One of the most sought-after pianists of her generation, South Korean pianist HieYon Choi first appeared on the international piano music scene when she won prizes at high-profile competitions such as Kapell, Epinal, Busoni and Viotti. HieYon Choi has been since performing with prestigious orchestras of Europe, US and Korea such as das Rundfunkorchester Berlin, the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington DC), the Northern Sinfonia, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Korean Broadcast Symphony Orchestra and appears as a soloist in festivals and concert series.

A milestone of HieYon’s performing career was the four-year long cycle of all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas at the Kumho Art Hall in Seoul. For this series she received the Arts Award of the year 2005 by the Korean Arts & Cultural Association. Ten years later she completed another Beethoven cycle with all piano trios, violin sonatas and works for cello and piano. Her second cycle of all Beethoven piano sonatas took place in various venues in Korea, Germany, and the US until 2018. HieYon‘s other series of performances include ones that explored Brahms and his associates and that of French school. She has been collaborating with renowned musicians such as Truls Mørk, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Peter Stumph, Mark Kosower, Romain Guyot, Stephan Dohr, Ulf Wallin, Mikyung Lee, Soovin Kim.
Alongside the canon of classical piano literature such as Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Debussy, Music of 20th & 21st century forms another important part of HieYon’s career. A strong advocate of the new music, she was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence of Tong-Yeong International Music festival. She performed works of Olivier Messiaen, György Kurtag, Sofia Gubaidulina, York Höller, Unsuk Chin, Suhki Kang a. o. with the Seoul Philharmonic.  

HieYon has been recording a. o. 32 Beethoven piano sonatas since 2015 with the producer Martin Sauer at Teldex Berlin. HieYon’s first and second Beethoven albums were released in 2018 and in 2021 retrospectively by Decca Korea and UMG and highly acclaimed by German and Korean press. The entire set of Beethoven piano sonatas are to be released prospectively in spring 2024. Her other releases include <Debussy Douze Etudes>, <Liszt Six Grand Etudes on Paganini>, <Isang Yun 5 Klaiverstücke>, <Chopin Etudes Op. 10 & Op. 25>. HieYon appeared and performed frequently in TV & radio channels in Korea, US, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and in Germany. 

In 2023/24 HieYon joined the piano faculty at Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. Until then she has served as a tenured piano professor at Seoul National University for the past 24 years. HieYon has been giving numerous master classes worldwide; the Guildhall School in London, Ecole Normale Superieur in Paris, Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Hochschule Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Düsseldorf in Germany, Music School of Manhattan, Cincinnati, Michigan in the US, Performing Arts Hong-Kong, China and at summer festivals in Italy, France, US, Korea. HieYon also serves as a jury member at international competitions such as Ishikawa, Epinal, Orléans, Pozzoli and Maj Lind.  
Born in Inchon, South Korea, HieYon gave her debut concert at the age of 6 with the Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra. She won all four most coveted competitions in Korea (Dong-A, Choong-Ang, Korea Times, Ehwa-KyungHyang) before she moved to Germany at the age of 18 to study with Prof. Klaus Hellwig. The late Prof. Hans Leygraf at Hochschule der Künste Berlin and the late Prof. György Sebök at Indiana University were further sources of inspiration to her. [u

Dr. Yi-Yang Chen shot onto the international stage with back-to-back victories in the 2018 Sussex International Piano Competition, 2017 Washington International Competition, and the Warning International Piano Competition. The Worthing Herald music critic Richard Amey praised his recent performance “flair for the unusual and his technical and artistic capacity to deliver,” as well as his “musical and emotional intelligence, dexterity and virtuosity,” listening to Chen as soloist in Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No.5 “Egyptian” with the Worthing Symphony Orchestra. His vibrant playing at the Pacific International Piano Competition (Canada) was recognized by the judges, who selected him for the first prize (“…Yi-Yang showed an impressive breadth of emotional investment and natural affinity for the music he played. The informed individuality and command of his performance was immediately compelling to the judges. We feel this young man has a fine future as an artist. He seems to ‘own’ the piano as he plays, and this makes his performance extremely powerful” – Dr. Robin McCabe).

Yi-Yang Chen is an assistant professor of piano at the University of Kansas and the Artist Director of the Orbifold Music Festival in California. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chen has been playing the piano since the age of 8. Yi-Yang completed his Doctor of Musical Arts And Bachelor’s of Music at the Eastman School of Music with Douglas Humpherys, and his Master’s degree at The Juilliard School with Robert McDonald and Jerome Lowenthal. He also has solo/chamber masterclasses with Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Daniel Pollack, Joseph Kalichstein, Glenn Dicterow, Thomas Sauer, and with members from the Cleveland, Shanghai, Borromeo, Brentano, Ying, and Guarneri String Quartets.

