2023 Competition and Screening Jury

French-born, Polish-raised star pianist Dr. Graciella Kowalczyk has appeared in concerts and recitals as a soloist in over fifteen countries. From early appearances personally connected to Chopin at his birthplace, Żelazowa Wola, her performances include the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, Poland; Sergei Rachmaninov Concert Hall in Moscow, Russia; Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria; Bellini Conservatory in Palermo, Italy; Kölner Philharmonic in Köln, Germany; Ed Landreth Auditorium in Fort Worth, TX and further across North and South America and Asia. Her students continue to win prizes and accolades across the United States.

She has won top prizes in many competitions all over the world, and was the recipient of awards from the Louis-Spohr Forderverein, Germany; Internationale Stiftung fur Music, Switzerland; Lili Kraus Scholarship, Fort Worth, TX, and Mu Phi Epsilon, International Music Fraternity, Kansas City, MO; Kansas City Musical Club, Kansas City, MO., and received her doctorate in piano performance from the University of Kansas.

Dr. Kowalczyk has studied with many of the greatest pianists and musicians of our time including D.Bashkirov, R.Buchbinder, S.Dorenski, J.Feghali, R.Goode, S.Ioudenitch, N.Lugansky, H.Martina, D.Mirska, W.Nabore, P.Nersessian, J.Owings, A.Pisarev, J.Perry, E.Pridonoff, Z.Zohar, and J.Winerock.

Recent highlights include cooperation with modern composers including an award-winning recording of fugues and postludes by Canadian-Armenian composer Ashot Ariyan available on the RMN Classical label. She is also the Director of the exclusive Autumn Artist Interactive, an intensive Nashville-area crossover camp for pop and country artists with vocal superstar coach Brett Manning and legendary guitarist Mario DaSilva.

Born and raised in Foggia, Italy, Antonio Pompa-Baldi won the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 1999 and embarked on a career that continues to extend across five continents. A top prize winner at the 1998 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition of Paris, Pompa-Baldi also won a silver medal at the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Pompa-Baldi appears at the world’s major concert venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Milan’s Sala Verdi, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Shanghai’s Grand Theatre, and Paris’ Salle Pleyel, to name a few.

He has collaborated with leading conductors including Hans Graf, James Conlon, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Theodore Kuchar, Benjamin Zander, Louis Lane, and Keith Lockhart. He has performed with ensembles and colleagues such as the Takács String Quartet, trumpeter Alison Balsom, cellist Sharon Robinson, Juilliard Quartet violinist Areta Zhulla, and principals of The Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, and New York Philharmonic, among others.

With a concerto repertoire including more than 60 works, Pompa-Baldi has performed cycles of all the Rachmaninoff piano concertos, the five Beethoven piano concertos, and both Brahms piano concertos, among many other mainstream works.

He also loves performing new scores, and lesser-known ones, from premiering piano concertos by Italian composers Roberto Piana and Luca Moscardi, to resurrecting the early A minor Respighi Piano Concerto, the Howard Ferguson Concerto and the Cecile Chaminade Konzertstück, to name a few. Pompa-Baldi has played recitals in most major venues over the world, attaining the same balance between featuring beloved works from the standard repertoire, and showcasing new or unjustly neglected masterpieces. Among recent stops on his tours, he performed in Vienna, Austria; Malaga, Spain; Nancy, France; New York; Cape Town, South Africa; Husum Festival, Germany; Duszniki Chopin Festival, Poland. Just before the pandemic, he toured China, playing in Beijing, Wuhan, Nanjing, Dalian, Guangzhou, as well as the Lang Lang festivals in Shenzhen and Hangzhou.

Mr. Pompa-Baldi has recorded over 30 CDs to date, for various labels including Centaur Records, Steinway, Brilliant Classics, Harmonia Mundi, TwoPianists, and Azica. Among them, the complete piano and chamber music works of Grieg, theJosef Rheinberger Piano Sonatas, the complete Hummel Piano Sonatas, and CDs dedicated to Brahms, Schumann, Liszt, Respighi, and Rachmaninoff.

For the Steinway label, Pompa-Baldi recorded a disc of songs by Francis Poulenc and Edith Piaf, arranged for solo piano, to commemorate the 50th year of the passing of both French musical icons, as well as a CD titled “Napoli”, which features new piano versions of famous Neapolitan songs.

His latest releases feature Concertos for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra by Mendelssohn, Haydn, and Hummel, as well as a CD of newly composed Opera Fantasies on La Bohème and Carmen, by Roberto Piana.

The Steinway label also recently released Pompa-Baldi’s piano transcription of the Respighi B minor Violin Sonata, The score has been published by the Japanese publishing house Muse Press.

Antonio Pompa-Baldi is a Steinway Artist since 2003. Pompa-Baldi is on the faculty at CIM as Artist-in-Residence and Distinguished Professor of Piano.

He is often invited to judge international piano competitions such as the Cleveland, Hilton Head, E-Competition (Minneapolis), BNDES Rio de Janeiro, and Edward Grieg (Bergen), among many others. He serves as president of the jury and artistic advisor for the San Jose International Piano Competition since 2006.

