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Pianist / Sergei Babayan
Acclaimed for the immediacy, sensitivity and depth of his
interpretations,
Sergei Babayan's performances reveal an emotional intensity
and bold energy,
equipping him to explore stylistically diverse repertoire.
He is known for his innovative rogramming,
often including modern works by composers such as Lutoslawsky,
Ligeti and Arvo Part, and extending the boundaries of mainstream
repertoire for which he continues to be acclaimed, excelling
in Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann as much as the Russian
heritage of Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Prokofiev. His philosophy
that a recital should reveal a spiritual dimension, results
in playing which sustains an intensity which never fails to
captivate.
His performances of J S Bach, have always gained him both
public and critical acclaim,
and he firmly believes that the natural evolution of the keyboard
instrument has led to today's modern piano which allows the
music to be fully expressed in this modern incarnation.
A student of such legendary teachers and musicians as Gornostayeva,
Naumov,
Pletnev and Vlasenko in the Moscow Conservatory, he was, however,
not permitted to leave the country and be free to compete
and study in the West.
He was the first pianist from the former USSR who was able
to compete without government sponsorship after the collapse
of the system.
Immediately after his first trip outside of the USSR, he won
consecutive first prizes in several major international competitions
including the -Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition
(formerly the Cleveland International Piano Competition) (1990)
-The Palm Beach International Piano Competition (1990), -The
Hamamatsu Piano Competition (1991) -The Scottish International
Piano Competition (1992 ). He is also a Laureate of the Queen
Elizabeth International Piano Competition, the Busoni International
Piano Competition, and the Esther Honens International Competition
in Calgary, Canada. Since that time he has had major engagements
and concert tours throughout Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Australia,
South Africa, South America and the USA.
His New York recitals at Carnegie Hall and
Alice Tully Hall, performances with the Cleveland Orchestra,
Baltimore Symphony, and Detroit Symphony met with huge critical
acclaim,
as have his many subsequent recital and concerto performances
throughout all the major cities
in the US. His concert schedule has included performances
and broadcasts throughout major European cities and extensive
tours of Japan. He appeared with recitals in such important
venues as Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie
Hall in New York, the Warsaw Philharmonic, Severance Hall
in Cleveland, Bolshoy Zal of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory,
and countless others.
In recent seasons he performed recitals
in New York City, London, Hannover, Manchester, Bruxelles,
Glasgow, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, Grenoble, Tours, Warsaw,
Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago,
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Seattle, Atlanta, Miami,
and New Orleans..
Sergei Babayan appeared in numerous major
music festivals in France, Germany, UK, Poland, Spain, and
the US. His concerts have been broadcast by WQXR, WCLV, Radio
France,
Polish Radio and Television, BBC-TV and NHK Satellite Television.
He has made several highly praised recordings for EMC, Connoisseur
Society and Pro Piano labels. His recordings of Scarlatti,
Ligeti, Messiaen, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Ravel, Schubert, Liszt,
Vine, Respighi and Prokofiev garnered high acclaims including
a ¡°critic's choice¡± in the New York Times praising Babayan¡¯s
¡°extraordinary technique and ability to play densely harmonized
works with illuminating transparency and a daunting measure
of control¡±. American Record Guide joins in these accolades
praising his ¡°phenomenal level of color and imagination¡±.
About the recording of Scarlatti Sonatas American Guide says:
¡°It can stand proudly besides that of Horowitz...¡±
Mr. Babayan has appeared with many major
orchestras throughout the world including the Cleveland Orchestra,
the Warsaw Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra,
the Orchestre Nationale de Lille, and New World Symphony.
His performances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra were received with great enthusiasm
by audiences and critics alike. He has collaborated with such
conductors as Yuri Temirkanov, Neeme Jarvi, Hans Graf, David
Robertson, Kazimierz Kord and Michael Christi, and his concerto
repertoire is constantly growing - at this point he has 51
concertos which have been performed.
His unusual and imaginative recital programming
has always elicited interest and praise. Mr. Babayan is an
enthusiastic advocate of new music and has an immense repertoire.
Sergei Babayan¡¯s deep interest and love
for the music of Bach has led him to study more recently with
Helmuth Rilling. Always in search of the new, Sergei Babayan
studied conducting in order to deepen his understanding of
the orchestra, to be able to study and perform some of the
music of the 20th century which is particularly interesting
for him, as well as to conduct piano and orchestra repertoire
from the keyboard. In this role, he already has performed
music of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schnittke, Part, Vasks, Schedrin,
and Prokofiev.
In May of 2006 Sergei Babayan was invited
by Valery Gergiev to perform Lutoslawsky piano concerto in
the XIV International Festival ¡°Stars of the White Nights¡±
in St. Petersburg with the orchestra of Mariinsky Theatre.
Performance was highly praised in major Russian publications
and met with great enthusiasm by the audience. He has recently
invited by Gergiev to
perform Prokofiev ¡®s 3rd piano concerto in his Easter Festival,
and will return to London in 2010 to perform at the Barbican
with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of
Gergiev.
Other recent highlights include the Prague Spring Festival
with the Janacek Chember Orchestra
and an acclaimed recital at the 92nd Y in New York. |
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Pianiat / HaeSun Paik (Artistic Director)
HaeSun Paik has performed throughout the globe following her
triumphs at major international piano competitions, including
top prizes at the William Kapell (U.S.A., 1989), the Leeds
(England, 1990), the Queen Elisabeth (Belgium, 1991), and
the Tchaikovsky (Russia, 1994) International Piano Competitions.
Ms. Paik has appeared with many of the world's leading orchestras,
including the Boston Symphony, National Symphony, London Symphony,
Munich Philharmonic, Radio France Philharmonic, NHK Symphony,
Tokyo Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony, Warsaw
Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic and Russian National Orchestra
among others.
