Ivan Karabyts is the People's Artist of Ukraine, composer, Professor of the P.Tchaikovsky National Musicfk Academy. He was born in 1945 in Donetsk region of Ukraine. In 1971 he graduated from the Tchaikovsky
State Conservatory. In 1974 he finished post-graduate courses under such famous Ukrainian composers as Boris Lyatoshinsky and Myroslav Skoryk. He wrote his first works when he was a student. Recognition came to him at the age of 24 when he became a laureate of the All- Union competition of Young Composers.
Ivan Karabyts' creative works are an important constituent of achievements of eminent Ukrainian composers. They exert a significant influence on the development of modern Ukrainian music. The composer has created more then ten large-scale instrumental and vocal - symphonic works (3 symphonies, 3 oratorios, 4 concerts for an orchestra, and 2 concertos for piano with orchestra), tens of chamber music pieces, 3 vocal cycles, 24 preludes for piano, and music for movies and theater.
Karabyts' works are distinguished for their philosophical depth. His attempts to find new original forms are shown best of all in the opera -oratorio "Kyiv Frescoes" which unites the traits of oratorio with dynamic contrasts of opera genre. Ivan Karabyts is professor of the National Music Academy of P.I.Tchaikovsky. He teaches the talented youth, forming the modern Ukrainian Art.
He combines teaching and composing work with extensive educational activities.
Already for eleven years Ivan Karabyts has been holding the director position of the world famous festival "Kyiv Music Fest". He is the constant Chairman of the Jury of the International Competitions for Young Pianists in memory of Vladimir Horowitz, Board secretary of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine, member of the Board of the Ukrainian Cultural Fund and many others artistic councils. Lately, he was the member of the National Commission of Cultural Affairs by the UNESKO.
Daniel Pollack
(USA)
Pollack began his studies at the age of four and made his debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of nine, performing the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School from the class of the legendary Rosina Lhevinne, herself a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory. Pollack continued his graduate studies at the Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna under a Fulbright scholarship with Bruno Seidlhofer, at the Academia Chigiana, in Siena, Italy with Guido Agosti and was selected as one of 12 pianists internationally to participate in a special Beethoven Master Class of the late Wilhelm Kempff in Positano, Italy. Pollack first garnered the music world's attention when he became a prize-winner in the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. His concert career has taken him worldwide across five continents - North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.
Highlight appearances as soloist with major orchestras in the U.S. include the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony ; and worldwide, Moscow State Philharmonic, St. Petersburg, Russia, London's Royal Philharmonic, Bergen Symphony, Norway, Seoul Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of among others.
Pollack has performed solo recitals in the major music centers of the world including London's Royal Festival Hall, Vienna's Musikverein, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Buenos Aires' Teatro Colon, Moscow's Bolshoi Zal, New York's Carnegie Hall and many other.
Pollack is much in demand on international competition juries. He has participated several times on the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition held in Moscow as well as on the Queen Elizabeth in Brussels; Montreal, Canada, Leeds , England; Ciurlionis, Vilnius, Lithuania; Gina Bachauer, Salt Lake City ; Hamamatsy and Sonoda Competition in Japan; UNISA in Pretoria, South Africa; Prokofiev in St.Petersburg; and the Rachmaninoff in Moscow
Pollack has held several visiting faculty positions including The Juilliard School, Columbia University and Yale's School of Music. Presently he is on the faculty of the University of Southern California.
David Dubal
(USA)
David Dubal is internationally known as a pianist, teacher, writer and broadcaster.
An acknowledged authority on the piano literature, Mr. Dubal's book "The Art of the Piano", "Evenings with Horowitz", "Reflections from the Keyboard" and "Conversations with Menuhin" are highly acclaimed and have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, German, etc. He has also written numerous articles in journals, liner notes, and CD booklets for the Nimbus Grand Piano Series. He was Editor of the book "American Piano Music from the Civil War through War I".
David Dubal's video "The Golden Age of the Piano" won him an Emmy award. He also presented a multi-media show on Horowitz for Steinway and Sons using Horowitz's piano. His compact disc "Remembering Horowitz" featured Dubal and 125 pianists recalling this legendary pianist.
Recipient of the First ASCAP; the Deems Taylor award for broadcast journalism, David Dubal has won numerous awards, including the coveted George Foster Peabody award for innovative broadcasting. He also received a proclamation from mayor Guiliani for his services to music in New York City. Currently he is heard every Sunday at WQXR as host of the program "The American Century" - a series devoted to American Music. He has served as music and program director at the radio station WNCN (NY City) from 1967-1990 and was also Producer and Commentator of innumerable special broadcasts. In addition to being winner of the Major Armstrong Award for Aaron Copland Comments and presented of the six hour series "Conversation with Horowitz".
