Finghin Collins was born in Dublin in 1977 and studied piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with John O’Conor and at the Geneva Conservatoire with Dominique Merlet. He took first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland in 1999. Since then he has continued to enjoy a flourishing international career that takes him all over Europe and North America, as well to the Far East and Australia. 

Collins has performed with many of the world’s finest orchestras and conductors. He has also given solo recitals in many of the world’s most prestigious halls and participates frequently in chamber music festivals with a variety of colleagues of international standing. 

Over the past two decades Collins has developed a close relationship with Claves Records in Switzerland, recording two double CDs of Schumann’s piano music (which won numerous awards including Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice in 2006), followed by a recording of works for piano and orchestra by Charles V. Stanford with the RTÉ NSO / Kenneth Montgomery (Editor’s Choice, May 2011). In May 2013 RTÉ lyric fm launched his recording of four Mozart piano concertos directed from the keyboard with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. A Chopin recital CD was released in 2017, a co-production between RTÉ lyric fm and Claves Records, while in spring 2020 Claves released a recording of the Mozart Piano Quartets with Rosanne Philippens (violin), Máté Szücs (viola) and István Várdai (cello). In September 2022 a new solo CD “The Bright Day is Done” was released, featuring a variety of works inspired by different times of the day. 

Finghin Collins makes a significant contribution to the musical landscape of his native Ireland, where he resides. Since 2013, he has been Artistic Director of Music for Galway, while he is also the founding Artistic Director, since 2006, of the New Ross Piano Festival in Wexford. In March 2023 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Dublin International Piano Competition. 

Collins was a member of the jury of the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland in 2021. He chairs the jury of the Clara Haskil Competition in 2023 and 2025. 

In 2017, the National University of Ireland conferred on him an honorary Degree of Doctor of Music. 

www.finghincollins.com

Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott is a consummate artist who balances a versatile career as a soloist and collaborator. She performs over 100 concerts a year in a combination of solo recitals, concerti and chamber music. Her repertoire choices are eclectic, spanning from Bach and Haydn to Prokofiev and Scriabin to Kernis, Hartke, Tower and Wuorinen.

With over 50 concerti in her repertoire, Ms. McDermott has performed with many leading orchestra including the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Seattle Symphony, National Symphony, Houston Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, Hong Kong Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, New Jersey Symphony and Baltimore Symphony among others. Ms. McDermott has toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi.

In the recent seasons, Ms. McDermott performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, Alabama Symphony, San Diego Symphony, the Oregon Mozart Players, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra.

Recital engagements have included the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, The Schubert Club, Kennedy Center, as well as universities across the country. Anne-Marie McDermott has curated and performed in a number of intense projects including: the Complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas and Chamber Music, a Three Concert Series of Shostakovich Chamber Music, as well as a recital series of Haydn and Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Most recently, she commissioned works of Charles Wuorinen and Clarice Assad which were premiered in May 2009 at Town Hall, in conjunction with Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

As a soloist, Ms. McDermott has recorded the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas, Bach English Suites and Partitas (which was named Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice), and most recently, Gershwin Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony and Justin Brown.

In addition to her many achievements, Anne-Marie McDermott has been named the Artistic Director of the famed Bravo! Vail Music Festival in Colorado, which hosts the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony in addition to presenting over 40 chamber music concerts throughout the summer. She is also Artistic Director of two more Festivals; The Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival and The Avila Chamber Music Celebration in Curacao.

As a chamber music performer, Anne-Marie McDermott was named an artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1995 and performs and tours extensively with CMS each season. She continues a long standing collaboration with the highly acclaimed violinist, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg. As a duo, they have released a CD titled “Live” on the NSS label and plan to release the Complete Brahms Violin and Piano Sonatas in the future. Ms. McDermott is also a member of the renowned piano quartet, Opus One, with colleagues Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom and Peter Wiley.

She continues to perform each season with her sisters, Maureen McDermott and Kerry McDermott in the McDermott Trio. Ms. McDermott has also released an all Schumann CD with violist, Paul Neubauer, as well as the Complete Chamber Music of Debussy with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Ms. McDermott studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Dalmo Carra, Constance Keene and John Browning. She was a winner of the Young Concert Artists auditions and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Ms. McDermott regularly performs at Festivals across the United States including, Spoleto, Mainly Mozart, Sante Fe, La Jolla Summerfest, Mostly Mozart, Newport, Caramoor, Bravo, Chamber Music Northwest, Aspen, Music from Angelfire and the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico, among others.

John O’Conor has been gathering wonderful reviews for his masterly playing for over fifty years. Having studied in his native Dublin, in Vienna with Dieter Weber and being tutored by the legendary Wilhelm Kempff his unanimous 1st Prize at the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna in 1973 opened the door to a career that has brought him all around the world.

He has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, l’Orchestre National de France, the NHK Orchestra in Japan and the Atlanta, Cleveland, San Francisco, Dallas, Montreal and Detroit Symphonies in North America. He has given concerts in many of the world’s most famous halls including Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Wigmore Hall and South Bank Centre in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Dvorak Hall in Prague, the Seoul Arts Centre, and the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo. He enjoys collaborating in Lieder recitals and performing chamber music with many renowned quartets.

His recordings of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas led CD Review to say that he “by now should be recognised as the world’s premier Beethoven interpreter” and his recent recordings of the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra and Andreas Delfs have also been greeted with acclaim. In the past two years he has released three new CDs on the Steinway label, one of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and two of Haydn Sonatas. He has also been featured on tonebase.com with videos on teaching and discussing Beethoven and Haydn Sonatas. In August 2020 he will record the complete Beethoven cello sonatas with the irish cellist Ailbhe McDonagh.

A Steinway Artist, he is Chair of the Piano Division at Shenandoah University in Virginia, Professor of Piano at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Visiting Professor at Showa University in Japan. He is also Distinguished Visiting Professor in Piano, TU Dublin Conservatoire of Music.

For his services to music he has been decorated “Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Government, awarded the “Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst” by the Austrian Government, the “Order of the Rising Sun” by the Emperor of Japan, and has received many other awards.

Internationally renowned for both a brilliant technique and a distinct musical personality, pianist Susan Starr has performed to packed houses and critical acclaim throughout the world since receiving the silver medal in 2nd Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition.

Ms. Starr has appeared in recital and with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras in Russia, Asia, Europe, South America and throughout the United States. Appearances include with the Philadelphia Orchestra on countless occasions, as well as with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony and the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and St. Louis, among numerous others.

The many eminent conductors who have chosen Susan Starr as soloist throughout her career include Eugene Ormandy, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Fiedler, Robert Shaw, Sir Neville Mariner, Otto Werner Mueller, Ghennady Rozhdestvensky, Maxim Shostakovich, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Leonard Slatkin, Joseph Silverstein, Charles Dutoit, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya.

Ms. Starr began her studies in Philadelphia with Eleanor Sokoloff at age four. She made her performance debut at the age of six with the Philadelphia Orchestra.  At seven, she entered the prestigious Curtis Institute continuing her studies with Sokoloff.  At 15, she became a student of Rudolf Serkin until her graduation. Susan Starr continues to be in great demand as a judge in both national and international piano competitions and continues to offer master classes throughout the world, and teaches privately at her studio in Philadelphia.

Karen Walker is Professor Emerita of Piano at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia, USA. Over her 39 year career at Shenandoah, Karen thrived in her work as a teaching artist and administrator. While serving as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, she redesigned the doctoral curriculum to target the development of necessary skills for teaching and obtaining a position in Higher Education — courses such as The Artist Teacher in the Classroom and Career Navigation for the Artist Teacher provided centralized opportunities to hone these professional skills for future teaching artists. Particularly rewarding was the mentorship of graduate students in all Conservatory programs through her role as Coordinator of Graduate and Teaching Assistantships. She holds degrees in performance and pedagogy from Eastern Washington University, Northwestern University, and The Catholic University of America. Karen is an active performer and collaborator and is a frequent adjudicator at regional, state and national festivals and competitions.

James Anagnoson, Dean of The Royal Conservatory`s Glenn Gould School, is one of Canada`s best-known pianists and pedagogues. He has been on the piano faculty of The GGS since its formation in 1987, and has also taught at the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario.

Mr. Anagnoson`s students have won prizes in International Competitions such as the Maria Canals, the International Franz Liszt, the Gina Bachauer, and the Dublin International competitions, and repeatedly are prizewinners in Canada`s National Competitions such as the Canadian Music Competition and the Toronto Symphony Competition. He has given master classes in various parts of Europe, North America, and Asia, and he has been a juror for competitions such as the Dublin International Piano Competition, the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, the Canadian Chopin Competition, the Prix d`Europe, the International e-Competition, the Toronto International Piano Competition, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Competition.

In 1976, James Anagnoson began performing with Canadian pianist Leslie Kinton, and since that time the duo Anagnoson & Kinton have gone on to give “outstanding concerts…with formidable precision and panache” – to quote the New York Times – across Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia, receiving unanimous acclaim from both audiences and critics.

In addition to their more than 1000 concert appearances around the world, which have included concerto appearances with Canada`s leading orchestras, the duo has performed for the BBC, Czech National Radio, Hong Kong Radio, Hilversum Radio in Holland, and Radio Suisse Romande. Their 2014-15 season includes appearances in Toronto`s Roy Thomson Hall and the Royal Conservatory`s Koerner Hall. Other recent concert highlights include appearances in Poznan, Poland, St Petersburg, Russia, a performance in Martinu Hall in Prague, and the Shanghai International Festival.

Anagnoson and Kinton have commissioned, premiered and recorded many original works for two pianos, piano four hands, and two pianos and orchestra. Most recently they commissioned and gave the Canadian Premiere of Ray Luedeke`s Into the Labyrinth, a work for two pianos and narrator, in collaboration with the internationally renowned actor Colin Fox.

Their interest in the works of Stravinsky led to their performing the North American premiere of Stravinsky`s two piano version of his Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, a work they later recorded on a CD that includes their performances of the Francis Poulenc and Roger Matton two piano concertos. They have also performed Stravinsky`s four hand version of Petrouchka and The Rite of Spring numerous times, both in concert and onstage in collaboration with innovative choreographers of dance companies such as Ballet BC.