Yi-Yang has captivated audiences worldwide with his flamboyant playing. He has performed on five continents in acclaimed venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center in New York, Melbourne Recital Centre, National Concert Hall in Taipei, Banff Music Centre in Canada, ZK Matthews Great Hall in South Africa, and the Assembly Hall in Worthing, UK, with such orchestras as the Worthing Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Avanti Orchestra, Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra, National Chinese Orchestra, and the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. He has appeared at the Perlman Music Festival, Taos School of Music Summer Chamber Music Festival, Banff Music Centre, Music Academy of the West, Four Seasons Winter Workshop, and Brevard Music Center.

A wealth of experience enables Chen to become an outstanding teacher and performer. As the winner of the 2012 MTNA National Young Artist Piano Competition, Chen was given a Steinway piano and two concerts in Miami sponsored by the Chopin Foundation (USA) as his prize. In a review of his 2017 solo recital at Carnegie Weill Hall, New York Concert Review wrote, “He negotiated this difficult work with what appeared to be the greatest of ease. The passagework was sparkling, and the energy never flagging. Mr. Chen held the line and momentum throughout, challenges which many players struggle with in this work […]. It was a powerhouse performance. His bold, take-no- holds approach was all that one hopes for in this work. It is a high-risk proposition that demands a large technique, and Mr. Chen delivered. I’ve heard many performances of this sonata, and Mr. Chen’s ranks among the best. “ Chen also received top prizes at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, American Prize (Professional Division), UNISA International Piano Competition (South Africa), Kerikeri International Piano Competition (New Zealand), Seattle International Piano Competition, Thailand International Piano Competition, San Jose International Piano Competition, Roberto Melini International Piano Competition (Italy), Five Towns Piano Competition, Schubert Club Competition, Thousand Islands International Piano Competition, and Chopin International Piano Competition in Hartford.

Yi-Yang Chen is a member of the Music Teachers National Association, College Music Society, and Mu Phi Epsilon. He enjoys swimming, biking, traveling, and composing. Yi-Yang is currently working on a recording project with Champs Hill label (UK); the release is scheduled for 2025. Before joining KU (University of Kansas), Yi-Yang served on the faculty at East Tennessee State University as a tenure-track professor. 

Dr. Chen is a Steinway Artist. 

 

SEÁN DUGGAN, OSB, pianist, is a monk of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, Louisiana. He obtained his music degrees from Loyola University in New Orleans and Carnegie Mellon University, and received a Master’s degree in theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. From 1988 to 2001 he taught music, Latin and religion at St. Joseph Seminary College in Louisiana and was director of music and organist at St. Joseph Abbey.

In September, 1983 he won first prize in the Johann Sebastian Bach International Competition for Pianists in Washington, D.C., and again in August, 1991. Having a special affinity for the music of Bach, in 2000 he performed the complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard works eight times in various American and European cities. For seven years he hosted a weekly program on the New Orleans NPR station entitled “Bach on Sunday.” He is presently in the midst of recording the complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard (piano) music which will comprise 24 CDs.

Before he joined the Benedictine order he was pianist and assistant chorus master for the Pittsburgh Opera Company for three years. He has performed with many orchestras including the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Leipzig Baroque Soloists, The Prague Chamber Orchestra, The American Chamber Orchestra and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia. From 2110 to 2004 he was a visiting professor of piano at the University of Michigan. Currently he is associate professor of piano at SUNY Fredonia. During the fall semester of 2008 he was also a guest professor of piano at Eastman School of Music. He has been a guest artist and adjudicator at the Chautauqua Institution for several summers, and is also a faculty member of the Golandsky Institute at Princeton, New Jersey. He continues to study the Taubman approach with Edna Golandsky in New York City.

Pianist Christopher Guzman enjoys an international performing career, showcasing a broad range of styles from the Baroque era to the avant-garde. Since winning top prizes in international competitions such as the Walter M. Naumburg Competition (USA), the Seoul International Music Competition (S. Korea) and the Isang Yun Competition (S. Korea), Mr. Guzman has performed across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. As a result of winning the top prize at the Concours International de Piano d’Orléans in Orléans, France, he has toured France extensively, giving performances and teaching masterclasses.

