Chairman of the jury
Eugène Traey
Belgium, °1915 - 2006
Count Eugène Traey (1915-2006) was born in Amsterdam of Belgian parents and studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, where his piano teacher was Emmanuel Durlet. He went on to study in Paris under Robert Casadesus and in Germany under Karl Leimer and Walter Gieseking. After this international training as a pianist, Eugène Traey pursued a career both as a concert performer and a teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, of which he was the director until 1980. He gave recitals, performed with orchestras and took part in chamber music recitals with Arthur Grumiaux and Jean Laurent, as well as performing piano duos with Frédéric Gevers. He was the founder of the deSingel concert hall in Antwerp and was a regular member of juries at international competitions (Moscow, Warsaw, Munich and Tokyo, among others). From 1982 until 1995 Eugène Traey presided over the jury of the Queen Elisabeth Competition.
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John Browning
United States of America, °1933 - 2003
In the tradition of the great Romantic pianists, John Browning (1933-2003) earned a distinguished reputation for his exceptional interpretive gifts, technical mastery of keyboard color and sonority, and deep commitment to music. He was considered one of the most important and extraordinarily compelling virtuoso performers of his time. He was an American luminary of musical greatness, impressing audiences and critics with his passion, integrity, and probing musical imagination in an extensive repertoire that ranges from Bach and Scarlatti to 20th-century composers.
His highly acclaimed recordings, which garnered three Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards, along with a number of significant compositions that were written for and expressly dedicated to him by renowned composers, further illustrate the superlative breath of his artistic scope.

Since his triumphant debut in 1956 with the New York Philharmonic, John Browning appeared in virtually every music capital of the world, amassing accolades for his solo recitals, concerto appearances and recordings. He performed and recorded a broad spectrum of works spanning three centuries from Mozart to the grand virtuoso masterpieces of Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Tchaikovsky -- including 43 concertos. In addition to championing the works of Samuel Barber, with whom he had long been associated, he premiered and recorded works by the contemporary American composer, Richard Cumming.

John Browning concertized regularly in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, South America, New Zealand, and Australia, and toured the Soviet Union on four occasions. In North America, he appeared regularly with the symphonies of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Toronto, and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Performances abroad with European orchestras included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, London Philharmonic, London and Scottish National Symphony Orchestras, and most recently, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic with Andrew Davis.

He collaborated with Leonard Slatkin at both the Wolf Trap and Blossom Music Festivals, Pinchas Zukerman at the Ravinia Festival, the Tokyo String Quartet at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, and Robert Spano and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. He was also a favorite at other American music festivals and was frequently heard at the Hollywood Bowl, Caramoor International, Grant Park, Saratoga, Newport, Rockport, Seattle International, St. Charles Art & Music, Minnesota Orchestra Summerfest, and the Peninsula Music Festival.

Born in Denver, Colorado, in 1933 to a violinist father and a pianist mother, John Browning began piano studies at age five and gave his first public appearance as soloist with the Denver Symphony at age ten. He subsequently moved to New York City to pursue his musical studies on scholarship with Rosina Lhevinne at The Juilliard School. He rapidly gained prominence by winning the Steinway Centennial Award in 1954, the Leventritt Competition in 1955, and placing second the following year in the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Widespread attention continued when he made his professional orchestral debut in 1956 in a critically acclaimed performance with the New York Philharmonic and Dimitri Mitropoulos, which not only launched his career internationally, but also inspired Samuel Barber to write a piano concerto for him.

Six years later, in 1962, John Browning was chosen to give the world-premiere of Samuel Barber's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony at the inaugural celebration of New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Written especially for John Browning, the piece was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and has since become the most frequently performed American piano concerto in the past half-century -- no other has been so firmly ensconced in the literature. He first recorded the work in 1964 with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra for the CBS Masterworks label. A new recording with Leonard Slatkin conducting the St. Louis Symphony was released in 1991 by BMG Classics/RCA Victor Red Seal. This earned him his first Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Soloist With Orchestra" and a Grammy nomination for "Best Classical Album."

