, including at benefit concerts and senior center recitals. He has always been very well received.
In addition to the piano, Elbert was also a violist in Princeton Youth Orchestra during in  2007-8., and a member of New Jersey Honor’s Choir in 2007. He was a MathCounts team member for Montgomery Middle School to compete in the regional competitions in 2009 and 2010, and a school Spelling Bee Champion in 2010. He is currently a Johns Hopkins CTY-SET (Center for Talented Youth – the Study of Exceptional Talent) member. His hobby is tennis and is trained in PTP’s tournament training program twice a week.
On October 23 at 5pm, he will once again give his Solo Recital at Juilliard’s Paul Recital Hall (address: The Juilliard School, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY10023-6588). Admission is free. He will perform works by Bach, Beethoven, Debussy and Mendelssohn.