Mr. Guzman has appeared in major international venues such as Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, Buenos Aires’s CCK, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and others. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with the classical music world’s most exciting soloists, including Ilya Gringolts, Antoine Tamestit, David Fray, and Jeremy Denk, among others. He continually performs with members of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Although Mr. Guzman has earned several international accolades for his performances of the western canon, much of his career is dedicated to showcasing music written after 1900; his performances have included world premieres by Donald Martino, Nico Muhly, and Paul Schoenfield. The New York Times hailed his performance of Christopher Theofanidis’s Statues as “coiled” and “explosive.” His CD of German and Austrian music from the past one hundred years, Vienne et après, is available on the Tessitures label; his CD of music of Paul Reale on the Naxos Label, “Chopin’s Ghosts,” was included in Fanfare magazine’s Top Five releases of 2018. He has subsequently recorded two additional albums of Reale’s music, including chamber music and concerti, to much critical acclaim. Mr. Guzman will release a premiere video recording of piano works of Mexican composer Carlos Chávez in 2023.

Born in Texas, Christopher Guzman began studying piano at age nine and violoncello two years later. His teachers include Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald (The Juilliard School), Anton Nel (University of Texas at Austin), and the late Patricia Zander (New England Conservatory). In addition to performing, he is also Professor of Piano at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. He previously taught at Penn State University, and has taught masterclasses throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit christopherguzmanpiano.com.

 

Sang Woo Kang is described as a “prodigiously talented” by the Los Angeles Times and praised by the New York Concert Review for his “atmospheric and poetic renditions.” As an active performer, pianist Sang Woo Kang has presented masterclasses and recitals over 25 countries, from Asia, Scandinavia, Europe, Central and South America. In addition, he directs the Piano Institute and Seminar at the Atlantic Music Festival over the summer. He successfully balances his performing career as a solo, orchestral, and chamber musician with teaching at Providence College, where he is Professor of the Department of Music. He is also on the teaching faculty of Brown University.

He is a graduate of Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music, where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. His recording of Mozart’s piano pieces, including never-performed fragments, was released in December 2014 on the NAXOS Label. His Scarlatti Sonata recording will be available early 2019 (NAXOS). He has also previously recorded for the EMI-Korea label.

For more information, please visit www.sangwookang.com

Hitomi Koyama has won prizes in consecutive years at Dichler Competition held in Vienna, Austria and also has received Leni Fe Bland Music Awards. She has performed at Wiener Musikseminar, International Sommer Akademie Tokushima, Art of the Piano, CCM Prague International Piano Institute, Mannes Beethoven Institute, Eastern Music Festival and Atlantic Music Festival.

As a recitalist and a chamber musician, she has appeared in venues are such as Corbett Auditorium, Werner Hall and Watson Hall in Cincinnati, Snyder Recital Hall at Ohio Northern University, Javitz Center, the Lincoln Center, Spanish Institute, Steinway Hall and Yamaha Salon in New York, Flickinger Center in New Mexico, Bösendorfer Hall, Liszt Hall and Konzerthaus Wien in Austria, Jan Deyl Conservatory Concert Hall in Czech Republic, Murasaki Hall, Aimu Hall and Amyu Tachikawa Hall in Japan.

Koyama has earned degrees from the Juilliard School, Mannes College, and University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Currently, she is pursuing her doctoral degree at College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati. She has played in master classes with world-renowned pianists such as Mitsuko Uchida and Robert Levin. Her significant mentors include Martin Canin, Victor Rosenbaum, Peter Efler, and Eugene Pridonoff.

Along with her passion for performance, she is an active teacher at both collegiate and preparatory institutions. She served as Adjunct Professor of Piano at CCM, Wittenberg University and piano faculty at CCM Preparatory Department. From October 2017, she joins piano faculty at New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston. She gave recitals and master classes at Ohio Northern University, Ohio University, Providence College, Western Kentucky University and Wright State University. Her students have won scholarships, competitions around the country and have been pursuing further performance studies at major conservatories and universities in the U.S. She is a guest artist faculty at Atlantic Music Festival in Maine and a piano faculty at Shinshu Art Camp in Nagano, Japan.

Praised by The Cleveland Classical Review for his “astonishingly confident technique” and The New York Times for “thrilling [and] triumphant” performances, pianist Henry Kramer is developing a reputation as a musician of rare sensitivity who combines stylish programming with insightful and exuberant interpretations. In 2016, he garnered international recognition with a Second Prize win in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Most recently, he was awarded a 2019 Avery Fisher Career Grant by Lincoln Center – one of the most coveted honors bestowed on young American soloists.

Henry emerged as a winner in the National Chopin Competition in 2010, the Montréal International Competition in 2011 and the China Shanghai International Piano Competition in 2012. In 2014 he was added to the roster of Astral Artists, an organization that annually selects a handful of rising stars among strings, piano, woodwinds and voice candidates. The following year, he earned a top prize in the Honens International Piano Competition.