James Anagnoson has been heard nationally on the CBC radio as a guest host on The Arts Tonight, and as a piano commentator for both the Esther Honens International Piano Competition and the CBC Young Performer`s Competition.

Mr. Anagnoson received his Master`s degree from The Juilliard School, and his Bachelor`s degree from the Eastman School of Music, which he attended on scholarship. His most influential mentor was the American pianist Eugene List, and he was also strongly influenced by his post graduate work with Claude Frank and Karl Ulrich Schnabel.

Mr. Anagnoson and his wife Julia Young live in Toronto with their 16-year-old son, Alexander.

Pianist Zelma Bodzin is a faculty member at the Mannes College/New School and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College/CUNY.  At Mannes, she initiated the Ensemble Piano program, which includes commissioning a work from a student composer for performance by participants in the class.  Ms. Bodzin is a coach, teacher, advisor to composers and for recordings, producer/editor of cds and dvds, and artistic advisor to performers of recordings on several record labels including Deutsche Grammophon.  She maintains a private studio in New York City where she teaches, holds Piano Seminars several times a month, and coaches professional performers preparing for concerts and recordings.  Her students and those she has coached have garnered prizes in numerous competitions around the world, and she is artistic advisor to performers of award-winning recordings in the U.S. and Canada.

Zelma Bodzin played her first concert at the age of five.  Primary influences in her studies were Eugene List at the Eastman School of Music, Dieter Weber at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna,  Rosalyn Tureck, Wilhelm Kempff, and Arminda Canteros.  She participated in master classes with Lili Krauss and Jorge Bolet.  Ms. Bodzin performed hundreds of concerts, including solo recitals, as soloist with orchestra, and as a member of the Haffner Ensemble in Vienna, Austria.  Critics have recognized her “acute ear and intriguing ideas” (New York Times).  A pianist with a wide range of repertoire, from Bach — “those who were there must be deeply grateful”, according to The Irish Times review of Ms. Bodzin’s performance of the “Goldberg Variations” — to works of the 21^st century.  Her performances of Leonard Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” received critical and public acclaim on tour in Texas, as well as the Beethoven 4^th and Tchaikovsky 3^rd Concertos with the Atlanta Chamber Orchestra in Atlanta and on tour.  Recordings of her performances have been broadcast around the world, including WQXR (New York), RTE (Irish radio and television), the ORF (Austria) and Radio Free Europe (USIS).  She has also appeared on Koch International’s recordings of music of Jack Gottlieb.  Ms. Bodzin has played every genre of music – solo repertoire, concertos with orchestra, and been a collaborative pianist with singers, instrumentalists and choruses, appearing in New York at Weill Hall, at Alice Tully Hall with the New York Chamber Orchestra, Carnegie Hall as well as the Apollo Theatre with the Muppets’ Elmo.

Ms. Bodzin has been a member of the jury at many competitions, from Sofia, Bulgaria to the French Caribbean, including the Aarhus (Denmark) International Piano Competition, the Tureck Bach International Competition, the Leschetizky Concerto Competition for Gifted Young Pianists, International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City, the Feis Coeil in Ireland and the Buono-Bradshaw Competition.  She was also invited to judge the MTNA Competitions.  She has given master classes in Norway, Finland, Bulgaria, Ireland, Malta, Germany and Guadeloupe, as well as in the United States, in New York, Texas, Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida.   In 2016, she offered a two-day Master Class at the Teachers College in Bergen, Norway, and continues to maintain teaching there.   She is the current president of the Leschetizky Association and Chair of the Concert Committee, a past president of the New York State Music Teachers Association, and served on a national grant-review committee of the Music Teachers National Association.

Philippe Cassard has established an international reputation as concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician since giving a joint recital with Christa Ludwig in Paris in 1985. The same year he was finalist at the Clara Haskil Competition and in 1988 he won the first prize at the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition.

His concerto appearances include performances with the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, the Hungarian National Philharmonic, and the Danish Radio Symphony. He has worked with many conductors including Jeffrey Tate, Sir Alexander Gibson, Vladimir Fedossejev, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Raymond Leppard, Charles Dutoit, Armin Jordan, Marek Janowski, Emmanuel Krivine, and Thierry Fischer.

His performance of the complete piano works of Debussy (four recitals in a single day) received extremely enthusiastic press and media coverage. He has presented the cycle in London at the Wigmore Hall, Dublin, Paris, Marseille, Lisbon, Sydney, Vancouver, Singapore and Tokyo. He also visits China, Australia and Canada regularly. Artists such as Donna Brown, Wolfgang Holzmair, Anne Gastinel, David Grimal,the Chilingirian, Takacs, Ebene and Ysaÿe String Quartets are all regular collaborators.

Philippe Cassard has recorded for several companies including Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Harmonia Mundi, and Accord-Universal. His recordings include Debussy’s complete piano works, Schubert’s Sonatas, Moments Musicaux and Klavierstücke, chamber music by Beethoven and Janacek, and songs by Fauré and Debussy. His recording of Schumann’s Humoresque and Fantasiestücke op.12 was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine and FM Magazine “Best Buy” (2005). His recording of Schubert’s Impromptus Op 90 and Op 142, and a short essay on Schubert both of which have been warmly received. In March 2010, Philippe Cassard released the Brahms Klavierstücke op.116 to op.119.

He was Artistic Director of the Festival “Nuits Romantiques du Lac du Bourget” (1999-2008), and since 2005, he has presented over 200 live programmes on France Musique Radio dedicated to piano interpretation (“Notes du traducteur“).

Since his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 16 playing Mendelssohn’s 2nd Piano Concerto, Korean born pianist, Hyoung-Joon Chang has worked with eminent conductors including Walter Hendl, Tadaaki Otaka, Thomas Sanderling and Paul Freeman. Chang has collaborated with world-renowned orchestras such as the London Philharmonic at the Barbican Centre, the Tokyo Philharmonic at the Tokyo Culture Center, the Symphony Orchestra of Russia, the Czech National Symphony, the Osaka Symphony at the Osaka Symphony Hall, the Victoria Symphony, and the Chautauqua Symphony during its summer music festival. Chang was the soloist for the Korean premiere of “Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra” by Vaughn Williams and the “Rainy Day for the Piano and the Orchestra” by Kang-Yul Lee, the latter winning the 2004 Art Award of the Year in Korea. In addition, Chang has given acclaimed solo recitals on international stages in Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Korea.

Chang received his doctoral degree from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with legendary American pianists Earl Wild and Constance Keene. He has also played often for the late Abram Chasins. He has been a jury member of Shanghai, Serbia, Anton Rubinstein, “The Top of the World International Piano Competition” in Tromso,Norway and the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2011 and many of his students have won major and special prizes from numerous international piano competitions.

He has taught master classes at leading schools around the world, including the Eastman School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Shanghai Conservatory, Royal College of Music, Royal Scottish Academy, Dresden and Mannheim Hochschule. He has been a Professor of Piano at Seoul National University since 1995. An active and popular recording artist, Chang has recorded diverse piano concertos of Mozart, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin and Schnittke with labels such as Pro Arte, Warner Music and Genuin.

Rae de Lisle is currently Head of Piano Studies at the University of Auckland. Her teaching has produced many outstanding young pianists, including prize winners in the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition, the Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition, the Bradshaw and Buono Competition in New York, and the Perrenoud Foundation International Piano Competition. In the 2008 Christchurch National Concerto Competition all three finalists had been her students. Further students are completing post gradute study in Germany, Austria, Italy, Britain and America.

As a pianist she studied in London with Brigitte Wild, Cyril Smith, Maria Curcio and Christopher Elton. Performances included concerts at the Wigmore Hall and in the BBC recital series. Rae returned to New Zealand in 1977 and for the next fifteen years was much in demand as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician, playing throughout New Zealand, as well as in North America. She recorded regularly for radio and television, receiving the Mobil Award for the best classical recording in 1990. She played concertos on many occasions with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and most of New Zealand’s regional orchestras.

She has done substantial research into musician’s injuries and is completing a PhD on focal dystonia, a devastating neurological condition which can end a musician’s career. She is also researching material for a book on piano technique and injury prevention. She has given presentations on London, Manchester, Turkey, Serbia, Portugal, Aspen and throughout Australia and New Zealand. She was key note speaker at the 2009 Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference and the 2010 Western Australia Music Teachers Conference.

A First Prize winner of the Claude Debussy International Piano Competition in France and Italy’s International Piano Competition of Senigalia, Bulgarian pianist, Pavlina Dokovska has gained worldwide recognition and enthusiastic critical acclaim as a soloist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestra. She has performed at major venues in the USA, including Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Frick Collection, Merkin Hall, National Gallery, Gardner Museum; in Europe at Berlin Radio Hall, Wigmore Hall, Gasteig Hall, Smetana Hall, Salle Gaveau, La Scala, Bosendorfersaal; and in Asia at Taipei’s National Opera Hall, Suntory Hall, Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts. Important festivals include Salzburg Festival, Spoleto Festival in Italy, Mai Musical in Bordeaux, Prague Autumn Festival, Beijing International Music Festival and Academy, International Keyboard Institutße and Festival in New York, Tel-Hai Masterclasses, Paderewski Piano Academy (Poland), Piano Festival at the Seoul National University, etc. She has recorded for GegaNew, RCA, Koch International, Naxos, Arcadia, Elan, Labor Records. Ms. Dokovska has adjudicated many competitions including Cleveland International Piano Competition, Hilton Head Piano Competition, William Kapell International Competition, Vendome Prize International Piano Competition at Verbier Festival, Iowa Piano Competition, PianoArts North American Competition (Wisconsin), Rosalyn Tureck International Bach Competition (New York), Xinghai National Competition (Beijing), and others.

Pavlina Dokovska acquired her initial music education in Bulgaria and was a student of Lydia Kuteva at the Music High School in Sofia. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from the National Academy of Music, working with Julia and Konstantin Ganev (students of the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus) and Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School, as a Fulbright Scholar and a student of Beveridge Webster. As a recipient of the French Government scholarship, she spent summers studying with Yvonne Lefebure in Paris. Ms. Dokovska is the Chair of the Piano Department at Mannes School of Music in New York City and the Founder and Artistic Director of Mannes Sounds Festival and Southwest Virginia Festival for the Arts.

