Dr. Arkady Aronov
Telephone (212) 749-2802 x7609
Homepage www.arkadyaronov.com
E-mail arkady.aronov@gmail.com
“A pianist of high caliber” (the New York Times), Arkady Aronov was one of the leading musicians in the Soviet Union and a professor at the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory. The most prestigious Russian musical journal, Soviet Music, wrote about him: “Aronov is a universalist. He presents any music with equal clarity, expression, and finality. As a most accomplished pianist, he is a welcome sight on any concert stage and should be ranked among the best pianists of our time.”
Arkady Aronov gained a reputation throughout Russia as an outstanding interpreter of baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary music for the keyboard. He has a vast repertoire, including forty-five complete recital programs and twenty-four piano concerti. In addition to playing over 1,000 recitals and appearing as guest soloist with numerous orchestras and on radio and television throughout Russia's major cities, he presented four historic series of twenty concerts, embracing the music of three centuries, in the Leningrad Concert Hall.
Arkady Aronov premiered many works of leading contemporary Russian composers (Schnittke, Shchedrin, Slonimsky, Tishchenko, and Ustvolskaya, among others) and also introduced some Western compositions to Russia. His performance of Aaron Copland's Sonata received praise for the composer, for whom Aronov gave a special performance in Leningrad.
Dr. Aronov has written numerous scholarly works, including Dynamics, Articulation and Tempi in Beethoven's Piano Compositions, and edited two collections of the concert piano works by the Russian avant-garde. He has also compiled and edited several piano music collections under the title Contemporary Composers for Youth.
In 1977, Arkady Aronov emigrated to the United States, where he has received unanimous critical acclaim for his concert appearances in major concert halls in the United States, as well as in European and Asian countries. He has concertized and given master classes in America (including Yale University, Manhattan School of Music, the Mannes College of Music, and the Longy School of Music), England, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, People's Republic of China (Beijing and Shanghai Conservatories), India, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong.
Arkady Aronov regularly participates in different summer festivals, such as the Batiquitos Music Festival, Taos Ski Valley Music Festival, Meranofest, Bolzano Music Festival, Festival Internazionale di Musica Classica in Tivoli (Italy), Moulin d’Ande, Centre Culturel et Artistique, Schola Cantorum (France), Puigcerda Festival de Música Clásica (Spain), and International Academy of Music (St. Petersburg).
Many of Arkady Aronov’s students have won top prizes at international and national piano competitions and successfully work at prestigious music schools and universities both in United States and abroad.
Dr. Arkady Aronov has been a member of the piano faculties of the Mannes College of Music since 1977 and Manhattan School of Music since 1984.
Mr. Jeffrey Cohen
Telephone (212) 749-2802 x7650
E-mail JCohen-LRobert@earthlink.net
American pianist Jeffrey Cohen continues to draw international attention for the brilliance and artistry of his interpretations. Mr. Cohen has been praised by the New York Times for the “lucidity and poetry” of his playing.
Both as soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Cohen's performances have taken him to three different continents. Recitals have included appearances for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, Bargemusic, the Phillips Collection, Mostly Music Series of Chicago, the St. Lawrence Center, and the National Arts Center of Ottawa. In the summers, Mr. Cohen has been a faculty member or guest artist at major festivals including the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, Waterloo Music Festival, Aria International Summer Academy, Orford Festival, and the Seoul Summer Music Camp. He is currently a faculty member at the Texas Music Festival and the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy.
An active recording artist, Mr. Cohen's debut compact disc, a collection of French chamber music, received critical acclaim in Fanfare magazine. A world premiere recording of works by the French organ composer Jean Hure with Le Groupe de Chambre de Montreal was recently released on Fonovox Disques. Mr. Cohen has also performed for broadcasts on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” the CBC Radio Network, Radio Canada, Radio France and WQXR.
In addition to his concert activities, Mr. Cohen's teaching gifts have established him as a leading piano pedagogue of his generation. His students have won prizes in major competitions, perform in prestigious venues worldwide and enjoy successful careers as teacher/performers. Mr. Cohen has given master classes and workshops at Indiana University, the University of Houston Summer Piano Institute, University of San Jose, Wilfrid Laurier University and throughout Korea and Taiwan.