Kramer has performed “stunning” solo recital debuts, most notably at Alice Tully Hall as the recipient of the Juilliard School’s William Petschek Award, as well as at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. At his Philadelphia debut, Peter Dobrin of The Philadelphia Inquirer remarked, “the 31-year-old pianist personalized interpretations to such a degree that works emerged anew. He is a big personality.”

A versatile performer, Kramer has soloed in concertos with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others, collaborating with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Gerard Schwarz, Stéphane Denève, Jan Pascal Tortelier and Hans Graf. Highlights of the 2021-22 season included a solo recital at the BravoPiano! festival in Hilton Head where he premiered a work he commissioned by composer Han Lash, performing Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto with the Hartford Symphony to rave reviews, features on series in Washington (Phillips Collection), Durham (St. Stephens), and Seattle (Emerald City Music), concerts throughout Southern California with Camerata Pacifica, and summer appearances at the Anchorage, Lakes Area, Rockport, and Vivo music festivals. Appearances in the 2022-23 season include a debut with New York's Salon Séance, recitals with Newport Classical, Toronto's Koerner Hall, Vancouver Chamber Music Society, and additional appearances in Ithaca, Detroit, Seattle, and Montréal.

His love for the chamber music repertoire began early in his studies while a young teenager. A sought-after collaborator, he has appeared in recitals at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest. His recording with violinist Jiyoon Lee on the Champs Hill label received four stars from BBC Music Magazine. This year, Gramophone UK praised Kramer’s performance on a recording collaboration (Cedille Records) with violist Matthew Lipman for “exemplary flexible partnership.” Henry has also performed alongside Emmanuel Pahud, the Calidore and Pacifica Quartets, Miriam Fried, as well as members of the Berlin Philharmonic and Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

Teaching ranks among his greatest joys. In the fall of 2022, Kramer joined the music faculty of Université de Montréal. Previously, he served as the L. Rexford Whiddon Distinguished Chair in Piano at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. Throughout his multifaceted career, he also held positions at Smith College and the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Dance and Music.

Kramer graduated from the Juilliard School, where he worked with Julian Martin and Robert McDonald. He received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Boris Berman. His teachers trace a pedagogical lineage extending back to Beethoven, Chopin and Busoni. Kramer is a Steinway Artist.

Praised by critics as “a diva of the piano” (The Salt Lake City Tribune), “a mesmerizing risk-taker” (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), and “simply spectacular” (Chicago International Music Foundation) Ukrainian-American pianist Marina Lomazov has established herself as one of the most passionate and charismatic performers on the concert scene today. Following prizes in the Cleveland International Piano Competition, William Kapell International Piano Competition, Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Ms. Lomazov has given major debuts in New York (Weill-Carnegie Hall) Boston (Symphony Hall), Chicago (Dame Myra Hess Concert Series), Los Angeles (Museum of Art), Shanghai (City Theater) and Kiev (Kiev International Music Festival). 

She has performed as soloist with the Boston Pops, Rochester Philharmonic, Eastman Philharmonia, Chernigov Philharmonic (Ukraine), KUG Orchester Graz (Austria), Bollington Festival Orchestra (England), Piccolo Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Brevard Festival Orchestra and South Carolina Philharmonic, to name a few. New York Times chief music critic Anthony Tommasini describes a recent New York performance as “dazzling” and Talk Magazine Shanghai describes her performances as “a dramatic blend of boldness and wit”.

In recent seasons, Lomazov has performed extensively in China, South Africa, Italy, Spain, and in the United States.  She is a frequent guest at music festivals in the U.S. and abroad, including Hamamatsu, Chautauqua, Brevard, Miami, Perugia (Italy), Burgos (Spain), Sulzbach-Rosenberg (Germany) and Varna (Bulgaria), among others.  She has recorded for the Albany, Centaur and Innova labels and American Record Guide praised her recent recording of piano works by Rodion Shchedrin for its “breathtaking virtuosity”. 

Before immigrating to the United States in 1990, Marina studied at the Kiev Conservatory where she became the youngest First Prize Winner at the all-Kiev Piano Competition. Ms. Lomazov holds degrees from the Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music, the latter bestowing upon her the highly coveted Artist’s Certificate – an honor the institution had not given a pianist for nearly two decades.  Also active as a chamber musician, Lomazov has performed widely as a member of the Lomazov/Rackers Piano Duo.  Praised for “demon precision and complete dedication” (Audio Society), the duo garnered significant attention as Second Prize winners at the Sixth Biennial Ellis Competition for Duo Pianists (2005), the only national duo piano competition in the United States at that time.