John Browning also recorded for MusicMasters, and a disc of the complete Barber solo piano repertoire, released in 1993, earned him a second Grammy Award for "Best Classical Instrumental Soloist Without Orchestra." Additional releases for that label included an all-Scarlatti disc in 1994, followed by a recording of two Mozart Concerti with the Orchestra of St. Luke's and Julius Rudel the next year, and a recording of the Brahms Piano Quintet and Horn Trio with John Browning and members of the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble.

In 1994, Deutsche Grammophone released John Browning's recording of the complete Barber songs with soprano Cheryl Studer and baritone Thomas Hampson. A highly acclaimed recording of the Beethoven "Triple" Concerto with violinist Pinchas Zukerman, cellist Ralph Kirshbaum, and Christoph Eschenbach conducting the London Symphony Orchestra was released in 1998 by BMG Classics/RCA Victor Red Seal. Additional listings in John Browning's discography include three recordings on the Delos label devoted to the music of Liszt, Mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff. He can also be heard on the Capital, RCA, Phoenix and Seraphim labels, which include the complete Chopin Etudes, all five of the Prokofiev piano concerti, and the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. Recordings of Richard Cumming's Twenty-Four Preludes and Silhouettes, written for and dedicated to John Browning, were released on the CRI label.
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Rudolf Firkusny
United States of America, °1912 - 1994
Rudolf Firkusny studied both piano and composition with Janacek; from 1920 to 1927, at the Brno Conservatory with Ruzena Kurzova; and at the Prague Conservatory with Vilem Kurz and Rudolf Karel. From 1929-1930, he also studied composition with Suk. He made his debut in Prague in 1922 and pursued an active career in Eastern Europe until 1933, when he first played in England, and 1938, when he made his United States debut. His compositions include a piano concerto, premiered in 1930, a string quartet, and various piano pieces and songs.

After his American debut, Rudolf Firkusny established an international career as a pianist, later teaching at the Juilliard School and the Aspen School of Music. Although best known for the standard nineteenth century repertory, he was also known for his chamber performances and his championing of both contemporary and lesser known works. He gave premieres of works by Menotti, Barber, Ginastera, Hanson, and Martinu, among others, and championed the works of Dvorak and Janacek in particular.
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Leon Fleisher
United States of America, °1928 - 2020
Leon Fleisher, whose career as an acclaimed US concert pianist continued despite losing the use of his right hand, has died aged 92 in Baltimore on 2 August 2020.

Born to eastern European Jewish immigrants in San Francisco in 1928, Fleisher was a child prodigy who, aged four, would repeat the piano phrases his older brother had been learning, without teaching. He played his first public concert aged eight, and began being taught by star pianist Artur Schnabel the following year. He made his debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, at the city’s Carnegie Hall, when he was 16.

As a young man, he signed a contract with Columbia Masterworks, and earned acclaim for his performances of piano concertos by Brahms, Liszt and Beethoven, with conductors including Leonard Bernstein and George Szell.

By 1949, however, though he had played with many of the major American orchestras and had given recitals across the country, engagements began to dry up for Mr. Fleisher. The next year he moved to Paris and remained in Europe until 1958, relocating first to the Netherlands and then to Italy.

As an expatriate, Mr. Fleisher became the first American to win the gold medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, in 1952. The victory led to a long list of engagements in Europe and revived interest in him among American orchestras, managers and concert promoters.

He developed a condition called focal dystonia, which he later attributed to over-practising, that led to numbness in his right hand and two of his fingers curling inward. Aged 36, he could no longer play with both hands, causing him a “deep funk and despair”, he later said.

After two years of inactivity, he refocused on repertoire for the left hand, including works by Ravel, Prokofiev and Britten, as well as music newly composed for him, and began a successful conducting career with orchestras in Baltimore and Annapolis.

He attempted a return to two-handed playing in the mid-80s but didn’t feel he had enough facility with his right hand. However, after further treatment in the 90s, with a combination of Botox injections and deep tissue massage, he regained the use of his afflicted fingers and recorded new albums of two-handed work.