Mr.Dubal is a faculty member of the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music (MSM).
David Dubal has conducted masterclasses worldwide including: Seoul National University; The Berne Conservatory in Switzerland; and Israel. Mr.Dubal has lectured globally and judged many international competitions, including a series of 6 lecture-recitals at 1989, 1993 and 1997 Van Cliburn competitions. He has performed in recitals and recital-lectures, including "The Piano in America" in 40 states and "The Beethoven Sonatas" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has appeared in all major halls in New York.
Mr.Dubal's musical studies were at Ohio State University, The Juilliard School, and he did later work with Arthur Loesser in Cleveland. He is a Housewright Eminent Scholar Chair at Florida State University (1993). The Dubal Collection is at the International piano library of the University of Maryland.
Hubert Stuppner
Hubert Stuppner was born on the 19th January 1944 in Truden / Italy. In 1964 he received a concert performer's diploma in piano at the conservatoire in Bozen.
In 1965 Mr. Stuppner received doctorate in musicology at Padua University on the song works by Johannes Brahms. In 1970 he took exam in composition; prize at the International Composer'sCompetition "Gaudeamus" in Bilthoven.
1970-74 visited the Darmstadter Fereinkurse working among other with Karlhein Stockhausen, Mauricio Kagel, Gyorgy Ligeti, Iannis Xanakis.
In 1970-1981 Huber Stuppner was a professor for analysis and theory of harmony at the Bozen conservatoire. In 1972 and 1984 DAAD scholarship in Berlin.
In 1974 he published a teaching method treating rhythmics of the 20th century; received the 1st prize at the International Composer's Competition for the Schnittger-organ in Zwolle / Netherlands.
In 1979 Mr. Stuppner took the 1st prize for chamber opera at the Filarmonica Umbra Competition in Terni. In 1980 he received the 1st culture prize of the city of Innsbruck for the film "Die Stimme der Sylpiden".
Since 1975 he has been a founder and director of the International Festival for Contemporary Music Bozen.
In 1981-96 he was a director of the conservatoire "Claudio Monteverdi" and director of the International Piano competition "Ferruccio Busoni" in Bozen.
In 1984 Hubert Stuppner took the prize at the "Concours Ernest Ansermet" in Genf for the ballett "Pierrot und Pierrette". Worked for the edition "Musikkonzepte"
Since 1991 he has been an artistic director of the "Haydn"-Orchestra Bozen and Trient. He has had numerous commitments for seminars and readings at music academies (Osaka, Oslo, New York), at congresses (Bozen, Graz, Milan, Rome, Florence), in Juries for composition and piano competition (Vienna, Moscow, Budapest, Pretoria, Paris).
In 1990 Mr. Stuppner played a concert for the Pope with the oratorio "Passion". In 1992 he was awarded with the International Artprize le Muse", Florence. In 1994 Hubert Stuppner was awarded with the "Wurdigungspreis fur Musik" of the Austrian ministry of culture.
Igor Riabov
(Ukraine)
Igor Riabov was born in Kremenchug in 1930. He studied piano at Lysenko Special Music School in Kyiv and later at Kyiv State Music College. He got his degree at Kyiv State Conservatory (professor K.Mykhaylov) and Moscow State Conservatory (professor Y.Zack).
From 1954 he was engaged as a soloist and accompanist at Kyiv State Philharmony. Igor Riabov had tours in many cities of Ukraine and has many recordings in Ukraine Radio Reserve.
Since 1962, he has been teaching at Kyiv Tchaikovski State Conservatory and since 1997 he has been a Professor and a Head of Piano Department.
Igor Riabov is one of the most famous professors and piano teachers. For the long years of his pedagogic career, he has had over 100 students. Among his pupils there are prize-winners of international competitions - Valentina Lysytsya, Yuri Fleider, Dmytro Naydych, Volodymyr Tyurin, Simona Frenkel, Iryna Portenko, Victoria Yermolyeva, and Iryna Starodub who are leading concert lives in different countries throughout the world.
Igor Riabov is working actively in the field of scientific methodic principles. He is an author of scientific methodic researches that feature questions of training and teaching pianists. He gives regular master-classes, seminars and consultations in different educational institutions of Ukraine.
In 1997 he received the status of Merited Art Worker of Ukraine.
Jerome Lowenthal
(USA)
Jerome Lowenthal had distinguished himself as an artist of rare musical vision and integrity. Critics have described him as "An extraordinary technician and a superb stylist, who plays with the sort of authority that seems instinctive" (The New Yorker) or simply as "A pianist in the grand manner" (The New York Times).