From 2009 to 2012, Pompa-Baldi lead the Manuel Rueda program in Santo Domingo, working with Fundación por la Musica, mentoring young Dominican pianists.

In 2015, Pompa-Baldi founded the Todi International Music Masters festival, of which he is artistic director and faculty member. This summer festival takes place every August in the beautiful Italian town of Todi. It features 15 concerts in 15 days, masterclasses with internationally renowned faculty members, and students from all over the world.

His students have been prizewinners in important competitions such as Marguerite Long, Hilton Head, Isang Yun, and Gina Bachauer. He is regularly invited to teach masterclasses in countless universities, music schools, and festivals in the US and all over the world. He holds honorary professorships from the Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang Conservatories, as well as several other institutions.https://www.pompabaldi.com/

Recognized as one of the top Chopin interpreters of our time, Kevin Kenner was the top prize winner in the 1990 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, as well as top prizes in the Tchaikovsky Competition and the Terrance Judd Competition, among others. Born in California, Kenner was introduced early to the classical music traditions of Poland and studied as a teenager with Poland’s eminent professor Ludwik Stefański in Cracow. When he returned to the U.S. he continued his studies with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and worked with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Center. Following a concert tour with conductor Stanisław Skrowaczewski, who frequently performed and recorded with Artur Rubinstein, described his collaborations with Kenner to be the most sensitive and beautiful he remembered. He has performed and recorded with violinist Kyung-Wha Chung and concertized with the Tokyo, Escher, Belcea, Mosaiques, Apollon Musagete, Endellion and Vogler Quartets. In addition, he has frequently been invited to appear at the Verbier Festival and Warsaw’s “Chopin and His Europe” Festival. A distinguished recording artist, Kenner’s interpretations of works by Paderewski and Chopin were each picked as recordings of the month by Grammophone magazine. Other recordings were heralded by Diapason, Fanfare and Polish National Radio. After teaching for more than a decade as professor at London’s Royal College of Music, Kenner accepted a post at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, where he continues to prepare many young talented pianists for international performance careers. He has served as juror at the Busoni Competition in Bolzano and at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw among many others.

Kristian Klefstad is Associate Professor of Piano at Belmont University, where he teaches piano, piano pedagogy, piano literature, and directs the piano ensemble. He is the Coordinator of the Piano Pedagogy program at Belmont, and serves as both the President-Elect for the Nashville Area Music Teachers Association, and also the Secretary/Treasurer for the Southern Chapter of the College Music Society. In addition, Dr. Klefstad directs the Belmont Piano Camp, a summer piano program at Belmont.Dr. Klefstad is an active recitalist, clinician, lecturer and adjudicator in the United States. He has performed solo and collaborative concerts throughout the country, and has appeared as a soloist with the Jefferson City Symphony, the Millikin-Decatur Civic Symphony, and the University of Texas Symphony. Recent events include concerts for the Steinway Society of Nashville and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Guest Artist Series.Dr. Klefstad has previously taught piano at Baylor University, and also served on the faculty of Baylor's Summer Keyboard Institute. He has completed several arrangements of symphonic music for piano duo, and his setting of the finale from Beethoven’s Choral Symphony for two pianos was premiered in Temple, Texas by the CAC Chorale in 2005.

During his auspicious career before winning the 2021 American Pianist Awards and Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship, Kenny Broberg captured the silver medal at the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and a bronze medal at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition as well as prizes at the Hastings, Sydney, Seattle and New Orleans International Piano Competitions, becoming one of the most decorated and internationally renowned pianists of his generation. Broberg is lauded for his inventive, intelligent and intense performances.

“Broberg mastered everything he performed over the weekend, pulling a palette of moods from every register,” The Indianapolis Star writes of Broberg’s performance during the Finals for American Pianists Awards. “In the ‘Dante Sonata’ from Liszt's Years of Pilgrimage, the pianist easily captured the drama in the journey, marrying all of the energy of those emotions in the epic ending.”

Crediting his first exposure to classical music to his Italian grandfather’s love of the Three Tenors, Broberg began piano lessons on his family’s upright piano at age 6. During his childhood in Minneapolis, he began studying piano with Dr. Joseph Zins at Crocus Hill Studios in Saint Paul. Throughout high school, he balanced his musical lessons with playing baseball and hockey. He remains an avid fan for both the Minnesota Twins and Wild and checks their scores while on breaks during his practice.

Broberg earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 2016 at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, studying under Nancy Weems. He continued his studies at Park University in Parkville, Missouri, under the direction of Stanislav Ioudenitch, the gold medalist at the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Starting in the 2022-2023 academic year, Broberg will join the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid as Deputy Professor of the Fundación Banco Santander Piano Chair led by Ioudenitch.

Performing on stages and in concert halls across Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America, Broberg has worked with some of the world’s most respected conductors, including Ludovic Morlot, Kent Nagano, Leonard Slatkin, Vasily Petrenko, Nicholas Milton, John Storgårds, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Gerard Schwarz and Stilian Kirov. He has collaborated with the Royal Philharmonic and the Minnesota, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Sydney, Seattle and Fort Worth Symphonies, among others. He has been featured on WQXR, Performance Today, Minnesota Public Radio and ABC (Australia) radio, and presented his original composition “Barcarolle” on NPR in March 2021.