Ms. Lomazov is a Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music.  She is currently serving as a chair for National Panelist for YoungArts, the only organization in the US that nominates U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts. For 17 years she served on the faculty of the University of South Carolina School of Music, where she held the chair of Ira McKissick Koger Professor of Fine Arts Music and is currently holds a Guest Artist Residency.  Together with her husband and piano duo partner Joseph Rackers, she co-founded and serves as Co-Artistic Director of the Southeastern Piano Festival in Columbia, SC.

Ms. Lomazov is a Steinway Artist.

Pianist Esther Park has performed as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals across the United States as well as Asia and major European cities. Ms. Park has appeared as soloist with many orchestras such as Houston Symphony, Corpus Christi Symphony, Filharmonia Pomorska, Poland, Shanghai Philharmonic, China, the American Academy of Conducting Orchestra at Aspen, Shreveport Symphony, the Juilliard Symphony, and the New Jersey Symphony.

Ms. Park gave a five-city recital tour in Korea, and has performed at the Juilliard Theater in NYC, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Halls' Weill Recital Hall, Salle Cortot in Paris, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Ms. Park is the winner of the 2013 Jose Roca International piano competition and Russian International piano competition (now San Jose International Piano Competition, 2009 "Prix Amadeo" and the 2009 Chopin Gesellschaft Klavierwettbewerb. She is the winner of the 2004 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition at the Juilliard School, and the 52nd Kosciusko International Piano Competition.

Ms. Park is a founding member of a piano duo with her sister, Sun-A Park. Duo Amadeae has since won the Chicago International Duo Piano Competition, and has appeared in numerous festivals, concerto performances and in duo recitals. The duo has been heard on WQXR as well as part of the Horowitz & Stecher foundation's piano series.

Ms. Park has received her Bachelor's degree and Master's degree from the Juilliard School, studying with Yoheved Kaplinsky. Ms. Park also studied at the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater (Hannover) under the tutelage of Bernd Goetzke, and has since received the Artist Diploma, Master of Musical Arts Degree and the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Boris Berman. Ms. Park has been serving as the associate professor of piano since 2015 and the director of Pre-College program at the East Tennessee State University. Starting in the Fall, Ms. Park will join the Schwob School of Music as visiting associate professor of music.

Hailed as an “American Virtuoso” (Audiophile Audition), “enormous power and intelligent, instinctive interpretation” (Spoleto Today), and “simply dazzling” (The State), pianist Joseph Rackers has performed for enthusiastic audiences in New York, Boston, Chicago, Kiev, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Seoul and Washington D.C., at venues across Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Bulgaria, Ukraine and extensively throughout the United States. His performances around the world include the Shanghai and Sichuan Conservatories of Music, Kiev International Music Festival, Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival, Seoul International Piano Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, Banff Centre for the Arts, Indiana University Piano Festival, American Liszt Society Festival, Yantai International Music Festival, Varna International Piano Festival and Society of Composers International Conference, in addition to recitals in most of the fifty states in the U.S. Gramophone writes, “the results are consistently compelling…as if Rackers response were primarily to his relationship with the composer as some sort of kindred spirit.”

Joseph Rackers is an International Steinway Artist. His recordings as soloist, collaborative pianist and producer are available on MSR Classics, Navona, Centaur, Equilibrium, Beauport Classics and Steinway Spirio and his performances have been broadcast on radio and television across the United States and Europe. His recent solo release with MSR Classics was widely recognized by the press; “unflappable virtuosity…highly expressive…committed to letting the composer’s voice—as he hears it—come through” (American Record Guide), “compelling power, rhythmic persuasiveness…consummate style…complete mastery” (Audio Society). 


Rackers is Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, Co-Founder of the Southeastern Piano Festival and Artistic Director of the Vivace Music Foundation. A devoted teacher, Rackers students have earned awards in dozens of national and international piano competitions, including the Bonn Beethoven Internationl Piano Competition (First Prize, Audience Prize, Contemporary Music Prize and Chamber Music Prize), Leipzig Bach International Piano Competition, Concours International de Piano d’Orléans, National Winner of the MTNA National Competition, Minnesota International, Seattle, National Society of Arts and Letters, Steinway and numerous others. He has given performances and masterclasses at Indiana University, University of Michigan, Boston University, Cincinnati, UCLA, UNLV, Vanderbilt, and at conservatories and music festivals across Europe and Asia. He has recently served as Schwartz Artist in Residence at Emory University and as faculty or guest artist at the Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival, Chicago International Music Institute, Seoul International Piano Festival, Perugia International Music Festival, Yantai International Music Festival, Southeastern Piano Festival, Texas State International Piano Festival and as a National Reviewer for the National YoungArts Foundation. His students have performed for venues including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Minnesota Orchestra, Aspen and Cliburn music festivals, From the Top on NPR and Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theater.