Fumiko Eguchi is acclaimed as one of the most prominent pedagogues in Japan. Beginning her piano studies with Susumu Nagai, she has subsequently studied at Toho School of Music with Jun Date. She continued her studies in Europe and has performed numerous concerts in solo, chamber music, accompanying, and with orchestras. Nurturing many composers and artists, she has devoted to developing young talents as a chairperson at Yamaha Master Class since its establishment  in 1988.   She is always in demand for masterclasses and lectures throughout Asia, Europe, and America. Many of her students are prizewinners of prestigious international competitions including Hamamatsu, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky Competition. Her contributions in music education extend widely and she is actively involved in editing and publishing books, conducting group lessons for adult learners and teachers, along with others. She serves on jury of many national and international competitions such as Beethoven, Casagrande, Dublin, Hanoi, Liszt, Mozart, Pozzoli, and Seoul Music Competition.

Currently, she is a Professor at Showa University of Music (Chair of Piano Department), Director of Showa Music and Ballet Studio, Director of  Music Education Research Center, and Chair Professor at Piano Art Academy. She is a Board Member of Piano Teachers’ National Association of Japan and is a Senior Board Member of the Executive Committee of International Chopin Piano Competition in ASIA.

Mikael Eliasen is currently Head of the Opera and Voice Departments at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He has also served as Artistic Director of the European Centre for Opera and Vocal Arts in Ghent as well as for the Youth Arts Programme at the New Israel Opera. He held the post of Music Director of the San Francisco Opera Center from 1994 – 1996.

He has given masterclasses all over the world and is a frequent guest at the Houston Opera Studio Program and the International Opera Studio in Amsterdam. He is a visiting professor at the Opera Academy of the Royal Danish Opera Theatre in Copenhagen. For the past twelve years he has taught at the Chatauqua Institution of Music Summer Voice Program and also at Centro Studi Italiani in Urbania, Italy. In 1996 he was invited to teach at the Young Artists Development program at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He serves regularly on international juries including the Metropolitan Opera National Council.

Mr Eliasen has collaborated with numerous singers in recital including Robert Merrill, Tom Krause, John Shirley-Quirk, Elly Ameling, Edith Mathis, Sarah Walker and Bernadette Greevy.

Christopher Elton was born in Edinburgh and received most of his musical education at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he achieved the unusual distinction of gaining the Academy’s highest performing award – the Dip. RAM – on both piano and ‘cello.

Christopher Elton’s international recognition has come as a result of the many successes of his students – mostly at the Royal Academy of Music. Many have won international awards, including First Prizes in the Van Cliburn and London “World” International Piano Competitions, the 2009 “Top of the world”, the 2014 Shenzen International Piano Competition and the 2014 Montreal International Piano Competition as well as others such as Jaen, Newport, Dudley and New Orleans. Further recent successes have come with four prizewinners in four concurrent Leeds International Piano Competitions as well as in the Tchaikovsky, Leipzig Bach, Dublin, Shanghai, and Taiwan Competitions and many others. Students have also been successful in the prestigious Young Concert Artists award in New York, as well as in the London Young Concert Artists Trust. Many of his students are now recording artists, including Freddy Kempf, Yevgeny Sudbin, Joanna MacGregor, Inon Barnatan and Benjamin Grosvenor.

While his priority has long been to his work at the Royal Academy, London, Christopher Elton has recently accepted an invitation to join the piano faculty at the Yale School of Music as a Visiting Professor for the 2nd semester of 2017/2018. He is also much in demand overseas both as a teacher and as a jury member for international competitions. Within the last few years he has given masterclasses in the USA, Japan, Israel, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Spain, Germany, Ireland and Vietnam, many of them for important conservatories or universities. He has also been invited as a jury member at many important international competitions – The Cliburn, Moscow (Tchaikovsky), Dublin, Leeds, Busoni (Bolzano), Vienna Beethoven, Shenzen and China International to mention only some. He has also given recitals in the UK, USA, Ireland, Spain, Australia and Vietnam.

He was a prizewinner in several British and international piano competitions, playing and broadcasting regularly both as a soloist and in chamber music. At the same time, he worked as a freelance ‘cellist with the major London orchestras.

Christopher Elton was Head of Keyboard at the Royal Academy of Music, London, (where he was elected a Fellow in 1983,) from 1987 to 2011. In 2002 the title of Professor of the University of London was conferred on him. He now also holds the title of Emeritus Head of Piano, and still maintains a large class of students at the Royal Academy of Music.

Dublin-born Thérèse Fahy, one of Ireland’s foremost pianists, enjoys an active performing and teaching career at home and abroad. Her regular recital and concerto appearances throughout Europe and the United States have met with critical acclaim, as have her numerous broadcasts for both RTÉ and BBC.

In recent seasons, Thérèse has toured the United States with a recital-programme of solo Irish contemporary piano music supported by Culture Ireland and the Fulbright Commission, and in 2012 with performances of the 24 Debussy Preludes, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the composer`s birth. Other engagements have included solo recitals, lecture-recitals and masterclasses in France, Italy, Poland, Spain, USA, the Czech Republic, Ethiopia and Ireland, as well as serving on the international juries of the Dublin International Piano Competition, the Manchester International Concerto Competition in Great Britain, and the prestigious Baltic International Piano Competition.

Thérèse Fahy has an affinity for French music, having performed the complete works for solo piano by Debussy at Dublin`s Hugh Lane Gallery, in addition to many performances of works by Debussy and Ravel throughout Ireland. She has also recorded a documentary, `The Snow is Dancing`, on Debussy`s life and piano music for Ireland`s national broadcasting station, RTE Lyric FM.

Thérèse is particularly identified with the performance of Olivier Messiaen`s piano music, having given the Irish premieres of Reveil des Oiseaux (2008) with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, under its Principal Conductor, Gerhard Markson, at Dublin`s National Concert Hall, and, Visions de l`Amen (1990) for two pianos. In 2001, she curated a four-day international Messiaen Festival at the National Gallery of Ireland, centred around the 60th anniversary of the first performance of Quartet for the End of Time. Her performances of the solo works of Messiaen have been described by The Irish Times as a “tour de force”.

Recently, Thérèse received a major Music Project Award from the Arts Council for her especially commissioned collection of six solo piano pieces, entitled Handprint, from Irish composers Bill Whelan, Raymond Deane, Siobhan Cleary, Michael Holohan, Grainne Mulvey and Benjamin Dwyer. The world première recital of all six pieces was an acclaimed highlight of the New Music Dublin Festival in March 2014, followed by a uniquely curated recital series (Handprint: Before and Beyond, incorporating each new piece into a non-contemporary recital setting) in Dublin`s Hugh Lane Gallery in May and June 2014.

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, a Fulbright scholar and a French Government scholar, Thérèse Fahy is a senior professor of the piano faculty of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and served as Director of Chamber Music there from 2000 to 2010. Her students have been First Prizewinners and Finalists in many international competitions, including the Shanghai International Piano Competition, Hammamatsu International Piano Competition, EU International Piano Competition, the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, the Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona (2012) and the Beethoven Competition in Bonn (2013).

Anthony Fogg was born in Australia and was trained as a pianist at the Brazilian Academy of Music in Sao Paulo and at the University of Sydney. His career has combined performance with arts administration, and, in both aspects of his work, he has been a strong champion of contemporary composers.

In 1994, Anthony Fogg came to the USA to take up the position of Artistic Administrator of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He works closely with BSO Music Director, James Levine, on the planning of all performances by the orchestra, as well as the Tanglewood Music Festival. He is involved in the BSO`s media activities, as well as Archives and Education, and has been responsible for realizing a number of significant commissions and first performances. He has served on funding panels for the Copland Fund and Pew Charitable Trust, has lectured at Harvard University on arts administration, and is an advisor to the French government on funding for contemporary music activities. He has helped nurture the careers of many young musicians through participation on a number of national and international scholarship and competition juries.

From 1986 to 1994, Mr. Fogg was Head of Programming for ABC Concerts, the classical music arm of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. During this same period, he served as the Artistic Director and pianist of The Seymour Group, for many years Australia`s leading contemporary music organization. As pianist, he gave the first performances of over 200 Australian works, as well as the local premieres of several important international scores, including music of Adams, Andriessen, Crumb, Kurtág, Ligeti, and Takemitsu among many others. He is still active in the field of chamber music, performing regularly with members of the Boston Symphony.

Anthony Fogg was recently made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government, for services to French music and culture. He became a US citizen in 2007.

Pianist Peter Frankl has been on the international circuit since the 1960s and has performed with many of the world`s greatest orchestras and conductors, including Abbado, Boulez, Haitink, Maazel, Masur, Solti and Szell. He has appeared in all five continents and has been a regular participant at International Festivals, such as the Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Verbier, Kuhmo, Santander, Casals in Prades, Naantali, Marlboro, Ravinia, Aspen, Norfolk, Yellow Barn and, in London, at the BBC Promenade Concerts.

In addition to his solo career, he is equally in demand as a chamber musician, performing with soloists, string quartets and various ensembles. His vast recording output includes the complete piano works by Schumann and Debussy, Brahms Piano Concertos, Violin Sonatas and Trios, Mozart Piano Concertos, Schumann, Brahms, Dohnanyi, Dvorak and Martinu Piano Quintets, Hungarian Violin Sonatas and many solo albums. He has been on the jury of several International Piano Competitions, such as Van Cliburn, Rubinstein, Marguerite Long, Leeds, Clara Haskil, Queen Elizabeth, Hong Kong, Shanghai and twice as chairman in Cleveland. Peter Frankl is the recipient of the Order of Merit and Middle Cross of the Hungarian Republic. He is on the faculty of Yale University and Honorary Professor of the Liszt Academy in Budapest.

Pavel Gililov was born in Donetsk in Southeastern Ukraine where his parents fostered his obvious musical genius from a young age. The boy received his first piano lessons from his father, a music lover and amateur musician.