As part of the American Pianist Awards, he will release his first studio album with the Steinway & Sons label in late 2022.

The Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship also provides Broberg with a prize valued at $200,000 designed to assist him as he builds his musical career. It includes $50,000 in cash, two years of professional development and assistance and performance opportunities worldwide. Broberg will also work with students and host performances during his time on campus as the Artist-in-Residence at the University of Indianapolis. Before embarking on his international concerts, Broberg performed in his adopted home of Kansas City, Missouri, for the concert “KC Celebrates Kenny Broberg” in September 2021.

Pianist Tamás Ungár has earned worldwide acclaim for his powerful performances and innovative programming. A regular guest artist at numerous music centers in the United States, he also performs and teaches frequently all over the globe. Between the 2008 -2016 seasons he performed over 70 concerts in America, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Romania, England, Taiwan, The People's Republic of China, Korea and Japan. Some of the highlights of those seasons include performances with the Sacramento Symphony Orchestra, performing as soloist/conductor of Mozart Piano Concertos at the University of Leeds, as Artist-in-Residence and a return visit to present a solo recital and master class series at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. In addition to his performing commitments, Tamás Ungár has become one of United States' best-known and most respected teachers of the piano. As member of the TCU renowned Piano Faculty, he attracts students from across America and as far afield as Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Korea, Hungary, Japan, Malaya, Mexico, Poland, Republic of Georgia, Singapore, Russia and Taiwan. His students have received prizes in national and international competitions, have performed in prestigious music centers including Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall, New York City and have made numerous recordings.During the summers Dr. Ungár has been invited as guest teacher to the Semper International Music Festival in Schlern, Italy, the Banff Piano Master Classes, Canada, Hamamatsu Master Classes in Japan, the Tel-Hai Master Classes in Israel, International Master Classes in Katowice and the Chopin Festival in Duszniki, Poland. Since 1989 Tamás Ungár has been a regular guest teacher at the most important music centers in China and has taught in Japan, Korea, Singapore and Indonesia.From 2006 to 2014 he was appointed as Artistic Director of the Beijing International Piano Festival and continues to be Artistic Advisor for the Zhou Guangren Summer Piano Institute. 
As Founder and Executive Director of PianoTexas International Festival & Academy, Tamás Ungár created a celebration of the piano through programs for Young Artists, Juniors, Teachers and Amateurs. Since 1981, PianoTexas has become internationally recognized as a destination summer festival.In 2010, Dr. Ungár received the prestigious Presidential Scholar Program’s Teacher Recognition Award and in 2013, the Music Teachers National Association (USA) named him “The Teacher of the Year”. The Senate of Texas has proclaimed Tamás Ungár as a “Distinguished Citizen” in recognition for his lifetime work and achievements in the fine arts.
Dr. Ungár's most influential teachers included Alexander Sverjensky at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Lajos Hernádi at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and György Sebök at Indiana University, where he was awarded the Doctorate in Music. Prior to his present position he taught at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Purcell School, England and at the University of California at San Diego. He joined the TCU School of Music in 1978 where he is Professor of Music.
Tamás Ungár records exclusively for CALA Records.

Charles Olivieri-Munroe is one of today’s most distinguished and much-travelled conductors. Of the world’s major orchestras. he has conducted the Israel Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Sydney Symphony, the Berlin DSO Orchestra, Munich Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, National Hungarian Philharmonic and many others. With a regular presence in the Asia Pacific region, he frequently leads concerts in Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam and Thailand.

World class soloists with whom Charles Olivieri Munroe has worked include Angela Gheorghiu, Krystian Zimerman, Joshua Bell, Maxim Vengerov, Sol Gabetta, Joseph Suk, Mischa Maisky, Shlomo Mintz, Ivan Moravec, Gabriela Beňačková and Joseph Calleja, Ramon Vargas, amongst others.

Equally in demand as an opera conductor, he made his opera debut in 2001 conducting Falstaff at the Berlin Opera.  Since then his performances have included Don Giovanni in Milan, Evgeny Onegin at Frankfurt’s Alte-Oper, Aida at the Lago di Como Festival, The Rake’s Progress in Warsaw, Il barbieri di Siviglia at the Poznan Opera Theatre, and also productions at the Sydney Opera House, the Teatro Fenice in Venice and in Amsterdam. In 2023 he will conduct at the Hong Kong Opera celebrating their 20th anniversary.

Born in Malta, Charles Olivieri Munroe grew up in Canada where he studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music and at the University of Toronto. Following his graduation in 1992, he won three Ontario Scholarships to study with Otakar Trhlik at the Janáček Academy of Music in Brno. He also studied with celebrated conductors Jiří Bělohlávek and James DePriest. In the mid-1990s he spent two summers at the famed Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena studying with Yuri Temirkanov, Myung Whun Chung and Ilja Musin. 