A documentary about his life, Two Hands, was nominated for best documentary short at the 2006 Academy awards.

Articles from The NY Times and The Guardian
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Claude Frank
United States of America, °1925 - 2014
Leading one of the most distinguished careers of any pianist, Claude Frank has continuously appeared with the world's foremost orchestras, at its most prestigious universities, and at major festivals since his debut with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic in 1959. He is an internationally acclaimed interpreter of the piano literature of Beethoven. The Music and Arts Programs of America, Inc. label has re-released his recording of the sonatas, from his original 1971 RCA LP set, in a 10-CD box set.
May 2001 was a very special landmark in Mr. Frank’s career. The 92nd Street Y in New York hosted his recital commemorating the 50th Anniversary of his New York recital debut. The program, consisting of works by Bach, Schubert, Mozart, and Beethoven, closely resembled the program he performed at Town Hall in 1950.

During recent seasons, Claude Frank was Artist-in-Residence of the first Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival (2003) and performed Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos with Leon Fleisher and Menahem Pressler at the Ravinia Festival (2002). Claude Frank has performed in recital throughout the United States and Europe, and has given joint recitals with his daughter, violinist Pamela Frank, in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Fairfax, and Toronto, as well as numerous performances abroad.

Claude Frank has repeatedly been a soloist with the great orchestras of five continents, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and the orchestras of New Orleans, Toronto, Zurich, Brussels, Hamburg, and Frankfurt. He has been heard in performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Grant Park Symphony in Chicago, Oregon Symphony in Portland, Baltimore Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Minnesota Symphony, St. Luke's Orchestra, and Denver Symphony, among others. In 2008, he performed alongside other legendary pianists at The Olympic Centenary Piano Extravaganza of China in Beijing, China.

In chamber music, he has appeared with such eminent groups as the Guarneri Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, Emerson Quartet, American Quartet, Mendelssohn Quartet, Tokyo Quartet, and the London Mozart Players, as well as with Alexander Schneider's chamber ensembles and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He has appeared in numerous festivals including Menuhin's Gstaad Festival in Switzerland, the Midsummer Mozart Festival in California and the Klavier Festival Ruhr, as well as festivals in Portland, Highland Park, Norfolk, Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier, Vancouver, and Marlboro. A frequent performer in New York City's Mostly Mozart Festival during its formative years and a festival participant in virtually every season thereafter, Claude Frank appeared in its 25th anniversary celebration at Lincoln Center.

A renowned teacher as well as performer, Claude Frank is on the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and is a professor at the Yale School of Music. Of special interest are his master classes at Yale University, Duke University, University of Kansas and North Carolina School of the Arts, among many others.

His recordings include the critically acclaimed direct-to-disc recording of the Mozart Piano Concerto #20 in D minor, K.466, with George Cleve and the Midsummer Mozart Festival Orchestra for Sonic Arts (LS-23) and Sine Qua Non's recording of the Archduke Trio in B flat major, Op. 97 with violinist Emmanuel Borok and cellist Leslie Parnas (Digi 110/79005). His performance of the Mozart Piano Concerto #24 in C minor, K.491 with the New England Conservatory Orchestra with Leon Fleisher as conductor is on the Audifon label. Claude Frank has also recorded the cycle of Beethoven Violin & Piano Sonatas with his daughter for Music Masters.