Soon young Pavel was playing in public. He made his first appearance with an orchestra at age eight and by his 11th year performed the third piano concerto of famed composer Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky with such aplomb that the grand master invited him to study in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) at an academy for highly gifted children. The school has produced such talent as Boris Pergamenschikow, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, Grigory Sokolov and many others.

During his studies, Pavel Gililov received high honors at the All-Russian Piano Competition in Moscow (1972) and the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (1975). As his talents were recognized he became a sought after performer throughout the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact nations. Gililov also displayed outstanding abilities as an instructor and after his graduation in 1976 he became the youngest professor of concert piano at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Pavel Gililov came to detest Soviet oppression and in 1978 applied to emigrate. He first moved to Austria and then to Cologne, Germany where he re-ignited his passion for musical instruction.

Soon after his arrival in the West, Pavel Gililov won top honors at the renowned Viotti competition in Vercelli, Italy. Thus began a new phase in his life as a performer. Always in popular demand, he has appeared countless times both solo and with orchestras. Gililov played with philharmonic orchestras from Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Moscow and Warsaw; with the Polish Broadcast Orchestra, the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Vienna Symphony, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Cologne`s Gürzenich Orchestra, RAI- Turin, the Irish National Orchestra and the Detroit Chamber Orchestra. He has worked with such renowned conductors as Lawrence Foster, Andris Jansons, Valery Gergiev and James Conlon. In his musical travels Gililov has visited many of the world`s cultural centers, playing in the Berlin Philharmonic, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Vienna`s Musikverein, La Scala in Milan, Madrid`s Teatro Real, the Palao de la Musica in Barcelona, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Zurich`s Tonhalle, the Palais de Beaux-Art in Brussels, the Teatro Cologne in Buenos Aires and countless others.

Pavel Gililov`s recording career includes albums and CDs for Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Victor, Toshiba EMI, Virgin and Orfeo to name a few. His discography provides a mere sampling of the wide-ranging talents of this versatile and vastly accomplished musician.

Pavel Gililov is also an honored guest at major festivals such as Edinburgh, Newport, Schleswig Holstein and Rheingau; at the Salzburg and Ludwigsburg Festivals and many more. He enthusiastically pursues projects with contemporary composers and has premiered many of their works.

In addition to his solo concerts, Pavel Gililov is a lover of chamber music. Along with his schoolmate and friend, the late Boris Pergamenschikow, he created a duo that gained international renown. He also founded the Gililov Piano Quartet (formerly the Philharmonic Piano Quartet Berlin).

Despite his hectic concert schedule, Pavel Gililov continues to guide and instruct promising young musicians. He is a Professor at the Cologne University for Music and Dance, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg where he has instructed a long list of international award-winning musicians. Many of these have gone on to stellar careers. Pavel Gililov travels the world giving masterclasses to young pianists and for years has supervised the Summer Academy in Lausanne. In addition, he is a jury member in many international competitions.

In 2005, Pavel Gililov founded the Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn where he is currently artistic director and jury president.

Gregg Gleasner is the founder of GleasnerMusic, an independent artistic services firm offering leadership and guidance to orchestras, festivals, and performing arts organizations. Acknowledged as an arts leader in the international cultural community, Gregg has spent thirty years in the classical music industry.

As Director of Artistic Planning for the San Francisco Symphony from 1991-2011, Gregg managed the direction and details of all artistic activities which included over 230 concerts every season. Partnering with Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, he implemented an artistic vision that has been recognized throughout the world as singular and unique.

Among the highlights of Gregg`s years with the SFS were the planning of the American Mavericks festivals in 2000 and 2012, the centennial season in 2011/12, the Emmy-winning production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, two Live from Carnegie Hall PBS specials, numerous semi-staged opera productions, and over 250 Great Performers Series presentations. Gregg served on the Music Director Search Committee which selected Michael Tilson Thomas as successor to Herbert Blomstedt.

Prior to the SFS, Gregg was Vice President and Artists` Manager for Columbia Artists Management, Inc. (CAMI) in New York City for eleven years, where he represented artists John Browning, Hélène Grimaud, Robert McDuffie, Yehudi Menuhin, John O`Conor, Ivo Pogorelich and András Schiff among others, as well as numerous international orchestras, chamber ensembles and dance companies on tour.

While attending the Juilliard School of Music and New York University in New York City, Gregg launched CCI Management, a fledgling company which presented young artists in recital as well as booking services.

Born in Hanover in 1951. At the age of 13 he was already accepted as a student at the Hanover University of Music and Drama, where he studied Piano with Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling until obtaining his Concert Soloist`s Diploma in 1975.

Another important phase in his development as a pianist was his long association (1969 to 1977) with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, who regarded him as his last pupil. He also participated in Beethoven courses given by Wilhelm Kempff and Claudio Arrau. Bernd Goetzke was awarded prizes in several international competitions (Paris, Milan, Brussels, Athens, Epinal amongst others).

Already at the age of 25 he was appointed Lecturer at the Hanover University of Music and Drama and became professor in 1982. Today Bernd Goetzke is one of Germany`s most sought-after teachers and musicians. He teaches a class of young pianists from all over the world, and many of them have become prize winners in international competitions.

He is the Head of the Concert Soloist Programme in Hanover and in addition he holds numerous Master Classes in Germany and worldwide. He is also a jury member of many international competitions (Moscow, Warsaw, Munich, Bolzano, Orléans, Oslo, London, St. Petersburg, Kharkov, Salt Lake City, Hilton Head, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Sendai and many others).

In his concert repertoire the names Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann and Debussy appear frequently, but also works of the twentieth century, reflecting his fascination with the stylistic richness and diversity of the period between Late Romanticism and Avantgarde.

Here one could mention the complete Preludes by Olivier Messiaen or, in the realm of chamber music and concerto repertoire, Messiaen`s “Quartet for the End of Time“, Schoenberg`s “Pierrot Lunaire“, Bartók`s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, the German première of Bartók`s Piano Quintet, the two Rhapsodies by Gershwin or Skryabin`s “Prometheus”.

Bernd Goetzke has also published several articles on subject-related matters including “Freedom in Interpretation“, “Bach`s Melodic Characteristics“, “Articulation and Phrasing in Classical Music“, etc.

Born in 1936, Andrzej Jasinski studied in Music Conservatory in Katowice under prof. W. Markiewicz, where he graduated with honors in 1959, and with prof. M. Tagliaferro in Paris 1960-61.

First price winner at The M. Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona in 1960, A. Jasinski made in 1961 his debut with The Radio And Television Orchestra RAI under C. Zecchi. in Turin, Italy. Since then he has been giving concerts in Poland, other countries in Europe and many times in former Soviet Union. He performed also in Japan and South America. The National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra has made with him several archive recordings.

Feeling a pedagogic vocation A. Jasinski in 1961 has been engaged in teaching at The Music Academy in Katowice where since 1973 for 23 years has headed its Piano Department. He has educated many concert pianist to mention Krystian Zimerman as well as long lineage of pedagogues, teaching in Poland and abroad.

Pedagogy being his primary dedication, A. Jasinski taught from 1979 to 1982 also at The “Hochschule fur Musik” in Stuttgart and currently holds many piano interpretation courses all over the world, among others at famous Summer Music Academy “Mozarteum“ in Salzburg, Piano Academy “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola, Italy, “Wiener Meisterkurse” in Vienna. For his artistic and pedagogic achievements, Minister of Arts and Culture in Poland has awarded him with special prizes, in 2002 with the prestigious distinction the “Medal of National Education”.

Since 1975 A. Jasinski has served on the Jury of many important international piano competitions, among others: Queen Elisabeth, M. Longue, A. Rubinstein, P. Tchaikovsky, Leeds, Dublin, F. Busoni, van Cliburn and F. Chopin in Warsaw, where in 2000 and 2005 he was chairman of the Jury.

Jan Jiracek von Arnim is a winning laureate of the Ferruccio Busoni International Competition in Italy, the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Spain, and the Van Cliburn Piano Competition. He maintains an active performance schedule in venues around the world, such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center in New York, Musashino Hall Tokyo, Seoul Arts Center, Philharmonie Berlin, and Musikverein in Vienna. He also gives master classes on a regular basis in North America, Asia and Europe. Jiracek von Arnim was appointed professor for piano at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien in 2001. He is frequently invited as a juror for numerous international piano competitions, such as the Busoni International Piano Competition and the Hamamatsu Competition, Japan. Since 2011, he has served as the Artistic Director of the International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna.

Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling who is considered one of the most sought after piano teachers in the world holds professorships for piano at the Music University of Hannover, the Music University “Mozarteum” of Salzburg and as a visiting professor at the Music University of Zagreb, Croatia. He is the founder and publisher of the journal EPTA Germany and co-editor of the journal “Ueben und Musizieren”.  He writes for the music publishers Bosse and Schott.  In addition he is an active member of the Board of Trustees of the International Music Academy for Concert Musicians and is a member of the Institute for the promotion of Talented Musicians. He is also a long standing committeed member of the “Deutche Studienstiftung” and of the German Academic Exchanging Service.

Prof. Kämmerling has given many master classes in Europe, Asia and the USA.

His students have won more than 100 national and international prizes and awards. Twenty of his former students now hold professorships for piano.

He has been a member of the most prestigious competition juries.

Prof. Kämmerling has enjoyed public recognition of his work and achievements. In 1999 he received the Bundesverdienstorden 1st class of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 2000 the Grosse Ehrenzeichen of the republic of Austria.  Since 2005 he is a member of honour of the German Music Council.

Choong-Mo Kang graduated from the Peabody Conservatory where he also taught as professor at the piano department exhibiting his exuberant talents as both a performer and an eminent pedagogue. He has appeared with The Moscow Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, The Czech National Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic among many others. His numerous solo appearances include The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, Sydney Opera House and St. John’s Smith Square in London. His honorary performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Russia’s revered pianist Tatiana Nikolaeva’s death received an astounding reception.