Charles’ international career was launched with a series of triumphs at international competitions culminating with his being awarded First Prize at the 2000 Prague Spring International Music Festival Conducting Competition. His prizes included recordings for Supraphon Records and concerts broadcast by Czech Radio. More recently he has recorded for Sony, RCA Red Seal, Naxos, SMS Classical and Naïve Records.

Charles Olivieri-Munroe is currently Artistic Advisor and regular guest conductor with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor with the Thüringen Philharmonie in Germany and Honorary Chief Conductor of the North Czech Philharmonic with whom he was formerly Chief Conductor between 1997 and 2014. He is also Resident Conductor at the Texas Round Top Festival Institute, the longest continuously running music Festival of its kind in the United States.

Previously he served as Artistic Director of the Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra from 2015-2021, Chief Conductor of Philharmonie Südwestfalen in Germany (2011-2018) and held the positions of Principal Conductor of the Colorado ‘Crested Butte’ Festival (2008), Artistic Director of the Inter-Regionales Symfonie Orchester in Germany (2008), Chief Conductor of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava (2001-2004), and Associate Conductor with the Brno Philharmonic (1995-1997) and Karlsbad Symphony Orchestra (1993-1995). 

Like the late Sir Charles Mackerras, Charles Olivieri Munroe is a recognised specialist in the works of composers Dvořák, Smetana, Janáček, Martinů and the wider Slavic repertoire. Charles Olivieri Munroe is equally well known both for his mastery of the standard repertoire and adventurous programming.

The New York Times
“A naturally charismatic conductor”  

Toronto Star
“He so energised the musicians of the Toronto Symphony that this reviewer hopes he makes many, many return visits”

“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. Being 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 won prizes in the Beethoven Competition in Vienna in 1985, the Paloma O’Shea Competition in Santander, and the Tokyo Competition.

Nersessian was a pupil of the famous Central Music School of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, where his teacher was Yu. Levin. Later he was a student of the Conservatoire under Prof. S. Dorensky. Upon graduating from the Conservatoire in 1987 with maximum marks he was invited to join the faculty.

Pavel Nersessian has been touring Russia and surrounding states from the age of eight, and has 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, Cairo, Kiev, Beijing and many other cities.

Mr. Nersessian, by special invitation from the Kirov and the Perm Ballet, performed 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 J. Robbins’ ballet “The concert, or The Perils of Everybody” on the music of F. Chopin.

He is known for his collaboration with chamber music groups and other musicians, such as Borodin and Glinka Quartets, National Symphony Orchestra in Russia, Thomas Sanderling, Tugan Sokhiev, Alexandr Chernushenko, Valeriy Polyansky, Mikhail Agrest, Pascal Moragues, Julius Milkis, Evgeny Petrov, Pavel Kogan, Abel Perreira, Benjamin Schmid, Stepan Yakovich, Ani Kavafian, Andrei Gridchuk, Alena Baeva, Zlatomir Fung, Filip Kopachevsky, Yana Ivanilova, Nina Kogan, Mikhail Bereznitsky, Maxim Emelyanychev, Diana Vishneva, Philippe Cassard, Alexandre Lazarev, Gaik Kazazyan, Lukas Geniushas, Richard Young, Valentin Uriupin, Itamar Zorman, Yulia Lezhneva and many others. He has recorded numerous disks with compositions of Chopin, Schumann, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Shostakovich, and he has given masterclasses in the USA, Russia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Korea, Brazil, and Japan.

In 2005 he became a merited artist of the Russian Federation.

For more than 25 years P. Nersessian has been assisting his teacher, professor S. Dorensky. He has worked with such talented pupils as N. Lugansky, D. Matsuev, V. Rudenko, O. Kern, A. Shtarkman, Yu. Stadler, I. Tasovats, F. Amirov, M. Amara, A. Dossin, V. Igoshina, A. Mamriev, V. Korchinskaya-Kogan, S. Simonian, Z. Chochieva, G. Chaidze, N. Pisareva, A. Sychev, F. Kopachevsky, P. Kolesnikov, A. Tarasevich-Nikolaev, L. Bernsdorf, P. Elisha and many others.

Pavel Nersessian served as a jury member in many international piano competitions: Dublin, Hamamatsu, Sendai, Maria Canals in Barcelona, Hilton Head, Almaty, Valencia and other international piano competitions.

In 2013 he started to work as a professor of piano in Boston university.