Also active as a chamber musician, Rackers has performed widely as a member of the Lomazov/Rackers Piano Duo. Praised for “demon precision and complete dedication” (Audio Society), the duo garnered significant attention as the Second Prize Winners of the Sixth Ellis Competition for Duo Pianists, the only national duo piano competition in the United States at that time. Gramophone praises the duo for “assured and centered pianism” and American Record Guide writes “the ensemble between Lomazov and Rackers is dead-on”. Rackers earned the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees at the Eastman School of Music, where he was also awarded the Performer’s Certificate. His principal teachers were Raymond Herbert and Natalya Antonova with additional study or masterclasses with Julian Martin, Misha Dichter and Blanca Uribe, among others. He has given presentations and performances for conferences of the Music Teachers National Association and College Music Society and has been honored by the South Carolina House of Representatives and South Carolina State Senate for his personal contribution to the arts and leadership of the Southeastern Piano Festival. For more information, please visit www.josephrackers.com.

Thomas Rosenkranz has charted a career that breaks through the conventional notion of what a classical pianist is. Equally at home with the standard repertoire to the most recent developments in contemporary music and improvisation, he has established himself as one of the most forward-looking pianists of his generation. He serves as Professor of Piano and Keyboard Area Coordinator at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and as Honorary Visiting Professor of Piano at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in China.  

Since being named a recipient of the Classical Fellowship Award from the American Pianists Association, he has performed throughout the world with recent festival performances at the Lincoln Center Arts Festival, ProPiano (Greece), Rivello (Italy), Shanghai New Music Festival (China) and the Carthage International Festival (Tunisia) among others. He has been a soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, Beirut National Orchestra, Seattle Chamber Orchestra and was the featured soloist with the Oberlin Orchestra’s groundbreaking tour of China. 

He has twice served as a Cultural Ambassador on behalf of the United States Department of State traveling to the Middle East and North Africa promoting diplomacy through artistic collaboration. In 2022, He was named a Senior Fulbright Scholar to Taiwan where he served as artist-in-residence at Tunghai University in Taichung. In recent seasons he has toured some of the most monumental works in the piano repertoire including Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata, J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus.

In addition to his performance career, he is also a celebrated artist-teacher. He has been presented in residencies and master classes at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions including the Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin, Xi’an, Xinghai, and Zhejiang conservatories as well as the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, New York University and Princeton University.   He currently serves as a summer faculty member at the ​soundSCAPE Festival (Switzerland) and at the Amalfi Coast Festival (Italy). 

He studied with Robert Shannon at the Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.) and at the Eastman School of Music (M.M. and D.M.A.) where He studied with and was teaching assistant to Nelita True. On behalf of the Presser Foundation for Music, he worked with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen in Paris as one of her last students. 

 In 2023, Rosenkranz was awarded the Kauffman Excellence in Research/Creative Activity Award from the UMKC Conservatory in recognition of his artistic achievements in the field of music. 

Arlene Shrut, is a collaborative pianist with a flair for the visionary: combining tradition with transformation.  This two-fold passion guided Arlene to become Founder and Artistic Director of New Triad for Collaborative Arts, a 501C3 non-profit educational and arts service organization dedicated to providing classically-trained musicians with professional presentation skills that lead to more accessible concerts.  New Triad's innovative interdisciplinary training helps artists dramatically increase both the expressiveness and visual impact of their performances.

Dr. Shrut is a Senior Coach at the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts of The Juilliard School as well as a Vocal-Piano Recital Faculty Coach at the Manhattan School of Music.  An admired keyboard performer hailed as a "strong and sensitive pianist" by The New York Times, Arlene has performed in major venues in America, Canada and Europe, and recorded for Dorian, Albany, Summit, Centaur and Orion labels.  Arlene also launched The National Association of Accompanists and Coaches and taught on the faculties of Syracuse University and Mannes College.  During the summer of 2009, her teaching and performing was featured at Vancouver International Song Institute, Operafest on Martha's Vineyard and Resonanz Festival.  In the summer of 2010, she also joined the Atlantic Music Festival faculty and guested at Songfest in Malibu.

