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Menahem
Pressler (Chair)
Pianist/U.S.A.
Grammy-nominated
pianist Menahem Pressler has led a long and distinguished career. Pressler
began his international concert performances in 1946 when he won first
prize at the Debussy Piano Competition held in San Francisco, CA. This
auspicious debut was quickly followed by a North American concerto with
the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1955, Pressler co-founded one of the
world's most enduring and widely acclaimed chamber music ensembles,
the Beaux Arts Trio, which has won many coveted honors and awards. Pressler,
who frequently appears in recitals and as a guest artist with chamber
ensembles, has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras,
including the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the Chicago
Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris and the Orchestre
National de Belgique. He holds the title of Distinguished Professor
of Music at Indiana University and also has received Honorary Doctorates
from the North Carolina School of Fine Arts and the University of Nebraska.
In addition to four Grammy nominations and numerous awards and titles,
Pressler has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from London's Gramaphone
Magazine and the "Ehrenurkunde" award from the german critics, which
honors Pressler's 40-plus years of being the standard by which chamber
music is measured.
Dmitri Bashkirov
Pianist/Russia
Known to the musical
world since 1956 when he was awarded the "GrandPrix" at the Marguerite
Long Competition in Paris, France, Dmitri Bashkirov has led a distinguished
and remarkable music career. Born in Tiflis, Georgia, Bashkirov studied
with Anastasia Wirsaladze before moving to Moscow to study with the
famous Russian pianist Alexander Goldenweiser. After his Paris success,
Bashkirov established himself as one of Russia's most outstanding pianists.
Bashkirov has performed with numerous acclaimed international orchestras
and conductors. From 1965 to 1972, Bashkirov, together with violinist
Bezrohdny and cellist Khomitser, formed one of the U.S.S.R.'s most important
chamber ensembles. Bashkirov's performance career was temporarily suspended
in 1980 when authorities of the former Soviet Union refused to allow
him to appear in the West. Eight years later, Bashkirov resumed his
performance career and also began giving master classes around the world.
Today, he is a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, is Titular Professor
at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid and Professor
at the International Piano Foundation at Lake Como, Italy.
Gyorgy Sandor
Pianist/U.S.A.
Acknowledged as
one of the world's leading masters of great virtuoso playing, Gyorgy
Sandor's career has spanned six continents through six decades and has
brought this celebrated pianist the highest critical acclaim both in
the concert field and as a recording artist. Sandor graduated from the
Liszt Academy in Budapest where he studied piano under Bartok and composition
under Kodaly. Of Sandor's numerous world premieres, the most significant
are major works by Bartok, including Dance Suite, which was adapted
for piano and revised by Bartok for its Carnegie Hall world premiere
in January, 1945. A year later, Sandor presented Bartok's 3rd Piano
Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy. In 1975,
he presented his piano version of Bartok's Sonata for Solo Violin as
well as the Intermezzo Interrotto from the Concerto for Orchestra. A
Grand Prix du Disque winner for his first recording of the entire piano
output of Bartok, Sandor also has recorded all of the piano works by
Prokofieff and Kodaly as well as a wide selection of works by Bach,
Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, de Falla and Debussy. In 1995 CBS/Sony
released Sandor's new recording of Bartok's own piano versions of his
Concerto for Orchestra, the Dance Suite and his Petite Suite, as well
as the entire solo piano repertory of Bartok. Sandor is the author of
the book On Piano Playing, which has been translated into Italian, Polish
and Chinese.
Sontraud
Speidel
Pianist/Germany
Sontraud Speidel,
who won the J.S. Bach International Piano Competition in Washington
D.C. at the age of 18, is a prolific performer and recording artist.
Speidel, who has given recitals in both solo and chamber music, has
performed with orchestras throughout Europe, North and South America,
Israel and Asia. The first performer to record the piano works of Fanny
Hensel, Speidel has recorded over 20 CDs. Her recording of all works
for two pianos by Max Reger, together with Evelinde Trenkner, won the
first prize of "Audiophile Reference" in the solo instrument category.