Flamboyant, daring, provocative, exciting, seductive and sensitive are some of the words used to describe one of today’s most formidable pianists, Kemal Gekić, whose playing has been acclaimed worldwide by public and critics alike. His daring approach to tone and form marked him as a maverick in the musical world, a distinction he welcomes: the very strength of his artistry challenges, provokes, intrigues. “Gekic rides the charismatic edge of genius” R. Dyer, Boston Globe “He is something like a general who has learned all the rules in the book and is, therefore, free to ignore them in the time of war” James Roos, Miami Herald “His playing is transcendental as well as incandescent” John Ardoin, Dallas Morning News]Performing worldwide from a vast repertoire, Kemal Gekic presents fascinating, uncompromising and ever-changing interpretations, always generating frenzied audience enthusiasm. As a recording artist, Kemal Gekic has won accolades in Europe, America, and Japan for insightful, original views of the music. His outstanding Rossini-Liszt transcriptions (Naxos) won “The Rosette” of The Penguin Guide to Music, while his recording of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes (JVC) is generally considered to be the best recording of a set in history. Born in Split, Croatia, Kemal Gekic got his early training from Prof. Lorenza Baturina. He graduated the class of Prof.Jokuthon Mihailovic at the Art Academy of Novi Sad and was immediately given a faculty appointment by the piano department which he eventually directed until 1999. Since 1999 he has been Artist in Residence at the Florida International University in Miami, Florida.In 1999 he moved to Miami, Florida to take up his present post as Artist in Residence at the Florida International University after making a historical debut at the Miami International Piano Festival. Mr. Gekic is one of the most important pillars of this Festival having graced its stage on numerous occasions.Programs on his life and his performances have been broadcast by RAI Italy, TV Portugal, TV Yugoslavia, NHK Japan, POLTEL Poland, RTV Lower Saxony West Germany, RTV USSR, Intervision, CBC and PBS.Mr. Gekic performs regularly in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia and most recently he has appeared as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic, Warsaw Symphony and NHK Symphony Orchestra in Japan and performed several recitals in different countries.Kemal Gekic is actively involved with Patrons of Exceptional Artists and is a representative of the Miami International Piano Festival worldwide.

Hailed by the Classica Magazine as a "pianist of magnetic presence", Ingmar Lazar is internationally praised for his deep and moving performances, as well as for his brilliant control and stupendous technique. He has firmly established himself as one of the leading French musicians of his generation. 
He performs in the world’s most prestigious halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Herkulessaal in Munich, International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Verdi Hall of the Milan Conservatory, Rudolfinum in Prague, La Seine Musicale in Paris, Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, and the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv to name a few. He is regularly invited to many distinguished festivals including Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, La Roque d'Anthéron International Piano Festival, Grafenegg Festival, European Weeks Festival in Passau, Colmar International Festival, Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier, Festival Chopin in Paris, Festival Les Piano Folies in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, International Music Festival of Póvoa de Varzim, Sant Pere de Rhodes Music Festival, and the Gotthard Klassik-Festival. 
He collaborates with conductors such as Vladimir Spivakov, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Mathieu Herzog, Julien Chauvin, Anna Duczmal-Mróz, Constantin Adrian Grigore, Nicolas Krauze, Peter Vizard among many others, and performs with orchestras including the National Philharmonic of Russia, the Moscow Virtuosi, the Orchestre Lamoureux, the Romanian Radio Chamber Orchestra, L'Ensemble Appassionato, Le Concert de la Loge, and the Lviv Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra to name a few. 
Ingmar Lazar is also a dedicated chamber musician, and shares the stage with Pierre Amoyal, Alexandre Brussilovsky, Nicolas Dautricourt, Giuseppe Gibboni, Benjamin Herzl, Stanislas Kim, Danielle Laval, Roman Patočka, Jean-Claude Pennetier, François Salque, Christoph Seybold, Ekaterina Valiulina, the Quatuor Hermès, and the Vision String Quartet. 
His critically acclaimed discography includes a Schubert recital (Wanderer Fantasie and Sonata D.959) released in 2017 on the Lyrinx label, which received a five-star rating from the Classica Magazine, and was awarded with "France Musique's Choice". A Beethoven recital (Bagatelles op. 33, Sonatas op. 81a "Les Adieux" and op. 111) recorded live at the National Theatre in Marseille "La Criée" was released in 2019 on the same label, receiving fabulous press critics and once more a five-star rating from the Classica Magazine. Ingmar Lazar's curiosity also brought him to explore rarely performed repertoire, and has led to several CD releases on the Suoni e Colori label including works by Jean-Philippe Rameau and, in duo with Alexandre Brussilovsky, works by Jean Françaix, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, and Efrem Podgaits. 
Born in France in 1993, Ingmar Lazar made his debut at the age of 6 at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. Prizewinner of several international competitions, he is the recipient of the Tabor Foundation Piano Award at the Verbier Festival in 2013. He was also named laureate of the Safran Foundation for Music, France in 2016. In 2020 he became prizewinner of the Ateliers Médicis, with the support of the French Ministry of Culture. Ingmar Lazar is a Steinway Artist. 
A former student of Valery Sigalevitch and Alexis Golovin, Ingmar Lazar continued his studies with Vladimir Krainev and Bernd Goetzke at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. Thereafter he attended the International Piano Academy Lake Como and the Conservatory of the Italian Switzerland (Lugano) as a Theo Lieven scholar, where he studied with Dmitri Bashkirov, Malcolm Bilson, Fou Ts'ong, and Stanislav Ioudenitch. He received his Master's and Postgraduate degree from the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in the class of Pavel Gililov. He pursued a Postgraduate course with Elisso Virsaladze at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. He is a scholarship holder of the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein, and was a member of the Philippe Jaroussky Music Academy. 
Since 2016, Ingmar Lazar has been the founder and artistic director of the Festival du Bruit qui Pense, located in Louveciennes in the Yvelines, in north-central France. Its goal is to create strong ties between artists and the audience with interactive post-concert interviews and discussions. He is also the artistic director of the piano festival Escapades Pianistiques taking place at the Château de Commarin, near Dijon, since 2021.