A native of Tucson, Mr. Cohen studied at Indiana University where he worked with noted pianist Menahem Pressler and received the coveted Battista Memorial Award. He is a past Laureate of the Beethoven Foundation and a prize winner of the Sherman-Clay Steinway Piano Competition. Mr. Cohen is currently a member of the piano and chamber music faculties at the Manhattan School of Music. He resides in Manhattan with his wife, violinist Lucie Robert, and their son Jeremy.
Manhattan School of Music College faculty since 1990.
Mr. Daniel Epstein
Telephone (212) 749-2802 x7725
E-mail daniel.epstein@earthlink.net
Daniel Epstein received international acclaim in 1973, when Eugene Ormandy presented him in a series of performances and an RCA debut recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Since then, he has become recognized as one of the most vital and versatile solo and chamber pianists of his generation, as well as an articulate communicator, sharing musical ideas with audiences beyond the footlights.
Winner of the prestigious Kosciuszko Chopin Award, the National Arts Club Prize, the Prix Alex de Vries in Paris, and the Concert Artists Guild Award—which afforded him his Carnegie Hall debut recital—Epstein was selected for an NEA Recitalist Grant. He appears often as guest soloist with such eminent American orchestras as those of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Detroit, and Rochester. He has given recitals at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the 92nd Street Y as well as in major cities throughout the United States, complemented by master classes and intensive seminars for pianists at colleges and universities. He has also toured in Japan and Europe.
As pianist and founding member of the famed Raphael Trio, for the past 27 years he has performed virtually the entire piano trio repertoire. The trio has appeared regularly in New York’s Carnegie Hall and Town Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna, Paris, Geneva, Budapest, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam, as well as at numerous other musical centers throughout the United States and Europe. In 2001, the Raphael Trio celebrated its 25th anniversary with a performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven trios in New York. The performances were broadcast live on National Public Radio. The trio's recordings of Beethoven, Dvorák, Mendelssohn, and Wolf-Ferrari have received wide critical and public praise. He has collaborated with many renowned string quartets, including the Ying, American, and Talich, and has played with members of the Juilliard and Guarneri quartets as well as with many other distinguished chamber musicians and soloists.
His recordings can be heard on RCA, Sony, Sonar, Nonesuch, Newport Classic, ASV, Unicorn-Kanchana, and EMS labels.
Daniel Epstein is cofounder and director of Music in Ouray, a summer festival, and the Raphael Trio Chamber Music Workshop in Vermont. He is a member of the piano, chamber music, and music history faculties of Manhattan School of Music in New York City.
Manhattan School of Music faculty since 1997.
Mr. Phillip N. Kawin
Telephone (212) 749-2802 x7712
Phillip Kawin has developed a highly individual pedagogical approach that has established him as a much sought-after artist teacher. His concepts have evolved through an eclectic background of training that combines a variety of artistic and esthetic influences. He has created a teaching methodology that presents the principles of technique and musicianship in a detailed analytical approach — an approach which does not ignore the intuitive aspect of music-making.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. Kawin began his piano studies at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he was invited by Jules Gentil to study at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris where he was awarded a diploma with honors. He then studied in New York City with Howard Aibel, who was Rosina Lhevinne's assistant, and later with Dora Zaslavsky at Manhattan School of Music, where he received both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees (Zaslavsky had studied with Backhaus and Bauer). He has coached chamber music with Gary Graffman and Artur Balsam, and was a scholarship student of John Perry at the Aspen School of Music in Colorado.
Phillip Kawin has given performances internationally in Russia, Italy, Australia, and China, and in such U.S. states as Arizona, Connecticut, California, Texas, Missouri, and New York. In New York City, his appearances include a scholarship benefit concert for Manhattan School of Music's Preparatory Division and a performance of Rachmaninov's Suite for Two Pianos at Merkin Concert Hall. For four years, Phillip Kawin was artist-in-residence for the Colly Soleri Music Center in Arcosanti, Arizona where he gave masterclasses, recitals, and lecture demonstrations. Mr. Kawin has been the subject of radio programs in St. Louis, New York, and on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Recent performances have been in Australia, Italy, Russia, and in New York City, which included the Leschetizky Association's 60th Anniversary Gala Concert and a guest performance on David Dubal's "Remembering Rubinstein" program.