Awarded the Silver Cross for special cultural achievement by the city
of Vienna, Speidel's teachers include Branka Musulin, Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen,
Géza Anda and Stefan Askenase. Sontraud Speidel currently serves as
Professor of Piano at the State Music University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
Speidel also is the music director of the Clavissimo Piano Festival
in Seoul, Korea. Speidel regularly conducts master courses in Austria,
Greece, Israel, Brazil and Korea, and has served as a jurist for many
international piano competitions.
Maria Tipo
Pianist/Italy
Maria Tipo, whose
first recording for the Ricordi label was hailed by Newsweek magazine
as "the most spectacular album of the year" and whose recording of piano
sonatas by Clementi for Fonit Cetra is a collector's item, began her
illustrious career at the age of four. Taught first by her mother, Ersilia
Cavallo, and later receiving master classes from Alfredo Casella and
Guido Agosti, Tipo won first prize at the International Piano Competition
in Geneva at the age of seventeen. Soon after, she was performing around
the world with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston
Symphony, the London Symphony, the Orchestre de Paris and the Los Angeles
Philharmonic. The recipient of numerous awards, Tipo continues to record
for EMI, winning the "Diapason d'Or" for her recordings of Bach's Goldberg
Variations and Eighteen Scarlatti Sonatas. Tipo also is a dedicated
educator, teaching master classes at the Gubbio Festival and the Scuola
di Musica di Fiesole, having served as a professor at the Conservatories
of Bolzano and of Florence. Today, Maria Tipo is frequently invited
to judge major international competitions.
Dubravka Tomsic
Pianist/Slovenia
The brilliant Slovenian
pianist Dubravka Tomsic gave her first public recital at the age of
five and has since established herself as one of the world's finest
artists. In fact, Tomsic has given more than 3,500 performances throughout
Europe, Australia, North America, Mexico, Russia, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Her more than 70 recordings of recital works and concerti have added
to her worldwide acclaim. Tomsic has performed at prestigious international
festivals in Dubrovnik, Vienna, Prague, Naples, Paris, Mexico City,
Joliette, Newport (R.I.), and at Mostly Mozart in New York City, as
well as Tanglewood. She serves as a juror for many international piano
competitions, including the Van Cliburn International Competition, the
Leeds International Piano Competition and the Beethoven International
Piano Competition. Tomsic, who studied at the Ljubljana Academy and
The Juilliard School of Music, as well as privately with Artur Rubinstein,
makes her home in Ljubljana, Slovenia where she is a professor at the
Ljubljana Academy of Music.
Liqing Yang
Composer, Pianist/China
Liqing Yang has
composed many works for Western and Chinese orchestra, chamber ensemble,
percussion ensemble and film soundtracks. A graduate from the Composition
Department of the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, Yang received Ph.D.s
from the Solistenklasse for composition and Ausbildungsklasse for piano
in the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Hanover, Germany.
Yang has served as a guest professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria,
and also has lectured at more than 20 universities and music colleges
in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia and the United States. An
accomplished composer and author, Yang has written four books, including
Evolution of Style and History of Orchestration, and On Post-Modernism
in Contemporary Western Music. His main orchestrations include Four
Poems from the Tang Dynasty for mezzo-soprano, piano and percussion;
the symphonic ballade Grievances at Wujiang for pipa and orchestra;
Festival Overture for orchestra; the film music for Red Cherry and a
quintet called Meditation for traditional Chinese instruments. Yang's
music has been performed by many Chinese and foreign performing art
ensembles around the world as well as at international music festivals
including the Hanover Music Festival in Germany. Yang's name is included
in The Specialists of Chinese Higher Education, The Famous Figures of
Overseas Chinese in Literature and Art, and The New Grove's Dictionary
of Music and Musicians.
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