Anton Mordasov came to international attention in 1990 when he won a gold medal at the Rachmaninov Piano Competition and a bronze medal at the IX Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition both in Moscow. He was a student of Tatiana Nikolayeva and Sergei Dorensky at the Moscow State Conservatoire. In 1996 Anton won a gold medal at the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati Ohio and was the top prize winner at the Montreal International Piano Competition. Anton received his Artist Diploma from TCU in 2001 where he was under the tutelage of Dr. Tamas Ungar. In the 1990s he appeared in over 300 performances in Switzerland, England, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Japan, the United States, Canada, Spain, France, Portugal, Netherlands, and Russia. These performances included such venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Festival Hall, Milan’s Sala Verdi, Munich’s Herkules Hall, Montreal’s Place des Arts, The Great Hall of Moscow Conservatoire, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth as well as New York’s Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.   Anton is currently on the faculty of the Music Institute of North Texas and maintains a private piano studio at his home in Lewisville, TX.

Andrey Ponochevny’s career has encompassed the globe as a preeminent talent among performing artists today. Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer has written that “His performance seized attention from first note to last”. Additionally, The Washington Post describes his playing as “with power and finesse that brought the audience to its feet in a long-standing ovation.”

Andrey Ponochevny received prizes at many international piano competitions including the Bronze Medal at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow, First Prize at the William Kapell International Piano Competition in Maryland, First Prizes at the Tomassoni International Piano Competition in Cologne. His other competition accolades include awards at international competitions in Prague, Warsaw, Dublin, Hong Kong, Riga and New Orleans.

In the concert hall, Ponochevny has garnered equal success, having performed extensively in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. He has given solo recitals at major venues including Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York City, The Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Preston Bradley Hall in Chicago and Cleveland Institute of Music, Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Philharmonie in Cologne, City Hall in Hong Kong, Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria in Santander, Salle Alfred Cortot in Paris, National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, Stadtcasino in Basel, Grand Opera Hall, Harbin.

Ponochevny’s appearances with orchestras include performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Des Moines Symphony, Irving Symphony, Plano Symphony, Belarusian State Chamber Orchestra, East Texas Symphony, Rogue Valley Symphony, Illinois Symphony, Nashua Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Wuhan Philharmonic, Tianjin Symphony, Xinjiang Philharmonic, Belarusian State Symphony, Orquestra Filarmonica del Municipio de Guayaquil among others.

His concerts have been broadcast on WGBH Boston, WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, WDR Cologne (Germany), Kultura Minsk (Belarus), SIRTVS Ljubljana (Slovenia), ROROR Bucharest (Romania), AUABC Adelaide (Australia), and DKDR Copenhagen (Denmark). 

Ponochevny has performed at many prestigious festivals including the Ruhr Klavier Festival and International Ludwigsburg Festival (Germany), Serie de los Nuevos Virtuosos, Puerto Rico, Bravissimo Festival Guatemala City, IKIF in New York City, Changchun International Festival, China, PianoTexas ,Fort Worth, Music in the Mountains, Durango, Lanzhou International Piano Festival, China.

Among his numerous awards, he was twice named “Outstanding Artist in China” (2009 and 2011) in addition to having been given the positions of “Honorable Professor” of Jilin College of Arts (China) and “Visiting Professor” at Beihua University (China). In his hometown of Minsk (Belarus), he was awarded the title “Minskovite of the year” in 2002.

n addition to his concert career, Andrey Ponochevny teaches at the University of Dallas since 2007.

Mr. Ponochevny is a Yamaha Artist

A prize-winner of The Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano (1991), as well as F. Liszt’s International Piano Competition in Utrecht (1992) –  so far, the only Polish winner of this prestigious competition. Zbigniew Raubo is also a laureate of The Karol Szymanowski Competition in Łodź (1987).

He graduated with honors from The Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where he mastered his skills under the guidance of famous teacher Prof. Andrzej Jasiński and later became his university assistant. Currently, he holds the title of Professor while teaching at Academy in Katowice.

Zbigniew Raubo has performed with all philharmonic orchestras in Poland (including Sinfonia Varsovia and NOSPR). He has over 30 compositions for piano and orchestra in his repertoire. He has performed at major music festivals, such, as The Chopin Festival in Vancouver, “Poolse Meesters” in Belgium, Campos do Jordao Festival in Brazil, Duszniki International Piano Festival, and Festiwal Pianistyki Polskiej in Słupsk.

He has recorded a number of compositions for phonographic companies in Poland and abroad, among others for: the Japanese division of Deutsche Grammophon,  RCA as well as DUX, and Żuk Records.

As a chamber musician, he has had a chance to collaborate with: The Silesian String Quartet, The Wilanów Quartet, and The Camerata Quartet, but also with outstanding soloists, such as Bartłomiej Nizioł and Urszula Kryger. He is active pedagogically; besides his responsibilities at The Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, he also gives various masterclasses for piano students and works as a consultant for music schools. As a Jury member, he participated in The Polish Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, International Chopin Competition in ASIA, and Paderewski International Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz.