He has finished a five year project to complete all of Bach’s keyboard works. His former and present students have won numerous International Competitions including Van Cliburn, Gina Bachauer, Porto, Epinal, Juenesses Musicales in Belgrade and Geneva. He has served as a jury member of the 15th Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

He has finished a five year project to complete all of Bach’s keyboard works. His former and present students have won numerous International Competitions including Van Cliburn, Gina Bachauer, Porto, Epinal, Juenesses Musicales in Belgrade and Geneva. He has served as a jury member of the 15th Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

Among his several recordings are Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Well-Tempered Clavier and both of Chopin’s Concerti. He is currently professor of the Korean National University of Arts, artistic director of Euro Music Festival in Leipzig and professor at the Ishikawa Music Academy in Japan.

A native of Galway, Réamonn Keary began his piano studies in Limerick with Gerard Shanahan. While reading music at Trinity College Dublin he studied piano with John O`Conor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. On receipt of an Austrian Government Scholarship in 1984 he continued his piano studies with Leonid Brumberg in Vienna. In 1995 he was awarded a first class honours Masters Degree in Performance and Interpretation at St. Patrick`s College Maynooth.

Réamonn performs regularly as a chamber musician and accompanist and has worked with Ireland`s most distinguished instrumentalists and singers. He is a frequent broadcaster and lecturer on the topics of piano teaching and interpretation and was for many years John O`Conor`s teaching assistant at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He is a highly valued teacher at the RIAM and a number of Réamonn`s students are enjoying international success. He served as the Chairman of the Senior Examiners at the RIAM for seven years and from 1997 to 2004 was a member of the Cultural Relations Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs. He is in constant demand as an adjudicator and was a jury member of the 7th Axa Dublin International Piano Competition in 1996.

Dublin-born Mary Lennon studied piano with Frank Heneghan at the College of Music, Dublin and with Christopher Elton in London, and participated in many masterclasses with teachers such as Bela Siki, John Ogden, Jacques Rouvier, Ruth Laredo, Frantisek Rauch and Ivan Klansky.  A graduate of University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and the University of London, Mary has wide performing experience as soloist and accompanist, has recorded for the national broadcasting station RTÉ, and was a major prizewinner at leading music festivals and competitions in Ireland and the U.K.  Her repertoire is broad ranging and she has a special interest in baroque and contemporary music.

Mary’s career has had a particular focus on piano teaching and music education, and she is a long-standing member of the Keyboard Faculty at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama.  A former Head of Keyboard Studies at the Conservatory, Mary has enjoyed teaching a wide range of students, many of whom have been prizewinners in major competitions and now have successful careers in music. Mary is in demand as an adjudicator, regularly gives workshops and masterclasses and acts as external examiner for music institutions in Ireland and abroad.  She is a founder member and former Chairperson of EPTA Ireland (European Piano Teachers’ Association) and has played an active role in the association both nationally and internationally.  She also served for many years on the executive committee of Dublin Feis Ceoil (Ireland’s premier classical music festival).

Mary’s research interests include piano pedagogy, instrumental teacher education and practice-based research.  She has lectured and published on these subjects and regularly presents papers at national and international conferences.  Mary has also been involved in a number of European higher music education projects and was a member of the AEC (European Association of Conservatoires) Erasmus-funded Polifonia Working Groups on Instrumental/Vocal Teacher Education (2007-2010) and Assessment and Standards (2012-2015).  She was also a founder member of the ISME (International Society for Music Education) Forum for Instrumental and Vocal Teaching.

Mary is very much looking forward to serving on the jury for the 2018 Dublin International Piano Competition.

Pianist Max Levinson won First Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition (1997), and has also been awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Andrew Wolf Award. The Boston Globe proclaimed: “The questioning, conviction, and feeling in his playing invariably reminds us of the deep reasons why music is important to us, why we listen to it, why we care so much about it”.

Max Levinson has performed as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, New World Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Oregon Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Boston Pops, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland among others. He has worked with such conductors as Robert Spano, Neemi Järvi, Uriel Segal, Joseph Swensen, Jeffrey Kahane and Alasdair Neale. Recital appearances include Washington Performing Arts Society`s “Kreeger String & Hayes Piano Series” at the Kennedy Center, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich`s “Competition Winner Series,” Ravinia`s “Rising Stars,” Lincoln Center`s “What Makes it Great” and the FleetBank Boston “Emerging Artists Series.”

Artistic Director of the San Juan Chamber Music Festival (in Ouray, Colorado) and former Co-Artistic Director of the Janus 21 Concert Series in Cambridge, Massachussetts, Max Levinson is an active chamber musician. He has collaborated with such renowned artists as the Tokyo, Vermeer, Borromeo, Mendelssohn, and Parker Quartets and with Benita Valente, Richard Stoltzman, Pinchas Zukerman, Joseph Silverstein, Stefan Jackiw, Young Uck Kim, Arnold Steinhardt, David Finckel, Daniel Phillips, Nathaniel Rosen, Carter Brey, Allison Eldredge, Alisa Weilerstein, Christopheren Nomura, and Heiichiro Ohyama. He has appeared at major music festivals including Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Marlboro, Tanglewood, La Jolla, Bravo/Vail, Seattle, Killington, Vancouver, Cartagena, and Davos.

Max Levinson`s debut recitals at Lincoln Center`s Alice Tully Hall and London`s Wigmore Hall as the Dublin Competition winner were critical successes and received standing ovations. He performed ambitious programs, which included works by Bartók, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Schönberg, Schubert and Kirchner. Of the New York debut performance, The New York Times wrote that Levinson`s “quietly eloquent conceptions, formidable technique and lovely touch left little else to be desired.”

Max Levinson garnered international accolades for his two recordings. ‘Max Levinson’, his debut recording released immediately following his triumph in Dublin, is an extraordinarily thoughtful program that traces the musical lineage between Brahms, Schumann, Schönberg and Kirchner. The Los Angeles Times deemed Mr. Levinson “a brilliant American pianist, musically mature and fully formed technically. More important, he uses his wide spectrum of pianistic mechanics for altogether poetic ends, touching the listener deeply and often.” American Record Guide declared Levinson`s second disc, Out of Doors: Piano Music of Béla Bartók “an important recording and a great one. The disc blew me out of my chair, and it has taken me a long time to get back up. Hearing performances as riveting as these produces a rare frisson; indeed, this is the most brilliant and exciting Bartók piano disc I have heard. On the basis of only two recordings, Mr. Levinson has created the myth of a pianist with everything.” His recording of Leon Kirchner`s “Five Pieces for Piano” was chosen for the composer`s complete works recording (Albany Records), alongside recordings by Leon Fleisher and Peter Serkin.

His most recent recording is of the Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano, with violinist Stefan Jackiw (Sony Classical). He has also recorded the Brahms Horn Trio with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival for the Stereophile label, and the violin sonatas of Debussy, Janácek, and Prokofiev with violinist Andrew Kohji Taylor for Warner Classics.

He is on the faculty of both the New England Conservatory and the Boston Conservatory, where his students have achieved success in numerous competitions. He has also taught masterclasses at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brigham Young University, Rutgers University, the University of Washington, UCLA, the Colburn School, Boston University, the Music Teacher`s Association of California annual convention and in various cities throughout the U.S.

He has recently become active as a conductor, and his performances as conductor of the Killington Music Festival and Foulger Chamber Orchestra have resulted in standing ovations and return engagements.

Born in the Netherlands and raised in Los Angeles, Max Levinson began studying piano at age five. His first teachers were Bruce Sutherland and Aube Tzerko, and as a child he also studied cello, composition and conducting. He attended Harvard University, graduating cum laude with a degree in English Literature, and later completed his graduate studies with Patricia Zander at the New England Conservatory of Music, receiving an Artist Diploma and the Gunther Schuller Medal, an award given to the school`s top graduate student. Max Levinson currently lives in the Boston area with his wife, cellist Allison Eldredge and their two daughters, Natalie and Jessica.
www.maxlevinson.com

Antony was born in Dublin and educated in Dublin and England, completing his education with an Honours degree in History and Political Science.at Trinity College Dublin.

After a few years working in industry in Birmingham, he began his career in the music industry in England. After a short period at concert agents Ibbs and Tillett, he worked as deputy Entertainments Director in Greenwich, South London. In 1979 he was appointed Arts Director of the Barbican Centre in London and worked in that role for 15 years until 1994. During that time he was responsible for the programming of the music programme and the relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra. He also led the planning of major international Festivals in London focussing on the arts of Hungary, Israel, France and the Scandinavian countries. The latter Festival, Tender is the North(1992), was the largest festival of its kind in London in modern times.

In 1994 Antony was appointed Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society responsible for the RLPO and Philharmonic Hall. After three years freelancing in major projects for the BBC, Royal Albert Hall, Association of British Concert Promoters and St Martin in the Fields church music programme, Antony was appointed Managing Director of the London Mozart Players in 2004. As well as planning a wide ranging orchestra and chamber music programmes, Antony was involved in a number of major commissions and recordings. Commissions included large scale choral works by Sally Beamish, Tarik O`Regan and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Antony has worked closely with a large number of outstanding conductors and soloists and has taken a particular interest in the development of young artists.

Known for a ravishing technique and his compelling musical conviction, pianist Stanislav Ioudenitch is part of the elite group of Cliburn Gold Medal winners, having taken home the Gold Medal at the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In addition to the Cliburn Gold Medal, he was also the recipient of the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for Best Performance of Chamber Music. His profoundly warm and intelligent performances have won him prizes at the Busoni, Kapell, Maria Callas, and New Orleans competitions, among others.

Ioudenitch has performed at major international cultural centers including Carnegie Hall (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Gasteig (Munich, Germany), Conservatorio Verdi (Milan, Italy), Mariinsky Theater (St. Petersburg, Russia), International Performing Arts Center (Moscow, Russia), The Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory (Moscow, Russia), Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing, China), International Piano Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron (France), Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris, France), Bass Hall (Fort Worth, Texas), Jordan Hall (Boston, Massachusetts), Orange County Performing Arts Center (Costa Mesa, California), and the Aspen Music Festival (Aspen, Colorado).