Arlene's ongoing activities in the operatic realm include serving as official pianist for international competitions sponsored by The Loren Zachary Society, The Gerda Lissner Foundation, The Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation and the Giulio Gari Foundation. She was coach/pianist for Arizona Opera's last complete Ring cycle and has performed in many gala concerts sponsored by the America Wagner Society. Arlene was a member of the coaching staff at the Aspen Opera Theater Center for fourteen summers, where she taught seminars on Mozart and German opera. Arlene was honored in 2003 as inaugural "Coach of the Year" by Classical Singer Magazine.

Logan Skelton is a much sought after pianist, teacher, and composer whose work has received international critical acclaim. As a performer, Skelton has concertized widely in the United States, Europe, and Asia and has been featured on many public radio and television stations including NPR's Audiophile Audition, Performance Today, All Things Considered, and Morning Edition, as well as on radio in China and national television in Romania. He has recorded numerous discs for Centaur, Albany, Crystal, Blue Griffin, and Naxos Records, the latter on which he performed on two pianos with fellow composer-pianist William Bolcom. A frequent guest at music festivals, Skelton regularly appears in such settings as Gina Bachauer; Amalfi Coast; Gijón; Eastman; Tunghai; Chautauqua Institution; American Romanian; Eastern; New Orleans; Poland International; Indiana University; Hilton Head Island; and the Prague International Piano Masterclasses. He is a popular presenter at music teacher organizations including numerous appearances at MTNA national conventions and EPTA World Piano Conferences, as well as serving as convention artist for state conventions in New York, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, North Carolina, Wyoming, and Iowa. Moreover, he has given countless performances and masterclasses at colleges, conservatories, and conferences throughout the U.S., South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Poland, and Czech Republic. He is a frequent juror for international piano competitions. His Centaur Records compact disc, of all 20th century American solo piano music, is titled American Grab Bag: Piano Music of Our Time. American Record Guide described this as a "fascinating recording," commenting on Skelton's "superb, wonderfully subtle and elegant playing ... Bravo!"

As a composer, Skelton has a special affinity for art song, having composed well over a hundred songs, including numerous song cycles. Critics have noted the close fusion of text and music in Skelton's songs, how words are "... illuminated with brilliance and deep emotional power," American Record Guide. Others have found "... joy-a night unto ecstatic joy... in word and sound-play," Dial M for Musicology. In Fanfare magazine reviews, Skelton as a composer of song has been singled out for his ability to "... plumb the depths of emotion ... these are exquisitely crafted art songs in the American tradition ... we are in the hands of someone who lives and breathes song." His works have been performed throughout the world by a variety of musicians in settings such as Carnegie Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, Tblisi in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, Australia, Sorrento, Italy, as well as numerous cities throughout the United States including Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Tampa, New Orleans, Lincoln, Houston, Detroit, and many others. He composed the required work for the 1993 New Orleans International Piano Competition. His song cycle Anderson Songs: The Islander, was a recipient of the Music Composition Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.

Professor Skelton's principal teachers have included John Murphy, Rebecca Penneys, Lillian Freundlich, and Artur Balsam. A devoted teacher himself, his own piano students have repeatedly won awards in many national and international competitions including Hilton Head; San Antonio; Cincinnati World; Washington; Bartók-Kabalevsky-Prokofieff; Fischoff; Jacob Flier; Iowa; Frinna Awerbuch; Eastman; Crescendo; Dallas Chamber; Missouri Southern; Los Angeles Liszt; Wideman; Concorso Internazionale di Esecuzione Musicale; Schimmel, Liszt-Garrison; Grieg Festival; Del Rosario; Beethoven Sonata; Ithaca; Piano Arts; Heida Hermanns; Dubois; Schmidbauer; Peabody Mason; Janáček; Seattle; Kingsville; New York; Oberlin; Idyllwild; as well as numerous Music Teachers National Association competitions. His former students hold positions of prominence in music schools and conservatories throughout the world. He was honored by the University of Michigan as the recipient of the prestigious Harold Haugh Award for excellence in studio teaching. He has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music, Missouri State University, and is currently professor of Piano and director of Doctoral Studies in Piano Performance at U-M.

Praised for her “thrilling blend of fury and finesse” (San Antonio Express-News) and her “winning combination of passion, imagination, and integrity” (New York Concert Review), pianist YOUNG-AH TAK enjoys a remarkable career that has taken her throughout the United States, Canada, Austria, Germany, Italy, Korea, and Japan. 

