The Young Artist Award recognizes "the most promising of the new generation of pianists, age 21 and younger, in the United States." The winners are selected by a panel of music professionals and do not know that they are being considered. Previous winners include Jonathan Biss and Orli Shaham.

Paremski was born in Moscow and studied at the Andreyev School of Music there before moving to the United States in 1995. She has continued her studies at the San Francisco Conservatory and the Mannes School of Music in New York, and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony.

Wang was born in China and studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing; she came to the United States three years ago to study with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Insitute in Philadelphia. She has performed with the Baltimore Symphony, China Philharmonic, and New Jersey Symphony.

The Gilmore Festival also presents the $300,000 Gilmore Artist Award, given every four years to a pianist "deemed worthy of an international career." Piotr Anderszewski, chosen in 2002, is the current Gilmore Artist; a new recipient, chosen through the same discreet method as the Young Artist Award, will be announced next year.

The festival and both awards were created in 1989 in the memory of Kalamazoo philanthropist Irving S. Gilmore.