“He searched deeply into Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C, K. 467 (a.k.a. the “Elvira Madigan” concerto), shaping every phrase fluidly and poetically with a light, crisp yet never brittle touch. Nothing was blurred or precious, and his playing, even at its gentlest, had an understated rhythmic spine.”

—Los Angeles Times

Soon to be released recordings include Stravinsky, Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka, produced by multi-Grammy winning producer Thomas Frost (who notably produced many recordings of Vladimir Horowitz), and trios of Brahms and Mendelssohn with the Park Piano Trio, recorded in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (where Menahem Pressler made many recordings with the Beaux Arts Trio). Also available on Harmonia Mundi is the Stanislav Ioudenitch, Gold Medalist, 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition recording.

Stanislav Ioudenitch is also featured in Playing on the Edge, Peter Rosen’s Peabody Award-winning documentary made for PBS about the 2001 Cliburn competition.

Ioudenitch has had the privilege to perform with the conductors James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, Mikhail Pletnev, James DePreist, Günther Herbig, Asher Fisch, Stefan Sanderling, Michael Stern, Carl St. Clair and Justus Franz, and with orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Orchestra, National Symphony (Washington, D.C.), Rochester Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony and the National Philharmonic of Russia. Chamber music partners have included the Takács, Prazák, Borromeo, and Accorda quartets. Stanislav Ioudenitch is a founding member of the Park Piano Trio, based in Kansas City, Missouri.

His teachers have included Natalia Vasinkina, Dmitri Bashkirov and Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Leon Fleisher,  Rosalyn Tureck, William Grant Nabore at the International Piano Foundation in Como, Italy (the current International Piano Academy Lake Como). He subsequently became the youngest teacher ever invited to give master classes at the Academy.

Ioudenitch is continually invited to teach master-classes and to serve as a jury member in piano competitions around the world.

Students include Behzod Abduraimov (London International Piano Competition: First Prize; Lennox Young Artists Competition: First Prize), Kenny Broberg (Van Cliburn International Piano Competition: Silver Medal; Tchaikovsky Competition: Bronze Medal), Andrey Gugnin (Sydney International Piano Competition: First Prize), Yuntian Liu (Queen Elizabeth Competition: Finalist), among others.

Stanislav Ioudenitch is the founder of the International Center for Music at Park University (Kansas City) where he is Artistic Director and master teacher of piano. He is also on the faculty at Oberlin Conservatory. In addition, he is the vice-president and piano professor at the International Piano Academy Lake Como, and the director of the Young Artists Music Academy International in Kansas City.

Mr. McDonald has toured extensively as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. He has performed with major orchestras in the United States and was the recital partner for many years to Isaac Stern and other distinguished instrumentalists. He has participated in the Marlboro, Casals, and Luzerne Festivals, the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center, and has broadcasted for BBC Television worldwide. He has appeared with the Takács, Vermeer, Juilliard, Brentano, Borromeo, American, Shanghai, and St. Lawrence string quartets as well as with Musicians from Marlboro. His discography includes recordings for Sony Classical, Bridge, Vox, Musical Heritage Society, ASV, and CRI. Mr. McDonald’s prizes include the Gold Medal at the Busoni International Piano Competition, the top prize at the William Kapell International Competition and the Deutsche Schallplatten Critics Award. His teachers include Theodore Rehl, Seymour Lipkin, Rudolf Serkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Beveridge Webster, and Gary Graffman. He holds degrees from Lawrence University, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, and the Manhattan School of Music. A member of the piano faculty at the Juilliard School since 1999, Mr. McDonald joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2007, where he holds the Penelope P. Watkins Chair in Piano Studies. During the summer, he is the artistic director of the Taos School of Music and Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico.

Veronica McSwiney has been performing around the world for over fifty years. She commenced her studies in Dublin at the age of seven and later studied at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg under Bruno Seidlhofer and later with Ilona Kabos in London  She played her first concerto with the RTESO at the tender age of fourteen, and after her Wigmore Hall debut in London, her reputation spread far beyond her native Ireland.

She was the first Irish artist to be invited by Gosconcert to perform in the Soviet Union in 1975 and following the success of that tour she was invited back on numerous occasions, playing concertos with various orchestras and also in Solo Recital throughout the USSR.  She toured on many occasions in the U.S.A  both as soloist and in recitals with Bernadette Greevy, the wonderful Irish Contralto.  She has played with all the major Orchestras in the U.K including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the Manchester Camerata and the English Sinfonia etc.  She broadcasted frequently on BBC and various Radio Stations throughout Europe.  She was a very popular lecturer in Schools and Colleges throughout Ireland and subsequently was offered her own TV series in Irish Television in the 1980.

Veronica was always a very keen chamber musician and accompanist and was Music Director of the Irish National Opera from 1978 to 1980. She performed in recital with many other famous musicians, such as James Galway and Nicolai Gedda to name but a few.  She played as soloist regularly with our National Symphony Orchestra and her concerto repertoire is vast.  She was invited many times by Richard Baker, the well known BBC broadcaster, to join him on his Music Cruises and played at many music Festivals throughout the UK with him in programmes dedicated to Chopin and Edvard Grieg. She now plays frequently with her violinist daughter Aisling O’Dea. Aisling is one of Ireland’s talented musicians now based in Edinburgh where she is a member of the renowned Scottish Chamber Orchestra. They also play together in the Eblana Trio.

Amongst her recordings are the 18 Nocturnes of the Irish composer John Field and these, on the Claddagh label, are considered to be the finest available today.

Born in Vienna in 1940. He studied at the Viennese Academy of Music and Performing Arts (now University of Music and Performing Arts) with Richard Hauser.

Prizes at International Piano Competitions  Salsburg, Geneva, Vienna). He started his career as a concert pianist at the age of 20. Tours through Europe, the Near and Middle East and the USA.  Records and radio recordings. TV  appearances.

Since 1968, he is pianist of  the “Haydn Trio Wein”. Concerts with this ensemble in North and South America, Africa, Europe and in the Far East.  Chamber music series in the Weiner Konzerthaus since 1976, five concerts per season.

Recordings of the Haydn Trio Wien with Teldec, Arabesque N.Y. and Musica Wien.

He accompanied several well known singers like Edith Mathis, Peter Schreier, Hans Hotter, Kurt Equiluz a.o. in numerous Lied – Recitals.

Other musical activities: Jury member of many International Piano and Chamber Music Competitions.  Masterclasses in Europe, Australia and in the U.S.A.

Since 1975, he has been teaching young pianists at the Keyboard Institute of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

David Mooney is Head of Keyboard Studies at  TU Dublin  Conservatoire. He received his musical education as a scholarship student at the Schola Cantorum, St. Finian’s College, Mullingar, studying piano with Mabel Swainson and organ and composition with Fr. Frank MacNamara. A prizewinner in both instruments, he continued his piano studies with Swainson and organ with Dr Patrick Devine, while taking a BA in Music and French and a MA in Music at Maynooth University. In 1999 he completed a PhD in Musicology at University College Dublin.

In 1988 he joined the staff of TUDublin Conservatoire where he has lectured in piano and academic studies at junior, graduate and post-graduate level. He has been Head of Keyboard Studies at the Conservatoire since 2001. Many of his piano students have been prizewinners in international junior competitions, Feis Ceoil and other national competitions. He is an experienced accompanist, examiner and adjudicator and is a world-appointed judge for the WPTA Piano Competition.

His research interests focus principally on performance practice issues relating to French music in the period 1870-1930. He is an international authority on the life and works of Poldowski (Lady Irene Dean Paul). Other interests include French art song and the development of piano pedagogy. He has contributed to the latest edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Encyclopedia of Ireland and the Encyclopedia of Music in Ireland. He has also gained a reputation as a successful choral arranger whose works are performed throughout the US and Europe. The highly-acclaimed David Mooney Irish Choral Series is published by ECSchirmer in the US and Stainer and Bell in the UK.

David is a past  chairman of Feis Ceoil (Ireland’s premier classical  music festival) and of the Swainson Trust and is currently on the board of directors of Feis Ceoil. He is a regular contributor to Lyric FM and is the founder of the Progressive Piano Teacher, an annual summer school for piano teachers at TUDublin Conservatoire. He has been extern examiner at many institutions in Ireland and the UK and has given piano masterclasses in Ireland, the UK and Hong Kong.

Anton Nel, winner of the first prize in the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall enjoys a remarkable and multifaceted career that has taken him to North and South America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa. Following an auspicious debut at the age of twelve with Beethoven`s C Major Concerto after only two years of study, the Johannesburg native captured first prizes in all the major South African competitions while still in his teens, toured his native country extensively and became a well-known radio and television personality. A student of Adolph Hallis, he made his European debut in France in 1982, and in the same year graduated with highest distinction from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He came to the United States in 1983, attending the University of Cincinnati, where he pursued his Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees under Bela Siki and Frank Weinstock. In addition to garnering many awards from his alma mater during this three-year period he was a prizewinner at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition in England and won several first prizes at the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition in Palm Desert in 1986.

Highlights of Mr. Nel`s nearly four decades of concertizing include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, the symphonies of Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, and London, among many others. (He has an active repertoire of more than 100 works for piano and orchestra.) An acclaimed Beethoven interpreter, Anton Nel has performed the concerto cycle several times, most notably on two consecutive evenings with the Cape Philharmonic in 2005. Additionally he has performed all-Beethoven solo recitals, complete cycles of the violin and cello works, and most recently a highly successful run of the Diabelli Variations as part of Moises Kaufman`s play 33 Variations. He was also chosen to give the North American premiere of the newly discovered Piano Concerto No. 3 in E Minor by Felix Mendelssohn in 1992. Two noteworthy world premieres of works by living composers include “Virtuoso Alice” by David Del Tredici (dedicated to, and performed by Mr. Nel at his Lincoln Center debut in 1988) as well as Stephen Paulus`s Piano Concerto also written for for Mr. Nel; the acclaimed world premiere took place in New York in 2003.

As recitalist he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum and the Frick Collection in New York, at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, Davies Hall in San Francisco, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Internationally he has performed recitals in major concert halls in Canada, England (Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls in London), France, Holland (Concertgebouw in Amsterdam), Japan (Suntory Hall in Tokyo), Korea, and South Africa.