Ms. Tak made her New York City debut at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Orchestra.  She has since appeared with numerous orchestras including the Roanoke, Lansing, North Arkansas, Orchestra of Northern New York, Venice, Imperial, Filharmonia Pomorska (Poland), Oltenia Philharmonic (Romania).  In her native South Korea, she has appeared with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Seongnam, Busan, KNN, and Ulsan Philharmonic Orchestras.  Other notable performances by Ms. Tak have taken place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater in Philadelphia, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Jordan Hall in Boston, Columbia University, and Ravinia Festival.  She has also appeared in Korea at major concert halls such as Seoul Arts Center, and at international music festivals in Busan, Seoul and Tongyeong. Her performances have been broadcast on WQXR (NYC), WRTI (Philadelphia), WMFT and LOOP (Chicago), WBJC (Baltimore), WCLV (Cleveland), CKWR (Ontario), and Korea’s KBS and Arte TV.

Active as a chamber musician, Young-Ah Tak is a member of the Marinus Ensemble, and has collaborated with the late violinist Robert Mann, cellist Paul Katz, Bonnie Hampton, the Ma’alot Quintet, and members of The Florestan Trio. Young-Ah Tak has been awarded top prizes in numerous international competitions including: the San Antonio International Piano Competition, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Korea’s Isang Yun International Music Competition, Germany’s Ettlingen International Piano Competition, and Italy’s Valsesia-Musica International Competition.  

Ms. Tak received her training from The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University where she earned her doctorate degree under the tutelage of the legendary pianist Leon Fleisher.  She has also studied with Young Ho Kim, Martin Canin, Yong Hi Moon, Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun.   

Ms. Tak currently serves as an Associate Professor of Piano and Head of the Piano Area at the Crane School of Music of the State University of New York at Potsdam.  She has presented masterclasses at venues such as the Steinway Festival in Seoul, MIT, Temple University, Cal State Fullerton, Yonsei University and Busan National University in Korea.  Young-Ah Tak’s debut recording of Judith Zaimont’s Wizards – Three Magic Masters was released by Albany Records to critical acclaim.  Her recordings are also available from MSR Classics and on Steinway’s Spirio.  Ms.Tak’s CD recording of works by Beethoven was released on the Steinway & Sons Label in 2019 as part of the essential series of Steinway Classics.  Her recording of All-Schubert album on the Steinway & Sons Label is to be released in 2024.  Ms. Tak is a Steinway Artist. [www.youngahtak.com]

 

Xiting Yang is a pianist who fundamentally values expressivity and communication in performance. As an active concert performer, Yang regularly plays a wide variety of music as both soloist and collaborator. She has performed Gala Concerts in Candas, Spain which were praised by La Nueva Espana, singling out her exciting concert of “strength and momentum,” and describing it as a “masterful performance that delighted a big audience.” Other engagements have included performances at Carnegie Hall in New York; Steinway Series in Tampa, Florida; Music at Midday Series in New Orleans, Louisiana; One Voice Music Series in Grosse Pointe, Michigan; Tutunov Series in Ashland, Oregon; Resonance Series in Seattle, Washington; Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, Illinois; Gibson Centre Concert Series in Toronto, Canada. Over the years Yang has claimed top prizes in numerous solo piano competitions including Schumann International Piano Competition-Southern China Division; Chong-Sin International Piano Competition in Singapore; Indianapolis MMC Scholarship Competition; American Protégé Competition; Edward Auer Piano Workshop Concerto Competition; various MTNA competitions; Indiana University Piano Concerto Competition. She received the President’s Professional Engagement prize and the Audience Favorite prize at the Seattle International Piano Competition which includedreturn engagements in Oregon and Washington. Ms. Yang is a frequent adjudicator of competitions including the Seattle International Piano Competition, Claudette Sorel International Piano Competition and the Oakland University Piano Competition.

Aside from her work as a performer and educator, Yang has created an ongoing online video series of piano interviews with prominent pianists and keyboardists, BACKSTAGE: The Life Behind the Music, which has been recognized for its excellence and contribution to the music field. She holds a BM from Indiana University, MM from Rice University, and DMA from the University of Michigan. Her primary teachers include Edward Auer, Robert Roux and Logan Skelton.

A devoted teacher, Dr. Yang has worked with many successful piano students, helping them over time to find their unique artistic voices. Her students have won internationally acclaimed competitions such as the Seattle International Piano Competition Northwest festival competitions; Conero International Competition and SoCal international Piano Competition. She has helped students preparing for college and graduate school auditions and students has gotten into renowned schools such as Manhattan School of Music, Mann She frequently appears as an invited guest artist at prominent music festivals such as the Palmetto International Piano Festival, Atlantic Music Festival as well as serving as Artist Faculty at the Montecito International Music Festival. Yang has served as Visiting Faculty at Loyola University New Orleans and State University of New York Fredonia. She currently holds the position of Teaching Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Arkansas Fayetteville.