In addition to concerto performances, she has appeared frequently
as a recitalist in the U.S.
at such venues as New York's Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center,
the Kennedy Center in
Washington D.C., Jordan Hall in Boston and in various major
concert halls around the world.
Miss Paik has also collaborated with many distinguished artists
in concerts including
Mikhail Pletnev, Mischa Maisky and Myung Whun Chung.
She has continuously appeared in music festivals throughout
the United States and abroad, including the Beethoven Festival
in Munich (Germany), Radio France Festival in Montpellier
(France), Courchevel Music Festival (France), Beijng International
Music Festival & Academy (China), Agassiz Music Festival
(Canada), IKIF in New York, Piano Summer in SUNY-New Paltz
and Busan Music Festival in Korea.
Ms. Paik is also one of the most influential
pedagogues in Korea. She was the youngest pianist to be appointed
as a music professor at Seoul National University. After teaching
at the university for 10 years, she decided to leave her position
to devote more of her time to numerous performance engagements
and broaden her musical horizons. Currently, she gives master
classes at institutions worldwide and teaches at many international
music festivals. She has also served as a juror at the Bosendorfer
International Competition in Arizona. Ms. Paik divides her
time between the U.S. and Korea, where she is the artistic
director of the Busan Music Festival.
Ms. Paik records exclusively for EMI Korea.
Her first recording was released internationally by EMI on
the Debut Series and has received much critical acclaim. Her
fourth recording entitled 'Best of HaeSun Paik' was just released
in late 2009. Recently,
Ms. Paik recorded the complete works by
Beethoven for Cello and Piano with cellist Laurence Lesser.
This will be released by Bridge Records in 2010.
HaeSun Paik began her musical studies in
her native Korea. At 14, she came to the U.S. to study music
at Walnut Hill School for Performing Arts in Boston and subsequently
graduated from New England Conservatory; where she was a student
of Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun. She was also invited
by the prestigious International Piano Foundation in Lake
Como (Italy) where she worked with many renowned international
artists. |
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Pianist / Soo-Jung Shin
SOO-JUNG SHIN received her musical training at the Seoul National
University, the Vienna Academy of Music and the Peabody Conservatory
of Music. Her teachers include Chung Jin-Woo, Josef Dichler,
Leon Fleisher, Wilhelm Kempff and Maria Curzio Diamond. She
won many prizes in music competitions including the Dong-A
National Competition in Korea, the Elena Rombro Stepanow Competition
in Vienna, etc. She was also awarded the Korean Academy of
Arts Award and honored with the Order of Ok-Kwan Culture Medal.
She has performed with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic,
Tokyo Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, KBS and NHK Symphony
under the batons of Lim Won-Shik, Leon Fleisher, Wolfgang
Sawallisch, Yuzo Toyama, Sir John Pritchard, Asahina Takashi,
Iwaki Hiroyuki and others. She appeared with the world famous
performers such as Ruggiero Ricci, Nicolai Gedda, Janos Starker,
Chung Kyung Wha and others.
She has served on the juries of many prestigious competitions
including the ARD, Dong-A, Tokyo, Koln, UNISA, Dublin, Hamamatsu,
Sendai and other international music competitions.
SHIN has taught at the Seoul National University, the Seoul
School of Arts, and the Kyung Won University. She served as
Dean of the School of Music for 8 years at Kyung Won University.
In 2000 she returned to the Seoul National University where
she started her teaching career in 1969 as the youngest faculty
member at its College of Music. She became the first woman
dean of the College in 2005 until her retirement in 2007.
After her retirement, she is busy with chamber music, master
classes and other musical activities. She is Director of Mozart
Concert Hall and Chairperson of the GMMFS(Great Mountain Music
Festival & School ) Committee.
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Pianist / Hyoung-Joon Chang
Since his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the
age 16 playing Mendelssohn¡¯s 2nd Piano Concerto, Korean born
pianist, Hyoung-Joon Chang has worked with eminent conductors
including Walter Hendl, Tadaaki Otaka,
Thomas Sanderling and Paul Freeman. Chang has collaborated with
world-renowned orchestras such as the London Philharmonic at
the Barbican Centre, the Tokyo Philharmonic at the Tokyo Culture
Center, the Symphony Orchestra of Russia, the Czech National
Symphony, the Osaka Symphony at the Osaka Symphony Hall, the
Victoria Symphony, and the Chautauqua Symphony during its summer
music festival. Chang was the soloist for the Korean premiere
of ¡°Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra¡± by Vaughn Williams
and the ¡°Rainy Day for the Piano and the Orchestra¡± by Kang-Yul
Lee, the latter winning the 2004 Art Award of the Year in Korea.
In addition, Chang has given acclaimed solo recitals on international
stages in Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Korea.
Chang received his doctoral degree from the Manhattan School
of Music where he studied with legendary American pianists Earl
Wild and Constance Keene. He has also played often for the late
Abram Chasins. He has been a jury member of Shanghai, Serbia
and Anton Rubinstein International Piano Competition and is
invited to serve as a jury member of ¡°The Top of the World International
Piano Competition¡± in Tromso,Norway, the Cleveland International
Piano Competition in 2011 and Dublin International Piano Competition
in 2012.
He has taught master classes at leading schools around the world,
including the Eastman School of Music, Manhattan School of Music,
Shanghai Conservatory, Royal College of Music, Royal Scottish
Academy, Dresden and Mannheim Hochschule. He has been a Professor
of Piano at Seoul National University since 1995. An active
and popular recording artist, Chang has recorded diverse piano
concertos of Mozart, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin and Schnittke
with labels such as Pro Arte, Warner Music and Genuin.
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