A favorite at summer festivals, he has performed at the Ravinia Festival, at Lincoln Center`s Mostly Mozart Festival, as well as at the music festivals of Aspen (where he is on the artist-faculty), Vancouver, Cartagena, and Stellenbosch, among many others. Possessing an encyclopedic chamber music and vocal repertoire he has, over the years, regularly collaborated with many of the world`s foremost string quartets, instrumental soloists, and singers. With acclaimed violinist Sarah Chang, he completed a highly successful tour of Japan as well as appearing at a special benefit concert for Live Music Now in London, hosted by HRH the Prince of Wales.

Eager to pursue dual careers in teaching and performing, he was appointed to the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin in his early twenties, followed by professorships at the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Michigan, where he was chairman of the piano department. In September 2000, Anton Nel was appointed as the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor of Piano and Chamber music at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches an international class of students and now heads the Division of Keyboard Studies. Since his return he has also been the recipient of two Austin-American Statesman Critics Circle Awards, as well as the University Cooperative Society/College of Fine Arts award for extra-curricular achievement. In 2001 he was appointed Visiting “Extraordinary” Professor at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, and continues to teach master classes worldwide. In January 2010, he became the first holder of the new Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair in Piano at the University of Texas at Austin.

His recordings include four solo CDs, several chamber music recordings (including the complete Beethoven Piano and Cello Sonatas and Variations, and the Brahms Sonatas with Bion Tsang), and works for piano and orchestra by Franck, Faure, and Saint- Saens.

Anton Nel became a citizen of the United States of America on September 11, 2003. He is a Steinway artist.

His performance brought a veritable roar of approval from the audience” wrote “The Irish Times” after Pavel Nersessian received the 1st Prize in the GPA Dublin International Piano Competition in 1991.

One of the most remarkable pianists of his generation in Russia, he is known for his ability to play equally convincingly in the whole palette of the piano repertoire. He has won prizes in every piano competition that he entered, including the Beethoven Competition (Vienna) 1985, Paloma O`Shea Competition (Santander) and the Tokyo Competition.

Since his childhood he has always been associated with the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. He was a pupil of the famous Central Music School of the Conservatoire, where his teacher was Yu Levin. Later he was a student of the Conservatoire under Prof. Dorensky and graduated in 1987 with maximum marks – a rare distinction. He became a teacher there and is now a full professor of the Conservatoire.

Pavel Nersessian`s concert activity is very intense. He has been touring around Russia and surrounding states from the age of eight and, since his remarkable successes in international competitions, has on several occasions given performances in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Cannes, Leipzig, Vienna, Budapest, Madrid, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Dublin, Muenchen, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, Belgrade and many others. In 2004 he took part in a program “Almost jazz” in “December Nights” festival which was founded by S. Richter in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

By special invitation from the Kirov and the Perm Ballet, he has performed the solo part in Balanchine`s Ballet Imperial based on the music of Tchaikovsky`s 2nd Piano Concerto with performances in the Kirov, Bolshoi, Chatelet and Covent Garden. He also played a solo part in Robbins` ballet “The Concert, or The Perils of Everybody” based on the music of Chopin.

His recordings include compositions of Chopin, Schumann, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Shostakovich etc.

He also frequently teaches in the USA, Ireland and Japan, and in 2005 he became a merited artist of the Russian Federation.

Born in Manchester in 1964, Ronan O`Hora studied with Ryszard Bakst at the Royal Northern College of Music. He has performed extensively throughout the world, playing with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra and Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. He has performed in every major country in Europe as well as in the USA, Canada, Australasia and South Africa, and has appeared at many of the most prestigious music festivals, including Salzburg, Gstaad, Ravinia, Montpelier, Bath, Harrogate and Brno.

Ronan O`Hora has made many highly acclaimed recordings over recent years for the EMI, Virgin Classics, Tring International, Hyperion, Dinemic and Fone labels. These include concertos by Mozart, Grieg and Tchaikowsky, and solo repertoire by Schubert Brahms, Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Satie, as well as chamber music by Faure, Britten, Debussy, Dvorak and Mozart, amounting to a discography of over thirty CDs.

In recent seasons Ronan O`Hora has performed at the Salzburg Festival, the Kennedy Centre in Washington, and Sydney Opera House, in addition to tours of USA, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

Ronan O`Hora has been Head of Keyboard Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama since 1999 and regularly gives masterclasses and sits on competition juries throughout the world.

Polish pianist of Bulgarian origin. Graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Gdansk, in prof.Zbigniew Sliwinski’s piano class . She continued education in 1974-75 as a holder of Austrian government scholarship in Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Vienna in class of Alexander Jenner. Her piano qualities were perfected during masterclasses with Suzanne Roche, Dieter Zechlin and Georgy Sebok.

She is a laureate of 4. All-polish Festival of Young Musicians in Gdansk (1974), semi-finalist of The Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition (1975), International Piano Competition “Alessandro Casagrande” Terni, Italy(1975), and ARD Competition in Munich(1978).

Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron performs inland and abroad – in Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Bulgaria, Austria and Japan. Her repertoire includes compositions from baroque to present day – with particular emphasis on works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy. She made debut performances of Polish modern works, this includes Konrad Palubicki’s 4. Piano Concert played with Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Wojciech Czepiel.

She also appears as a chamber musician with renowned soloists and bands (Urszula Krygier, Piotr Kusiewicz, Stefan Popow, Camerata quartet) and formed piano duets with Waldemar Wojtal (1985-92) and Jan Kulesza (1979-83).

Since 1980 Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron has been working as a pedagog. She is a piano class professor in the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, where she is also the director of piano faculty. Her pupils and students won awards in numerous all-polish and international competitions. This list includes Rafal Blechacz – the winner of ther first prize in The Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition 2005 and the Polish finalist Pawel Wakarecy in the XVI th FCIPC

She has participated repeatedly as jury member of all-polish and international competitions. For her artistic and pedagogic activity she received many awards and state honours.

Born in Marseilles in 1947, Jacques Rouvier studied with Vlado Perlemuter, Pierre Sancan, Jean Fassina and Jean Hubeau.  He obtained first prizes in Piano and Chamber Music from the Paris National Music Conservatory in 1965 and 1967.

A profound and proficient musician, he has won several international prizes: the Viotti Prize in Vercilli, the Marie Canals prize in Barcelona, the Marguerite Long -Jacques Thibaud prize and the prize awarded by the Foundation de la Vocation (France). In 1970 he founded the ROUVIER-KANTOROW-MULLER Trio with which he regularly performs.

An eminent teacher, he was named Professor of Piano at the Paris National Music Conservatory in 1979, and has been often invited to do master-classes around the world: in Montreal, Vancouver, Saint-Jean-de-Luz (the Maurice Ravel Academy), and the international Music Academies in Flaine, Nice and Les Arcs.

Beginning in October 1990, he succeeded Pierre Barbizet teaching Piano-Pedagogy at the Conservatory in Marseilles.

His recordings have always been warmly received and have won prizes including the Grand Prix du Disque and the Grand Prix du Disque Francais.

Over the last 25 Years he has played innumerable concerts in France and around the world and always with great success and joy.

Jacques Rouvier’s artistic career is the reflection of his rich personality: his musical instinct, his powerful and moving poetic imagination and his perfect knowledge of the repertory have been praised by critics everywhere.

Asadour Santourian, artistic advisor and administrator of the Aspen Music Festival and School, came to Aspen in 2003. Working with David Zinman, he has developed artistic initiatives at Aspen, including the thematic minifestivals. Previously artistic director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gergiev Fesival in Rotterdam, he has conceived and edited several Dutch-language program books on the music of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Valery Gergiev. He is a member of the Recommendation Board of the Avery Fischer Career Grants and has served on several jury panels, including the Barlow Endowment, Young Concert Artists, Inc., Princess Christina Concours; from 1991 to 2000 he was the Minnesota Orchestra’s director of artistic planning.

“Siirala’s polished and intelligent pianism can hold its own in a catalogue overloaded with excellence.“ Grammophone

“A pianist who really has something to say” FonoForum

The Finnish pianist, winner of numerous first prizes, including the Leeds Competition, has established himself as one of the finest pianists of his generation. His rich palette of sound colours, his differentiated and songful phrasing and expressive intelligence are praised frequently. Especially the releases of the three last Beethoven Sonatas (AVI-Music) and the Beethoven Triple Concerto (with The Knights, Colin Jacobsen and Jan Vogler, SONY) demonstrate what an outstanding interpreter Antti Siirala is.

He performs with renowned conductors like Herbert Blomstedt, François-Xavier Roth, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Sakari Oramo, and with orchestras like the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of HR, NDR Hanover, SWR and WDR, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Wiener Symphoniker, Budapest Festival Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Residentie Orkest, Gothenburg Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo.

Milestones in the career of the youngest winner in the history of the International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna were his recitals in the piano series of the Berlin Philharmonic, at the Lucerne Festival and at the Ruhr Piano Festival, and at concert halls like Cologne’s Philharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, at the Metropolitan Museum in New York or Zurich’s Tonhalle. Furthermore, Antti Siirala was artist in residence for three years at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, featured in its series Junge Wilde (Young Wild Things).

Upcoming Highlights include concerts with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Prague Symphony under the baton of Pietari Inkinen as well as recitals with a programme dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Finish independence with works by Rautavaara, Bach, Brahms, Kaipaninen and Schumann.

He regularly performs chamber music with partners like Jan Vogler and the Moritzburg Ensemble, Baiba Skride, Sharon Kam, Caroline Widmann, Tanja Tetzlaff and Lawrence Power.

In addition to the above mentioned recordings, SONY has released an acclaimed recording of Schubert’s Trout Quintet together with newly composed and improvised variations on the song about the trout as well as CDs featuring works by Brahms and Schubert transcriptions (NAXOS). Siirala’s CDs have been selected repeatedly by Gramophone as Editor’s Choice recommendations.

Antti Siirala is piano professor at „Hochschule für Musik und Theater“ in Munich.