Mr. Lowenthal's most recent recording features solo works of Bartok including the 14 Bagatelles, op.6, and has been released on Pro Piano Records. His other recent recordings include four pieces by Liszt for piano and orchestra with Sergiu Comissiona and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for the Music and Art label; and solo works by great composers who played the Steinway piano (features the music of Rachmaninov, Rubinshtein, Paderewski, and Godowski on ten different Steinway pianos that date from 1857 to the present), on the Omega label. He previously recorded on two compact discs the complete works of Tchaikovsky for piano and orchestra with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sergiu Comissiona.
Born in Philadelphia, Jerome Lowenthal made his debut at the age of 13 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He studied with three now-legendary figures: William Kapell; Edward Steuermann at the Juilliard School; and Alfred Cortot at the Ecole Normale de Musique, which the Orchestra de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire. While in Europe, Mr.Lowenthal won prizes in the international competitions of Brussels, Bolzano and Darmstadt.
In 1961, Mr.Lowenthal returned to the United States, performing the Bartok Concerto #2 under the direction of Josef Krips with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony. Among the highlights of his career was his critically acclaimed performance as soloist in the New York premiere of Liszt's newly discovered Third Piano Concerto, with Zubin Mehta and New York Philharmonic.
Jerome Lowenthal has appeared with virtually every major orchestra in the United States including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, St.Louis Symphony and the Minnesota and Philadelphia Orchestras. He has performed with some of the most distinguished conductors of our time including Barenboim, Bernstein, Comissiona, Dorati, Giulini, Mehta, Monteux, Ozawa, Steinberg, Stokowski and Tennstedt.
Chamber music, too, is an important part of Jerome Lowenthal's musical life. He has played duo recitals with cellist Nathaniel Rosen and violinist Itzhak Perlman, as well as two piano programs with his late wife, the Israeli pianist, Ronit Amir.
Pnina Salzman
(Israel)
Pnina Salzman is considered the First Lady of the piano in Israel. She was born in Tel Aviv and began playing the piano soon after she learned to walk.
At the age of 8 she played her first public concert. Alfred Codot on tour in Israel, heard her, and immediately recommended she study at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, under his personal supervision. At 14 she studied with Magda Tagllafero at the Conservatoire National de Musique, where she was awarded the ler Prix du Piano that same year Bronislaw Huberman attended one of her concerts and at once wrote to the Israel Philharmonie Orchestra to engage the brilliant young pianist saying that it is a once upon a lifetime experience to meet such talent.
Upon her return to Israel, Pnina Salzman played three concertos with the IPO in one evening and was greatly acclaimed both by the public and the press. Since then, she has regularly performed with that orchestra and was chosen to be the soloist on their world tour under the batons of Giulini and Krips.
Miss Salzman has toured several times all the five continents. She played with major orchestras under the batons of Paray, Sargent, Solti, Giulini, Markevitch. Munch, Mehta, Leinsdorf, Weller, Krips, Colin Davis, Marinner, Andrew Davis, Kempe, Dorati, Golshmau, Bertini, Atzmon, Shallon and many others.
She is active as a recitalist, and in 1963 she was the first Israeli invited to perform in the USSR. Again, in 1994, she was the first Israeli pianist invited to play in China. She is an enthusiastic performer of Chamber Music.
Professor Pnina Salzman is head of the piano department of the Rubin Academy of Music in the Tel Aviv University, and is constantly invited to give Master Classes at important music centers in many countries. She is frequently requested to act as member of the jury at International Piano Competitions like Arthur Rubinstein, Santander, Jose Iturbi, Valencia, Dublin, Munich, Pretoria, Athens, Sydney, Seoul and many more.
Guangren Zhou
(China)
Guangren Zhou was born in Hannover ( Germany) of Chinese parents. Her music education started in Shanghai at the Shanghai Conservatory in 1942. Among her teachers were Ding Shande, Yang Jiaren. Mario Paci (Italian). Alfred Marcus (Austrian) and Bela Belai (Hungarian), and Aram Talulian from Moscow.
Her career as a concert pianist started in the 1940s, when she was invited to perform with the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra and later with the Central Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing, playing Mozart, Chopin and Schumann concert. In 1951 to 1952 she toured Eastern European countries with the China Youth Ensemble. She was prize-winner during the III World Youth & Students Peace Festival in East Berlin, 1951 and also prize-winner of the I Schumann International Piano Competition in East Germany , 1956. She was engaged as soloist at the Central Philharmonic Orchestra until 1955, before she became piano professor at the Central conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she is on the faculty until now and was Chairman of the Piano Department. In 1980, she visited 29 Universities in the United States of America giving lectures and recitals. In the 1990s, she has performed and lectured in -Mannheim, Hannover and London and often gives concerts and master-classes in Mainland China and Hong Kong.