Among his students, there are winners of various musical competitions, among others: The International Liszt Piano Competition in Wrocław, The Liszt Competition in Parma, The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, but also The Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk, Karol Szymanowski International Competition in Katowice and many others.

Michael Gurt is Paula Garvey Manship Distinguished Professor of Piano at Louisiana State University. He won First Prize in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in 1982, and was a prize winner in international competitions in Pretoria, South Africa, and Sydney, Australia. He has performed as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the Capetown Symphony, the China National Symphony Orchestra, and the Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in Durban, South Africa. He has made solo appearances in Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) in New York, Ambassador Auditorium in Los Angeles, Orchestra Hall in Detroit, City Hall in Hong Kong, the Victorian Arts Center in Melbourne, Australia, Baxter Hall in Capetown, South Africa,
and the Attaturk Cultural Center in Istanbul, Turkey He recently completed tours of Portugal and Brazil. Gurt has collaborated with
the Takacs String Quartet and the Cassatt String Quartet, and has performed at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville,
Queensland. He has served on the juries of both the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition and the New Orleans International Piano Competition, and he has recorded on the Naxos, Centaur, and Redwood labels.

He has served as Piano Mentor at the National Music Festival in Chestertown, Maryland, and was the chair of the piano department at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival from 1987 through 2007. He has served as Piano Chair of the Louisiana Music Teachers Association and has taught at two summer music seminars held at Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan. Professor Gurt holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School.

Konstantin Soukhovetski is regarded as an original creative force among the pianists of his generation, in a concertizing career that has gained him audiences’ tributes and critics’ accolades in the US, Africa, Asia, and Europe. A recipient of over 17 awards and winner of top prizes at the Cleveland, Naumburg, and UNISA competitions, Konstantin has made his reputation applying his singular interpretive vision and natural virtuosity to the cornerstones of solo and concerto repertory, as confirmed by his renewed engagements and steady partnership with conductors. Konstantin is internationally acknowledged also as a composer, since the premiere of his transcription of R. Strauss’ Four Last Songs at L’Esprit du Piano festival in Bordeaux (France).

Some highlights of Konstantin’s career include critically acclaimed performances at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Paris’ Musee du Louvre, Bern’s Paul Klee Zentrum, Carnegie’s Weill, and Zankel halls. For his debut at Lincoln Center Alice Tully Hall, Konstantin was praised on the NYTimes Arts Section cover: “Romanticism so intense it warms up Philip Glass.” The Independent gave 5 stars to Konstantin’s Wigmore Hall London debut, with a glowing review of Schubert’s last sonata: “…he let his vision take him where it would, and the result was revelatory, as was his handling of the sonata’s ambiguous close.”

This year, Konstantin returns to NYC’s Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with Pegasus: The Orchestra, playing Rachmaninoff’s Concerto #4. Other engagements this season include Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra, SOLO DUE with Jacopo Giacopuzzi at La Jolla’s The Conrad (CA), Vashon PianoFete (WA), and Del Mar International Composer’s Symposium (CA). In March 2023, Konstantin premieres his transcription of Pascual Aldave’s Akelarre, commissioned by OE Oficina for his second Spanish concert tour at the Victoria Eugenia Theater in St. Sebastián, Alkiza and Arrecife, the Canary Islands.

In 2020, Konstantin joined the adjunct faculty of his alma mater, The Juilliard School, where he received his BM, MM, and AD with Jerome Lowenthal. Konstantin has been recently named Director of Pedagogy and Narrative Musicianship at Bronx School for Music. Konstantin is deeply committed to musical education, regularly teaching masterclasses, interactive lecture performances, and residency programs with the Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras, the ACES Educational Center for the Arts (CT), and the Grand Piano Series (FL), among many others. Since 2011, Konstantin has served as Artist-in-Residency at Paul Schenly’s Pianofest in the Hamptons, of which he is an alumnus (2000-2007). Other teaching engagements have taken Konstantin traveling around the world to the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, The Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Singapore), the Shantou Piano Museum (China), the New England Piano Teachers Association, and The Piano League, to name a few. Konstantin has served on the jury panel of the Piano Ohio Competition, the Hong Kong Music Schools Festival, the Perfect Tone competition in Indonesia and was on the screening jury of CIPC’s 2020 Virtu(al)oso International Piano Competition.

Konstantin’s creativity expands to innovative artistic projects that frequently involve modern dance. In 2022 Konstantin premiered Encounters, a commission by MorDance from Polina Nazaykinskaya, which involved him in the choreography while he was performing on the piano, the only music for the ballet. In April 2023, Konstantin premiers Ms. Nazaykinskaya’s new ballet Emily with MorDance. Konstantin and Polina’s creative alliance has produced a series of piano miniatures, released during the COVID-19 lockdown on OClassica label, available on all streaming platforms. (Remembrance, Anticipation, and A Summer Rain)

Konstantin’s solo violin composition, Postcard from The Edge, is featured on CDs of renowned violinist Elmira Darvarova. In 2022, Konstantin signed an exclusive publication deal with OE Oficina to publish all his opera transcriptions, as well as original compositions. The first volume, R. Strauss’ Four Last Songs, will be released in 2023. The second volume will feature The Pride Suite for solo piano commissioned by the ProtoStar Foundation, with multiple national and international premieres planned in the 2023/24 Season. Color Orange of The Pride Suite will have a pre-premiere performance as a choreographed art piece at Site Specific Dances’ New York launch of Live Exhibition series in April 2023.

