Dranoff 2 Piano Fusion and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County proudly presented Piano Slam 2025 in the Arsht Knight Concert Hall.

Held during National Poetry Month, the show featured 15 finalists in Dranoff’s annual poetry competition, whose poems were selected from among 600 submissions. The four $1,000 winners were Glykelis Iglesias from Miami Norland Senior High School, Kimberly Rombot from Henry S. West Laboratory School, Daniel Benitez from Ernest R. Graham K-8, and Jenima Gabriel from Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School who was the overall winner for her homage to the sounds and music of Haiti.

Piano Slam Host Committee Chair Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, III, was pleased to join festivities in the Cejas Patrons Lounge after presenting Ms. Gabriel with her winning check on stage. In addition to Commissioner Gilbert, some of the biggest sponsors of the night were Miami-Dade County Commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez, Evita Beauty founder Tina Vidal-Duart, The Miami Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the Adrienne Arsht Center, The Kirk Foundation, Peacock Foundation, Kathleen Kennedy Foundation, The Dunn Family Foundation, the Kislak Family Foundation and The Children’s Trust.

Members of the competition’s live judges panel mingled at the pre- and post-show VIP receptions along with donors, board members and sponsors, drinking champagne and enjoying the delectable spread of dips and lite bites curated by the Constellation Culinary Group. Judges included presidential poet laureate Richard Blanco, Haitian American poet Mecca “Grimo” Marcelin, Miami-Dade poet laureate Caridad Moro-Gronlier and Miami Book Fair Programs Manager Paola Fernandez Rana.

The after party included appearances by renowned international pianists Jeroen van Veen and Mike Del Ferro who flew in from the Netherlands to perform in the show, as well as the award-winning actor, writer, and director, Teo Castellanos, who stage directed the Piano Slam finals.

The countywide Piano Slam Poetry Competition is an extension of Dranoff 2 Piano Fusion’s Piano Slam in Schools initiative, a unique and transformative STEAM-integrated performance program for youth developed in 2009 with curriculum specialists at Miami-Dade County Public Schools to enhance core subject learning in roughly a dozen schools annually. The program provides schools with creative writing workshops and live piano duo concerts, partially underwritten by The Arsht Center.

Dranoff 2 Piano Fusion is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating community by fusing 2 piano repertoire with music of many genres and cultures through concerts, collaborations and education.