Jeanne Backofen Craig, who earned her music degree from Virginia Tech in 1991, was one of a dozen semifinalists in the Seventh Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition, held in Fort Worth, Texas, in June 2016. In the semifinal round, she performed, to rave reviews, Brahms’ Intermezzo in A Major, op. 118, no. 2, and Liszt’s “Vallée d’Obermann” from Années de Pèlerinage and Hungarian Rhapsody no. 11 in A Minor.

The prestigious competition is open to nonprofessional pianists who do not derive their principal source of income through piano performance or instruction. Craig, who has perfect pitch, serves as a minister of music and liturgy in Forest, Virginia.