Claude Frank lived in Nuremberg until the age of 12, when he joined his father in Brussels. Shortly thereafter, he went to live in Paris, where he studied at the Paris Conservatoire. The German occupation forced him to leave France. While in Spain illegally and overheard at the keyboard, he was invited to perform at a party given by the Brazilian Ambassador. There, he won his first 'fee' - a visa to come to the United States granted by the American Consul, who attended the party. Once in New York, Claude Frank studied with Artur Schnabel and Karl Ulrich Schnabel, and studied composition and conducting at Columbia University. At Tanglewood, he studied with Serge Koussevitzky.
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Frédéric Gevers
- 1997
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Nicole Henriot
France, °1925 - 2001
Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer (1925-2001) à fait ses études musicales dans la classe de Marguerite Long au CNSM. En 1938 elle y obtenait le 1er Prix de piano; elle n’avait que 13 ans. L’année suivante, elle remportait le Concours Fauré à Luxembourg et dès la fin de la guerre une brillante carrière s’ouvrait à elle. On la verra se produire sur tous les continents. Son oncle Charles Münch, avec le Boston Symphony Orchestra en fit sa pianiste favorite, puis, lorsqu’il créa en France (1967) l’Orchestre de Paris, la prit comme soliste. Parmi ses nombreuses créations, on lui doit en 1953 la Suite concertante de Milhaud. Au début des années 70, elle se lança avec succès dans l’enseignement du piano, tout d’abord au Conservatoire de Liège, puis à celui de Bruxelles. Alexander Gurning, Thérèse Malengreau et Jean de Saint-Guilhem, parmi tant d’autres de ses élèves, ont bénéficié de ses conseils qui leur ont permis notamment d’acquérir beaucoup d’aisance et d’intelligence musicale.
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Andrzej Jasinski
Poland, °1936
Andrzej Jasinski studied under W. Markiewiecz and M. Tagliaferro. He was a prizewinner at the Maria Canals Competition of 1960 and had already embarked on a promising international career when he deliberately chose to devote his energy to teaching the piano. His teaching method is famous and highly respected in Poland and abroad. His studens, one of whom was Kristian Zimmerman, go on to win international prizes and to make successful careers. From 1979 to 1982 he was visiting professor at the Hochschule in Stuttgart and he has been invited to give master classes in Japan, Salzburg and Imola. A honoris causa doctor from the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy and the University of Music in Katowice, Andrzej Jasinski has appeared on juries at major international competitions and was the jury president of the Fryderyk Chopin Competition's 2000, 2005 and 2010 editions.
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Karl-Heinz Kämmerling
- 2012
Karl-Heinz Kämmerling studied the piano at the Musikhochschule in Leipzig with Anton Rohden and Hugo Steurer. He has taught the piano at the Musikhochschule in Hanover, where he has served as vice president for six years, and at the Salzburg Mozarteum, where he has also been director.
Karl-Heinz Kämmerling founded the German EPTA, serving as its president for many years. He has been very active at the University of Paderborn as member of an institute devoted to research and the encouragement of young talent. He was also a board member of the International Music Academy Management for Soloists and president of the German High School Foundation, as well as co-editor of the review Üben und Musizieren, published by Schott.
Karl-Heinz Kämmerling has won many international prizes and conducted numerous master classes in Asia, Europe and the United States. He has been a jury member at many international competitions. Germany and Austria honoured him with a merit award in 1999 and 2000.
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Hans Leygraf
Sweden, °1920 - 2011
Professor Hans Leygraf (1920-2011) was born in Stockholm as the son of German-Austrian parents. He studied the piano in Stockholm with Schnabel-student Gottfrid Boon, and with Anna Hirzel-Langenhan in Switzerland. In addition, he studied composition and conducting at the Universities of Munich and Stockholm.

At the age of 9 he made his debut as a soloist with the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, at the age of 12 he gave his first piano recital. After the war he performed throughout Europe, including the Soviet Union, USA, and Far East. He had appearances with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, in London, Hamburg and Munich, with the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Orchestra under conductors like Blomstedt, Celebidache, Dohnanyi, Dorati, Ehrling, Fricsay, Gielen, Kempe, Sawallisch, Solti, and Szell.

Not least because of his many appearances in television, as well as through his LP-productions and radio broadcasts, Hans Leygraf is well-known to a broad audience, so with his recording of the complete Mozart piano sonatas.