In 1989, Mr. Kawin was appointed to the college faculty of Manhattan School of Music where he currently works with a select studio of advanced, gifted pupils. Coming from diverse corners of the globe, the students in Mr. Kawin’s studio over the past 19 years have hailed from Australia, Chile, China, England, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Romania, Russia, Singapore, as well as the United States. They have won top honors in such competitions as the Martha Argerich International, Jacob Flier International, World Piano, Thelonious Monk International (jazz piano), Melilla in Spain, Heida Hermanns, Soulima Stravinsky International, Josef Hofmann, Artists International, Dora Zaslavsky Koch, Mieczyslaw Munz, and Leschetizky competitions.
A student of his has been named the Young Australian of the Year, and two of his students have been selected for the Panasonic Harmony Scholar Award which resulted in concerti performances in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. In 2001, a Kawin pupil was selected as winner of the Young Concert Artists auditions and he had two students admitted (of the 30 selected worldwide) to the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
Phillip Kawin is frequently in demand as a guest master class teacher and adjudicator throughout Asia, Europe, Russia, Australia, and the United States. He has toured Taiwan, giving masterclasses at the National Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaoshiung, the Chinese Culture University, and the Taiwan National Academy of Arts in Taipei, among others. He has given classes in Hong Kong, including one at the Academy for the Performing Arts, and, in the Spring of 2003, toured Korea, teaching master classes at such institutions as the Seoul National University and Kyung Won University. In 1994 and 1995, Mr. Kawin was the only non-Russian pianist to be invited as guest professor at the Moscow Conservatory International Summer School. In addition, for two su
Dr. Solomon Mikowsky B.S.; M.S.; Ed.D., CT
Telephone 212-666-5377
E-mail mikowsky@hotmail.com
Solomon Mikowsky has been praised as being “one of the world’s most sought-after artist teachers” (Clavier) and having “a magical ability to develop his piano students into artists” (Sur Exprès). Featured in Benjamin Saver’s The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA, he has been a member of the piano faculty at Manhattan School of Music for over 30 years and is recipient of the school’s Presidential Medal. He also teaches as an adjunct Associate Professor of Music at Columbia University Teachers College and as a visiting Professor at Chicago College of Performing Arts.
His pupils have won over 100 top prizes in some of the most important international competitions, including the Gilmore Artist Award and first prizes in the Rubinstein (Tel-Aviv), Santander, Beethoven (Bonn), Iturbi (Valencia), Maria Canals (Barcelona), Jaén, Andorra, Panama and New Orleans, and other top prizes in the Tchaikovsky, Dublin, Sviatoslav Richter (Moscow), Vianna da Motta (Lisbon), Porto, Pilar Bayona (Zaragoza), Villa del Mar (Chile), Cleveland, Montreal and E-Competition (Minneapolis).
They have performed as soloists with the Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Omaha, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Bamberg, Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Cologne, Frankfurt, Frieburg, Halle, Jerusalem, Liverpool, Munich, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tenerife, Turin and Vancouver symphony orchestras; the BBC, Berlin, Brno, Dresden, Las Palmas, London (Royal), Milan’s La Scala, Moscow, New York, Prague, Rotterdam, and Israel philharmonic orchestras; the Zürich Tonhalle; the Dresden Staatskappelle Orchestra and the national orchestras of Finland, France, Mexico and the Czech Republic, with such noted conductors as Comissiona, Dutoit, Ehrling, Eschenbach, Fischer, Frübeck de Burgos, Gielen, Graf, Herbig, Macal, Masur, Semkow, Skrowaczewski and Zinman.
Solomon Mikowsky was born in Cuba of Russian-Polish parentage. His early training was with César Pérez Sentenat, who had studied in Madrid with Cubiles and in Paris with Joaquín Nin, a pupil of Moszkowski, himself a pupil of Liszt. He was later granted scholarships by the Cuban government and the Juilliard School to continue his studies in New York with Sascha Gorodnitzki, the foremost pupil of the legendary Russian virtuoso Josef Lhevinne, receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard and a doctorate from Columbia University.
Mikowsky is regularly invited to serve on the juries of some of the most important international piano competitions. He has given master classes at the leading conservatories in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Salzburg, London, Paris, Rotterdam, Madrid, Valencia, Istanbul, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, and throughout Australia and the Far East. A Steinway Artist, he has performed in the past in Latin America, the Far East, and the United States and participated in festivals in France, Italy, Spain, Korea and Taiwan. During the summers, he directs his International Piano Festivals which consist of three piano courses in Torrelodones (Spain), Paris, and Leipzig, and the participation of his piano students as performers in more than 20 recitals.
