Casper pianist Oliver Soulek has won second place in the 2026 Donald Runnicles Musical Arts Scholarship Competition at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming. Soulek, who graduated from KWHS in May, was the only Wyoming resident to advance to the finalist round.
Competition Details
The competition awarded a total of $50,000 in scholarships to help with continued education in music. Soulek’s scholarship award totals $15,000, according to his mother, Michele Soulek. For his competition program, Soulek performed selections by Haydn, Chopin, and Bach.
Soulek has been playing piano since the age of 4, when his parents enrolled him in lessons to help him gain strength and dexterity in his left hand due to Poland syndrome, a rare birth condition. He will attend the Berklee College of Music to study film scoring and recording this fall.
Original reporting: Oil City News (Casper WY) — read the source article.