Soo-Jung Shin received her musical training at the Seoul National University, the Vienna Academy of Music (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Wien) and the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, U.S.A. Her teachers include Chung Jin-Woo, Josef Dichler, Leon Fleisher, Wilhelm Kempff and Maria Curzio Diamond. She won many prizes in music competitions including the Dong-A National Competition in Korea, the Elena Rombro Stepanow Competition in Vienna, the Deutsch Industrie Vanband Scholarship Competition among others. She was also awarded the Korean Academy of Arts Award. She received “Das Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse”from the German Government in 2011.

She made her debut at the age of 13, playing Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 with the Navy Symphony Orchestra (now the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra)

She has performed with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, KBS and NHK Symphony under the batons of Lim Won-Shik, Leon Fleisher, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir John Pritchard, Asahina Takashi, Iwaki Hiroyuki and others. She performed together with Ruggiero Ricci, Nicolai Gedda, Janos Starker, Chung Kyung Wha and others.

She has served as juror of international competitions including ARD, Seoul, Tokyo, Köln, UNISA, Dublin, Hamamatsu, Sendai and Leeds International Music Competitions.

At the age of 26, she became the youngest faculty member at her alma mater, the College of Music, Seoul National University. She also taught at the Seoul High School of Arts and Kyung Won University where she served as Dean of the School of Music. In 2000 she returned to Seoul National University, where she taught until her retirement in 2007. She was also elected as Dean of the College of Music, the first woman in its history. In 2009, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Arts, Korea. She is Professor Emeritus of Seoul National University and chairperson of the Great Mountain Music Festival & School`s Steering Committee. She divides her time between playing concerts, teaching, giving master classes, organizing piano seminars and serving as board member of Seoul Arts Center and others.

Nelita True made her debut at age seventeen with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and her New York debut in Avery Fisher Hall with the Juilliard Orchestra. Her career has taken her to the major cities of Western and Eastern Europe, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Iceland, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Singapore, India, and to Hong Kong, as well as to every state in America.

She has been a visiting professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, performing and conducting master classes, and has been in the People`s Republic of China more than twenty times for recitals, master classes, and as soloist with the Shanghai Philharmonic. She has judged numerous competitions, including the China International (Beijing), Queen Sonja (Oslo), Kapell and Bachauer (USA), Concours de Musique (Canada), PTNA (Tokyo), Horowitz (Kiev), and Lev Vlassenko (Australia).

Many of her students have won top prizes at national and international competitions, including an unprecedented five First Prizes in the Music Teachers` National Association Competitions (USA). Her former students are pursuing careers in performance and as teachers at major schools in the United States and abroad. Dr. True is currently Professor Piano at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Her own piano studies were with Leon Fleisher and Sascha Gorodnitzky.

Head of Keyboard at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Natasha Vlassenko was born in Moscow and graduated from Central Music School of Moscow Conservatory and Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory where she studied under legendary Professor Jacob Flier and later pursued her Postgraduate Studies with her father Professor Lev Vlassenko.

Natasha has won Major prizes in several International Piano Competitions including the Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna (Austria) and Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano (Italy). She performed extensively in many countries including Russia, USSR, Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand and Australia. Natasha appeared with major orchestras under the baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Michael Pletnev, Carl Osterriher, Carl Martin, Edward Chivzhel, Richard Hickox, Vladimir Verbitsky, Michel Swierczewski, Veruonika Dudarova and many others.

Natasha has recorded for Moscow Radio and Television as well as ABC and MBS radio stations and has released  several  CD’s in Russia, Germany and Australia. In 1991, Natasha Vlassenko was invited to join the Staff of the Central Music School of Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory where she taught before excepting teaching position at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in Australia. Highlights of recent years include concerto performances with Russian National Orchestra under Michael Pletnev, performances and releases of live CDs at the Beethoven International Piano Festival in Boeblingen (Germany), performance and Masterclasses at the Hamamatsu International Piano Academy in Japan, performances and Masterclasses at Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, invitation to serve as a Jury Member at the Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna ( Austria). In 1999, Natasha Vlassenko and Oleg Stepanov became Founders and Artistic Directors of the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition and Festival, the most significant National Piano event in Australia.

Fanny Waterman occupies a pre-eminent position in the world of piano teaching ‎and musical competitions- a position recognised with the award of a CBE in the ‎Queen`s birthday honours in June 2000 and followed by a DBE in the New Years ‎honours list in 2005. She was also awarded The Distinguished Musician Award of ‎the Incorporated Society of Musicians and a unique Lifetime Achievement Award ‎from the World Federation of International Music Competitions presented at the ‎Federation`s General assembly in the historic Italian city of Reggio Emilia.‎

The holder of honorary doctorates from the universities of Leeds and York, Fanny ‎Waterman was born in Leeds on March 22nd 1920. In 1941 she won a scholarship ‎to the Royal College of Music to study with Cryil Smith. In 1943 her studies were ‎curtailed by the war and she left the RCM with an outstanding testimonial from Cyril ‎Smith- “a brilliantly gifted pianist and musician who will be a source of inspiration to ‎her pupils”.‎

Her solo career flourished at national level after the war and she appeared in a ‎number of BBC recitals and concerts. Following the birth of her first child in 1950, ‎she decided to concentrate on teaching and established a national and ‎international reputation with many of her pupils making successful international ‎careers.‎
With her friend Marian Harewood, she has compiled and written over thirty tutorial ‎volumes which are widely used educational material for budding pianists. She has ‎given masterclasses on five continents and on television and radio.‎

In 1961 with the late Marian Thorpe, then Countess of Harewood, she founded the ‎Leeds International Piano Competition and, over the years, through Fanny`s ‎inspiration, sheer determination and energy, the Leeds has become established as ‎one of the world’s premier music competitions.‎

Robert Weirich maintains an active performing career in musical centers throughout the United States; he has performed in Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, and at such summer festivals as Tanglewood, Ravinia and Marlboro. His performances across the U.S. of Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations during the 2010-11 season garnered raves from critics and audiences. During the 2009-2010 season, he performed and taught in China and Argentina, returning to Beijing’s Central Conservatory for ten days of chamber music coaching in the fall of 2013. The New York Times called his 2008 Albany Records release, Piano Music of Aaron Copland, “brilliant, probing and austerely beautiful.” Recent concerto performances include the Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Winds, Beethoven’s Third and Emperor Concerto with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto, and the Berg Kammerkonzert for piano, violin and thirteen winds. His performance of Dohnanyi’s Variations on a Nursery Tune at Helzberg Hall was enjoyed by a sell-out audience. An active chamber musician, Weirich has performed with violinists Hilary Hahn, Arnold Steinhardt and Josef Gingold, cellists Nathaniel Rosen, Colin Carr, and Stephen Doane, hornists William Vermeulen and Eric Ruske, the Cassatt and Whitman String Quartets, to name only a few.

He was the Artistic Director of the Skaneateles Festival in upstate New York from 1990-1999; during that time attendance tripled and support grew twofold while winning three Adventurous Programming Awards from Chamber Music America/ASCAP. Other administrative activity includes serving as Associate Dean for Strategic Planning at UMKC, a term as President of the College Music Society, and chairing piano departments wherever he has taught. His columns for Clavier Magazine, and its successor, Clavier Companion, have been twice honored with the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Educational Press Association. As a sometimes composer, his works have been performed at festivals nationwide; Steamboat Stomp (for horn and piano) won first prize in the Britten-on-the-Bay Competition and his song, My Brother Dances, won second prize in the Diana Barnhart American Song Competition.

He currently holds the Jack Strandberg Missouri Endowed Chair in Piano at the UMKC Conservatory and is justifiably proud of his students, who regularly win major competitions (Awadagin Pratt in the 1992 Naumburg; Stanislav Ioudenitch in the 2001 Van Cliburn), hold university positions throughout the country, and challenge him on a daily basis in the studio.

UMKC awarded him a Trustees’ Faculty Fellowship and the N.T. Veatch Prize for distinguished research and creative activity in 2002; he received the first Muriel McBrien Kaufmann Artistry/Scholarship Award in 2003, and an Excellence in Teaching Award from the UMKC Faculty Senate in 2006. Earlier prizes include a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Fellowship, and the Pope Foundation Award for career development. His master classes, presented internationally, are warmly applauded for their insight and effectiveness. He has previously taught at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Northwestern University, and the Eastern Music Festival. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University and was awarded their Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989.

Prof. Dan Zhaoyi is a well-known Chinese piano educator who enjoys Governmental Special Allowance of the State Council. In addition, Prof. Dan serves as a tenured professor of Shenzhen Arts School, dean of Piano Art Institute, Sichuan Conservatory of Music, counselor of Piano Society of Chinese Musicians’ Association and Honorary Chairman of Shenzhen Musicians Association.

Prof. Dan has been engaged in piano teaching for more than 50 years. During his teaching career, 26 of his students have won 70 awards (including 26 first prizes) in international piano competitions. His most famous students – Li Yundi, Chen Sa, and Zhang Haochen – won prizes one after another in the Chopin International Piano Competition in Poland, the Leeds International Piano Competition in Great Britain, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in the United States, and other top competitions in the world. This is of historic significance in the Chinese piano education and performances. Furthermore, another batch of his students, including Zuo Zhang, Xue Tingzhe, Pan Linzi, Gu Jingdan, Du Tianqi, Li Wenjuan and Xu Qi made outstanding achievements in international competitions successively.

In recent years, Prof. Dan has spent some time in promoting piano education and relevant piano teaching training. Besides, he has delivered lectures, opened master classes and online courses across the country. Prof. Dan has spent five year in editing a series of New Paths: The Basics Piano Course for Beginning Students which is based on “happy piano” and “Basic Piano” concepts, being the first set of basics piano teaching materials with scientific, systematic, national and interesting features. The book is well received and recognized in China. Prof. Dan has achieved remarkable achievements in writing in addition to teaching.

He has often been invited as a jury at many important piano competitions at home and abroad, such as the Chinese Golden Bell Award for Piano, International Chopin Piano Competition in Asia, International Paderewski Piano Competition, Mozart International Piano Competition Aachen, rand Prix Animato (Paris) International Piano Competition, The Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition, Dublin International Piano Competition and Madrid International Piano Competition Spanish Composers.