Mikowsky has published a book on nineteenth-century music, has contributed to Américas, the Organization of American States journal and has been featured in interviews in leading professional magazines such as Clavier (USA), Chopin (Japan), Piano Artistry (China), Sur Exprès (Spain) and Musica di Pianoforte (Korea). His former academic positions have been as a member of the faculties at New York University, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and The Juilliard School. In recognition of his pedagogical contribution, Solomon Mikowsky has been awarded the Cintas Prize by the United Nations Institute of International Education.
Manhattan School of Music faculty since 1974.
Dr. Joanne Polk
Telephone 212-749-2802 x4481
E-mail jpolk@msmnyc.edu
Pianist Joanne Polk has been catapulted into the public eye with her recordings of the complete piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944). Ms. Polk celebrated the centennial of Beach’s Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor by giving the work its London premiere with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Center under the baton of Paul Goodwin. A few days later, Ms. Polk performed the Piano Concerto with the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco with conductor Apo Hsu in a performance described as “brilliant” by critic Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle. He went on to describe Ms. Polk’s performance as, “an enormously vital, imaginative reading. Her playing was expansive in the opening movement, brittle and keen in the delightful scherzo. She brought a light touch to the foreshortened slow movement and fearless technical penache to the showy conclusion.”
The first recording in the Beach series, by the still waters, received the 1998 INDIE award for best solo recording. Empress of Night, released on Arabesque Recordings, is the fifth volume of Ms. Polk’s ongoing survey of Beach’s piano works, and includes the Piano Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul Goodwin conducting. The sixth volume of the series, Morning Glories, joins Ms. Polk with the Lark Quartet in three outstanding chamber music works by Amy Beach. Two all-Beach performances at Merkin Concert Hall, which featured Joanne Polk and the Lark Quartet, were applauded by the New York Times, as they deemed Polk’s performances “polished and assured.” The American Record Guide reported, “Polk and the Larks played their hearts out. We in the audience shouted ourselves hoarse with gratitude.”
Prior to recording the complete piano music of Amy Beach, Ms. Polk recorded Completely Clara: Lieder by Clara Wieck Schumann, her debut CD for Arabesque Recording, featuring Metropolitan Opera soprano Korliss Uecker. This CD was selected as a “Best of the Year” recording by The Seattle Times and was featured on Performance Today on New York Public Radio. Ms. Polk’s CD for Albany Records, Callisto, was released in January 2004 and features the solo piano music of Judith Lang Zaimont. Her latest CD, Songs of Amy Beach, recorded with baritone Patrick Mason for Bridge Records, was nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award.
Ms. Polk has performed in solo recitals, with chamber ensembles, and as a soloist with orchestras in Europe, the United States and Australia. With composer Judith Lang Zaimont, she co-founded American Accent, a New York-based contemporary music group specializing in coveted, repeat performances of new works.
Ms. Polk received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees from The Juilliard School, and her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Manhattan School of Music. She has given master classes at the Summit Music Festival, New York Summer Music Festival, and at the University of Minnesota, and has joined the piano faculty of the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy. She is presently the Dean of the Precollege Division at Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Polk is an exclusive Steinway artist.
Mr. Andre-Michel Schub
Pianist Andre-Michel Schub has been described by the New York Times as “pianistically flawless…a formidable pianist with a fierce integrity.” He has repeatedly performed with the world’s most prestigious orchestras, among them the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, the Detroit Symphony, the Royal Concertgebouw, and the Bournemouth Symphony.
Since 1997 he has been music director of the Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Music series, planning its chamber music programming and performing on a number of programs each year. He is currently an artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Schub was the 1981 grand prize winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the 1977 recipient of the Avery Fisher Recital Award, and 1974 winner of the Naumberg International Piano Competition.
Born in France, Mr. Schub came to the United States with his family when he was eight months old and New York City has been home ever since. He began his piano studies with his mother when he was four and later continued his work with Jascha Zayde. Mr. Schub first attended Princeton University and then transferred to the Curtis Institute, where he studied with Rudolf Serkin from 1970 to 1973. Andre-Michel Schub’s recordings, for Vox Cum Laude, Piano Disc and CBS Masterworks (now SONY Classical), include works of Beethoven, Brahms, and Liszt, as well as an all-Stravinsky album with Cho-Liang Lin.
