SANDPOINT -- Fingers flirting with the keyboard, pianist Chu-Fang Huang transformed herself into Marilyn Monroe.

Her performance tantalized the Festival at Sandpoint's audience at Thursday night's opening performance of "Hooray for Hollywood" with the Spokane Symphony at Memorial Field.

Huang played Rachmaninoff's "Concerto No. 2 from Piano and Orchestra" from "The Seven Year Itch," the famous comedic movie in which Marilyn Monroe stands above a subway grate, skirt flying in the air.

Huang, 24, was the first Chinese citizen to win the Cleveland International Pianists Competition. The 2005 win earned her a $50,000 prize, a recital at New York's Alice Tully Hall, and several other prizes. She also won the competition's Chopin and Beethoven prizes, each worth $2,000. She has a master's degree from the Juilliard School of Music.

Gary Sheldon, the principal conductor for the Festival at Sandpoint, kept the audience entertained with both his quips and his conducting.

The crowd also savored the Symphony's performances of a John William's' medley, including the thrilling march from "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and enjoyed an encore performance of "The Magnificent Seven."

Other evening highlights include classy Sandpoint vocalist Joni Dirks sang beautiful renditions of "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio and "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

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