In addition to piano performance and composition, Konstantin’s love for words and poetry has taken him on a foray into literature. He is currently working on two opera libretti commissioned by the Mississippi Opera and the Garth Newel Music Center. Konstantin’s unique creativity and personality have been acknowledged with a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship For New Americans and an Innovation Award from the Music Academy Of The West. Born in Moscow to a family of artists, Konstantin studied at the Moscow Central Special Music School, where he double-majored in piano and composition.

Sergey Sultanov was born in 1976 in Tashkent into the musical family of Fayzulkhak Sultanov and Natalia Pogorelova. He studied at the Uspensky Republican Secondary Special Musical Boarding School, where his brother Alexei Sultanov also studied. He began his studies in the class of Alexander Shtuko before continuing his education in the class of Natalia Vasenkina.
In 1986 the whole Sultanov family moved to Moscow, where Sergey studied in the class of Valery Afanasyev, later with Lubov Varsobina. He was subsequently admitted to the Gnessin School to study with Irina Naumova. After graduating from Gnessin, he entered the Maimonides Academy to pursue studies with famed Professor Naum Shtarkman. He later pursued an advanced degree as assistant intern in the class of Alexey Skanavi.
Sergey is mainly focused on pedagogical work and chamber music performances. In 2017 he received a master's degree in pedagogy. He has performed in Japan, Poland, and Kyrgyzstan amongst others where he has also given master classes.

Nino Ushikishvili started playing piano at the age of four. A few years later she entered the Z. Paliashvili Tbilisi Central Music School for Gifted Children. In 1995 she graduated with honors from the V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi Conservatoire and in 1997 she completed postgraduate studies at the same conservatoire under the guidance of Professor Vanda Shiukashvili. 
In 1998, Nino received a full scholarship and continued her studies in the United States, where in 2004 she received her Artist Diploma at the Texas Christian University in Fort Worth (Texas, USA), and in 2005 Graduate Diploma with honors at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston (Massachusetts, USA). Her teachers at various times were Tamás Ungár, Joseph Banowets, and Alexander Korsantia.

Nino Ushikishvili is a prize winner of various piano competitions, among them the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Nina Wideman International Piano Competition in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the Hilton Head International Piano Competition in Hilton Head, South Carolina. She has participated in masterclasses with world-renowned musicians such as Leon Fleisher, Christopher Elton, Boris Petrushansky, Mikhail Voskresensky, Benedetto Lupo and others.

While studying in the United States, Nino regularly gave concerts in various cities, notably  performances in Washington, New York, Dallas, Boston, and Los Angeles.

Nino Ushikishvili has many years of teaching experience. Currently, she is on the faculty of the Music Academy of the University of Georgia and is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire.

Hailed as a “complete musician – a sensitive artist and an extremely talented young pianist”, Congyu Wang is an internationally renowned soloist who has garnered acclaim as a recitalist, accompanist and chamber musician.

Born in Singapore, Congyu Wang started playing the piano at the age of 3. He was selected for a scholarship that enabled him to attend the prestigious Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, where he studied with renowned French pianists Jean-Marc Luisada and Odile Catelin-Delangle. He later enrolled in the Schola Cantorum to continue his studies with Gabriel Tacchino (Francis Poulenc’s only student). Ever since youth, Congyu Wang has enjoyed phenomenal success in international piano competitions, ultimately winning the Grand Prize in Berlin and Bordeaux. His other prizes include Vulaines-sur-Seine, Lagny-sur-Marne, Merignac, Paris, Jakarta, Tallinn and Cle d’Or Reunion. He was featured in ‘Zao Bao’ as Singapore’s most promising young artist of the year in 2016.

Congyu Wang has earned a reputation for delivering stunning performances of extremely demanding repertoire. He has shared the stage with many well-known musicians, such as Roman Leuleu, Agnes Kallay, Bernardo Santos, Pascal Roge, Giancarlo de Lorenzo, Elena Xanthoudakis, Grigor Palikarov, quatour arsis etc.

In 2015 Congyu Wang published his first album ‘Charme’ on KNS classical featuring the works of Francis Poulenc to international acclaim. In 2018 he released his second album ‘Reflets’ dedicated to Claude Debussy commemorating the 100th death anniversary of the French Composer. His recordings are frequently broadcasted internationally – France Musique, BBC radio 3 (UK), Radio Vie (Reunion), Radio Antena 2 (Portugal), Classic 1027 (South Africa), Symphony 92.4 (Singapore).

In 2019 Congyu Wang was featured in the movie ‘Une Barque sur l’Ocean’ directed by French director Arnold de Parscau.

Congyu Wang is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Piano Island Festival, Piano Concerto festival and the International Chopin Competition in South Africa.

Congyu Wang is a Steinway Artist.