Manhattan School of Music College faculty member since 2006.
Dr. Marc Silverman Chair of Piano Department
Telephone (212) 749-2802 x4560
E-mail msilverman@msmnyc.edu
“Exceptional authority and impeccable taste” was the description in the New York Times for the playing of pianist Marc Silverman. His “richly colored sonorities” and “thrilling surges of power” have prompted critics to compare him to the legendary Josef Hofmann. Dr. Silverman has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and chamber musician. Among his appearances were six recitals at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and seven performances in Carnegie Recital Hall. He has toured Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, performing televised concerts, conducting master classes for piano soloists and chamber musicians, and presenting lecture-demonstrations on the traditions of romantic pianism and interpretation.
Dr. Silverman has been chairman of the piano department at Manhattan School of Music since 1989 and has coordinated piano chamber music at the school since 1985. He has taught students from over thirty countries and from every continent, and his students have been the recipients of numerous international awards and honors.
In 1983, Marc Silverman founded the Carnegie Trio with two other soloists. In addition to their international touring and residences at summer festivals, they have recorded works by Beethoven, Brahms, and Ravel. As a soloist, Dr. Silverman has recorded twentieth-century works in RCA’s Studio A for international release. He is an award winner of the Kapell International Competition, the Gina Bachauer Competition and the Kosciusko Foundation Competition. He is quoted frequently in publications, including Chamber Music America, Piano and Keyboard Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Korean monthly Eumagchoonchu. In September 1999, he was named international consultant to the Nanyang Academy, Singapore’s flagship international arts institution.
Manhattan School of Music College faculty since 1981.
Ms. Nina Svetlanova
Telephone (212) 967-2141
E-mail Huhas@aol.com
Education: Graduate, Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, Moscow.
Piano Studies: Heinrich Neuhaus
Performances: Europe; Far East; Australia; North America; Russia.
Festivals and Master Classes:
Vienna, Salzburg, London, Bath, Weimar, Mannheim, Karsruhe (Germany); Marienbad (Czech Republic); Kuhmo, Vasa, Suolahti (Finland); Barcelona, Girona, Lerida, Salamanca (Spain); Newport Festival, Shandelee Music Festival (United States); Israel; Thailand; Korea; The Philippines.
Adjudicator at Major International Competitions:
New York Chopin Competition, World Piano Competition in Cincinnati; International Competition for Young Musicians in Corpus Christi, Texas; Ricardo Vinyes Piano Competition, Spain; Montsalvatge Competition of Contemporary Music, Spain; Korea.
Horacio Gutiérrez
Considered one of the great pianists of our time, Horacio Gutiérrez is consistently praised by critics and audiences alike for the poetic insight and technical mastery he brings to a diverse repertoire. Born in Havana, Cuba, his professional debut was in 1970 with Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Since then, Mr. Gutiérrez has appeared regularly with the world’s greatest orchestras (including all the major London orchestras, U.S. orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra), and on its major recital series.
Mr. Gutiérrez has given recitals in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, as well as in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Cleveland. Mr. Gutiérrez has performed with orchestras on numerous occasions at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall, including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Orchestre National de France, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Dresden Staatskappele. He was a frequent soloist at the Mostly Mozart Festival, appearing on its season-opening Live from Lincoln Center telecast. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Guarneri, Tokyo, and Cleveland quartets, as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 1982, he was the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize.
Mr. Gutiérrez is an advocate of contemporary American composers. Of special importance were his performances of William Schuman’s Piano Concerto in honor of the composer’s 75th birthday at New York’s 92nd Street Y, and of André Previn’s Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic with Mr. Previn conducting. On his recital programs, he frequently included George Perle’s Phantasyplay and a set of Nine Bagatelles that Mr. Perle dedicated to him.
Mr. Gutiérrez’s Telarc recordings include Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerti Nos. 2 and 3 with Lorin Maazel and the Pittsburgh Symphony, nominated for a Grammy Award. Also available on that label are separate discs of the two Brahms Concerti with André Previn and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with David Zinman and the Baltimore Symphony. For the Chandos label, he has recorded Prokofiev’s Concerti Nos. 2 and 3 with Neeme Järvi and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. His recording, George Perle: A Retrospective, was named one of the ten best recordings of 2006 by The New Yorker. His television performances in Great Britain, the United States, and France were widely acclaimed and he won an Emmy Award for his fourth appearance with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A great film and theater fan, he has performed in recital with Irene Worth and Mariette Hartley. Mr. Gutiérrez is an American citizen and resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Patricia Asher.