Leygraf taught in Innsbruck, Darmstadt, Stockholm, Hannover and Berlin. From 1972-1990 he was a full professor at the Musikhochschule Mozarteum, Salzburg, where up to September 2007 he had an international class for highly gifted students.
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Viktor Merjanov
Russian Federation - 2012
Viktor Merjanov is professor of piano and director of the department at the Moscow Conservatory. He was educated at the same institution, studying there with professor Feinberg. A laureate of many national and international competitions, including the Chopin Competition in 1940, he has had several pupils who have in turn themselves become competition prize-winners.
His career as soloist, teacher and lecturer, has led Viktor Merjanov all over the (then) Soviet Union, to many European capitals, to Cuba and the United States. He has played under the baton of many celebrated conductors, such as Kondrashin, Temirkanov, Maderna and Berglund.
He is also the author of articles on a variety of musical and pedagogical themes. Viktor Merjanov is president of the Association of Soviet Pianists and has often been a jury member at international competitions.
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Eugène Moguilevsky
Ukraine, °1945 - 2023
Born in Odessa in 1945, Eugène Moguilevsky took his first piano lessons with his mother. He then became a pupil of H. Neuhaus (teacher of Gilels and Richter) at the Moscow Conservatory. Winning First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1964 enabled him to perform with conductors such as André Clytens, Charles Munch and Bernard Haitink. He gave solo concerts around the world and, in 1973, received the prize for Best Performer of the Year in the USA for his performance of Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 3 with K. Kondrachin and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.
Since then, he has given concerts in Melbourne, Singapore, New York (Carnegie Hall), Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, as well as in Germany, Switzerland and Spain. Since 1992, Eugène Moguilevsky has been a teacher at the Brussels Royal Conservatory. Many of his performances are available on CD.
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Ivan Moravec
- 2015
Long recognized as one of the century's great pianists, Ivan Moravec's performances and recordings alike have prompted critics in search of parallels to call up such names as Gieseking and Richter. Yet his musicianship, while it challenges comparison with these masters, is riveting and penetratingly individual in style.

Ivan Moravec was born in Prague in 1930 and until the age of 15 his main musical interest was in opera. He later studied piano at the Prague Conservatory and the Prague Academy, performing during his student years in Poland and Hungary. In 1957 Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli heard him perform in Prague and invited him to Italy for further study, where he participated in Michelangeli's master classes in Arezzo in 1957 and 1958.

Ivan Moravec made his American debut in January 1964 with the Cleveland Orchestra and George Szell at Severance Hall; the following month he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall during Cleveland's annual week of appearances there. Since then he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia, Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras, the Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Toronto and Pittsburgh symphonies and the Los Angeles and Orpheus chamber orchestras among many others. As one of the world's most acclaimed recitalists, Mr. Moravec has appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center and on the major recital series in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland and Philadelphia. His festival appearances in the United States include Tanglewood, Blossom, Ravinia, the Hollywood Bowl, Mostly Mozart and Caramoor.

Recent and upcoming performance highlights in North America include appearances with the St. Louis, Detroit, Seattle, Baltimore, Atlanta, Dallas, Indianapolis and Colorado symphonies; the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa; performances in Carnegie Hall on the Keyboard Virtuoso Series and with the Orchestra of St. Luke's; and solo recitals in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Kansas City, Princeton, Fort Worth for the Van Cliburn Piano Foundation and at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

During the 07/08 season, Ivan Moravec was The Belknap Visitor in the Humanities at Princeton University and while on campus appeared in recital, with the University Orchestra and taught master classes.

In Europe, Ivan Moravec has appeared in recital and as concerto soloist in the major music capitals, including Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Oslo, Rome, Milan and on the prestigious International Piano Series at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. His international festival appearances include the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Ruhr, Schleswig-Holstein and Prague Spring Festivals.

In October 2000 Vaclav Havel, then President of the Czech Republic, awarded Ivan Moravec the Medal of Merit for Outstanding Artistic Achievement. That same month he was also honored by being the recipient of the Prize of Charles the Fourth, the Czech Republic's most prestigious acknowledgement of outstanding service to humanity. In January 2002 he was honored with a Cannes Classical Award for Lifetime Achievement, an award given by several international music magazines to recognize the universal appeal of classical music.

Ivan Moravec has recorded for the Nonesuch, Supraphon, Connoisseur Society, Dorian, Pro Arte, Quintessence, Vox and the Moss Music labels and a number of his many recordings have appeared in "Record of the Year" listings in High Fidelity, