Joseph & Ken Gallwas - 1st Prize
Congratulations to the Gallwas Twins for winning the 2025 Ohio International Piano Duet & Duo Competition Senior Division First Prize.
The Gallwas Twins, Kenneth and Joseph Gallwas, made their stunning duet debut at Carnegie Hall at just nine years old as winners of the American Protégé Competition. They are the reigning 3rd place 2024 MTNA National Champions in Senior Piano Duet, having won 1st prize at both the state and district levels. In 2023, they performed at the Grant Park Festival as part of Joyce Yang’s “Play with Masters” event. In summer 2024, they attended the Northwestern Duo Masterclass with Sylvia Wang and Alan Chow, giving recitals at The Merion, McClintock Recital Hall, and the Mary Galvin Recital Hall.
Both avid concerto, solo, and chamber musicians, Ken and Joe have performed nearly a dozen times with orchestras and earned accolades in competitions such as the Aloha International Piano Competition, Sejong National Competition, Charleston International Competition, International Young Artists Competition, Walgreens, and Elmhurst Stanger Concerto Competitions. In 2024, Ken and Joe placed first and second, respectively, in the ISMTA solo competition and earned top awards at the MTNA state level as well. Most recently, Joseph won the top prize in the O’Malley Foundation Concerto Competition (formerly Walgreens) and is a semi-finalist in the International Young Artists Concerto Competition, scheduled to perform with the Seen Worldwide Orchestra in Chicago.
The twins started piano lessons when they turned 6 years old and are currently studying at New Music School with Jeffrey Panko, Sean Bennett, and Mary Sauer, retired keyboardist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. They have participated in masterclasses with esteemed pianists Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Steven Osborne, Dang Thai Son, and Stanislav Ioudenitch. Juniors at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois, Kenneth and Joseph play cello and violin in the school orchestra and play ice hockey on the York Varsity White team.