Alexandre Moutouzkine
The Dallas Morning News wrote of a performance by Russian-American pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine that he “played Brahms’ Op. 117 Intermezzi more beautifully, more movingly, than I’ve ever heard them. At once sad, tender and noble, this was playing of heart-stopping intimacy and elegance.” Mr. Moutouzkine has toured throughout Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Italy, and North and South America, as well as in China and Japan. In recent seasons, he has appeared as soloist with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Television Orchestra of Spain, Cleveland Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Valencia Philharmonic, the Gran Canaria and Tenerife symphonies in the Canary Islands, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Panama, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Cuba, the Israel Philharmonic, and the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra of the Czech Republic. International Piano magazine hailed his recital in London’s Wigmore Hall as “grandly organic” and “technically dazzling.” His performance of the Chopin Études in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory was recorded live and released on the Classical Music Archives label in Russia.
Mr. Moutouzkine claimed top prizes at the Walter W. Naumburg, New Orleans, Cleveland, Montreal, Iturbi (Valencia), and Arthur Rubinstein international competitions, among others, and was a winner of Astral Artists’ 2009 National Auditions. The Philadelphia Inquirer said of his Philadelphia recital debut under Astral’s auspices that his is “a career that will matter.”
Recent highlights include debuts at the Great Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic in Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Symphoniker, a chamber music concert in Lincoln Center’s Kaplan Penthouse with the Jasper String Quartet, an appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra on its Beyond the Score series, performances of complete solo works of Serge Rachmaninoff on the Carnegie Room series in New York, and recitals throughout Asia, including appearances in the Beijing Concert Hall and Japan’s Yokohama Hall. The Greenwich Citizen claimed of his recent debut with the Greenwich Symphony in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 that Mr. Moutouzkine is “poised to join the pantheon of greats...outperforming even the composer himself.” Following the success of a performance of his own solo piano transcription of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, performed live alongside specially commissioned animation entitled “Who Stole the Mona Lisa?” at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, he made his New York premiere of the work at the 92 Street Y concert series and the Merkin Concert Hall in the 2014–15 season.
Alexandre Moutouzkine holds undergraduate degrees from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover and Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Music Academy and a Master’s degree and postgraduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky. He received a 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award from MSM and joined its faculty in September 2013.
Inesa Sinkevych
A laureate of the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Ukrainian-born pianist Inesa Sinkevych has also won first prizes in the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona and at the Concurso Internacional de Piano Premio “Jaén” in Spain, as well as awards in the Minnesota International Yamaha Piano-e-Competition, the Vianna da Motta and the Porto international competitions in Portugal, the Casagrande International Competition in Italy, the Panama International Competition, and the Cidade del Ferrol and the Spanish Composers competitions in Spain.
Inesa Sinkevych has been praised for her “intense, thrilling and sophisticated playing” (General-Anzeiger, Germany), “grand passion and elegant lyricism” (Audiophile Audition), “rich cantabile” (Ritmo, Spain), and “maturity that belies her age,” and called a “Schubertian of real distinction” (Music Web International). As soloist she has appeared with the Israel Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Gulbenkian Orchestra of Lisbon, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic of Spain, the Porto Symphony of Portugal, and the Tenerife Symphony of the Canary Islands. She has performed as recitalist, chamber player, and orchestral soloist at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, the Purcell Room in London’s Royal Festival Hall, Minnesota Orchestra Hall, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Hong Kong City Hall and the Great Hall of the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon. She has also performed at international summer festivals in France, Spain, Italy, and Cuba. Recent performances include appearances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York; Bar Harbor Music Festival; Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago; a tour of China that included performances in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenyang, and Guangzhou; and as soloist with the Orquesta Nacional del Cuba.
Inesa Sinkevych began her piano studies at the Kharkov Special Music School in her native Ukraine with Victor Makarov and later studied with Alexander Volkov at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. A scholarship from the America–Israel Cultural Foundation enabled her to further her studies with Solomon Mikowsky in the United States, where she received her Master of Music degree at the Chicago College of Performing Arts and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Sinkevych has been a member of the piano faculty of Manhattan School of Music’s College Division since 2014 and Precollege Division since 2008.