Since 1980, she has been a frequently sought after adjudicator in major international piano competitions, such as the Van Cliburn in Fort worth, TX, the Gina Bachauer in Salt Lake City, UT the Leeds in England, the Marguerite Long in Paris, the Tchaikovsky Junior in Sendai, Japan, the Rubinstein in Tel-Aviv, the Hamamatsu in Japan and the Dr. Sigall in Vina Del Mar Chile, and the Princess Sonja in Oslo, Norway etc. She was Chairman of the Jury during the I and II China International Piano Competition in 1994 and 1999.
She has devoted herself extensively to the popularization of the piano in China. During 1983-1993, she established two Children's Piano School. She is organizing national and international piano competitions, grade examinations and regular week-end concerts for students and music-lovers for the Beijing Concert Hall and on television. Besides all these, she is the Chief-editor of the piano magazine "Piano Artistry". For her contributions, she has been awarded the 1994 May-First Labout Medal and the 1998 "Baogang Excellent Teacher's Prize". In 2000, she got the "Senior Professor's Award for Achievements in Science and Education.
Bernd Goetzke
(Germany)
Bernd Goetzke was born in Hanover, Germany 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 Kammerling until obtaining his Concert Soloist's Diploma in 1975. Another important phase in his pianistic development 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, Epinal, Athens, Brussels, 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; there he teaches a class of young pianists from all over the world, as well as being Head of the Concert Soloist Programme. In addition he holds numerous Master Classes in Germany and abroad. He is also involved in the training of soloists and the development of young talents outside of the University environment: as jury member of many international competitions, for example, or as Artistic Advisor of the festival "Braunschweiger Kammermusikpodium" and as Chair of a society supporting young artists. As of last year he is Director of a newly-founded Institute for highly-gifted children. This Institute, conceived by him, is attached to the Hanover University of Music and Drama and the only one of its kind in Germany. In recent years his concert repertoire has focused on works of the twentieth century, reflecting his fascination with the stylistic richness and diversity of the period between Late Romanticism and Avantgarde. In the realm of chamber music one could mention the German premiere of Bartok's Piano Quintet, Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time", Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire", Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, or also the two Rhapsodies by Gershwin or Skryabin's "Prometheus". Bernd Goetzke has also published several articles on subject-related matters ("Freedom in Interpretation", "Pedal Technique", "Bach's Melodic Characteristics", "Articulation and Phrasing in Classical Music", etc.).
Vladimir Viardo
(Russia)
Vladimir Viardo was born in the Caucasus Mountains near the Black Sea. He studied in Moscow Conservatory with Lev Naumov (custodian of the Heinrich Neuhaus methods that are credited with producing the extraordinary strain of twentieth-century Russian keyboard masters such as Gilels and Richter).
At the age of twenty-one, he won a "Grand Prix" and the "Prix du Prince Rainier" in the 1971 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. Two years later, Viardo carried off the top prize in the Fourth Quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. When the new era of "Glasnost" and "Perestroika" began opening the doors of the then Soviet Union, Mr. Viardo was permitted to accept engagements in Germany and in the United States. He was immediately offered a tour and recording contract with the Dallas Symphony and a position as Artist-in-Residence in prestigious music department of the University of North Texas, the world's largest instrumental school. There today, to continue his pedagogic traditions, Mr. Viardo has established the Viardo Fellows Foundation, committed to providing the highest quality musical artist training. An extraordinary and celebrated teacher, his international roster of students includes several from Eastern Europe, as well as Spain, Mexico, South Africa and the United States. Viardo's master-classes are much in demand throughout the world.
He has made numerous recordings for Melodiya in Russia and Pro Arte and Nonesuch in the United States. Recent recordings include Lutosiawski with the Polish National Radio Orchestra and a Sony release to honor Penderecki's sixtieth birthday, featuring Rampal and Rostropovich as well. Intersound re-released his performance o[ Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto with Mata and the Dallas Symphony in 1997. Viardo performed a series of rarely heard Russian piano literature at Lincoln Center. The 1998/99 seasons include appearances in Germany, France, Portugal, Russia, Brazil, Poland, Canada and the United States. As a pedagogue, Vladimir Viardo has accepted a position of a Professor at the Moscow Conservatory where he will teach several sessions a year.
