By Tatum Spencer
staff writer | spencert3@duq.edu

Maikol Pérez Gómez, a junior piano performance major at Duquesne University won a collegiate competition that offered the chance to play with the Butler Symphony Orchestra because he saw an advertisement hanging in Mary Pappert School of Music.

“I like competing a lot,” Pérez Gómez said. “It’s like you prepare something, and you’re like ‘Okay, let’s submit this and see what happens.’”

This isn’t a risk Pérez Gómez hasn’t taken in the past, though. He has many other wins under his belt, including first place at the Marian Garcia International Piano Competition at Penn State in 2025 and third place at the José Jacinto Cuevas Yamaha International Piano Competition in Mérida, Mexico.

Pérez Gómez submitted a video recording of him playing the piano concerto in A minor by the composer Robert Schumann.

“Schumann in general is a composer that speaks to me very closely,” he said.

As the winning pianist, Pérez Gómez performed as a soloist with the orchestra Nov. 7.

“The concert went very well,” he said. “The balance between the piano and orchestra was also achieved. And the energy by both parts was outstanding.”

His professor, Kevin Lee Sun, assistant professor of piano at Duquesne, helped him not only through the process of this competition, but throughout his entire experience at the University.

“My instructor was like an eternal guide for me,” Pérez Gómez said. “He has a very deep understanding of music.”

Sun said that throughout their time working together, Pérez Gómez has begun to look into the poetry and literature that inspired the music he plays to gain a deeper understanding of the piece.

“Maikol has grown so much in the past two-and-a-half years in terms of seeking out the meaning behind music,” Sun said. “He’s very curious about seeking connections between the music he plays and other literature and art.”

Sun also described Pérez Gómez as “detail-oriented,” and how that quality helped him with the piece he submitted to the Butler Symphony Orchestra competition.

“Through our lessons together, he’s learned to come up with his own solutions for musical problems, and you can see how he wants to get better as a musician,” Sun said.

Pérez Gómez originally began playing the saxophone 12 years ago because of his father’s influence. However, as he attended college for music, he felt a deeper connection to the piano.

“I think the piano sounds profound,” he said.

Darío Horta, from Havana, Cuba, met Maikol when they were both children, and they later studied music together.

“He’s always been a role model for me, even from a very young age,” Horta said. “Not only because he showed extraordinary and impressive talent, but also because he was always one of those students who did everything out of genuine love and passion.”

Horta added that Pérez Gómez’s pursuit for perfection was never simply about wanting to play flawlessly. His perfection came from the respect he had for music itself.

“He was always extremely dedicated to studying and very thoughtful and careful when it came to performing. He has an incredible level of discipline.”