On Oct. 9, Missouri Southern International Piano Competition grand prize winner Tatiana Tessman performed at Carnegie Hall in New York.

“You know you are going to go with your winner who is a spectacular winner,” said Vivian León, director of the MSIPC. “It was a wonderful performance that she gave in Carnegie Hall.”

Vivian said Carnegie Hall is the number one venue for any artist who wants to make themselves known.

“You see a lot of doors are open for her,” she said.

Vivian said the University has built up such an audience through the years.

“When we come, they attend,” she said.

For the performance, Vivian said they had a good audience.

“What really warms your heart is the people that attend are not the people just from the streets,” she said.

Vivian said students and faculty from Juliard and the Manhattan School of Music attended the performance, for example.

“We invited people from the Russian Embassy,” she said. “People just came by reputation.”

The group also went on Good Morning America.

“We got to stay the entire two hours,” Vivian said. “She (Diane Sawyer) was so nice to us, and we had a good time with her.”

Vivian said going on the show was the fun part for the group.

“They got to see how a program is put together,” she said.

To go inside, Vivian said they had to make a reservation.

“We have gone for several years,” she said.

University President Julio León said the performance was outstanding and fantastic.

“The Russian pianist was excellent,” he said.

“Her performance was just every bit as good if not better than when she won the competition.”

The next MSIPC competition is April 20-28, 2008.

“We are constantly looking to improve our quality,” Vivian said. “We have been doing that from day one.”

Vivian said with MSIPC, they have a reputation around the world.

“We have worked very hard to work on fairness (and) to work on the integrity of the competition,” she said. “It’s crucial.”

Vivian said they have to have judges of high caliber.

“Yet they do not have egos to go where they will do things to advance themselves,” she said.

“In the performing arts it’s a very normal thing to do. We work very hard to make sure those things don’t happen so that the competition itself is what is flourishing big time.”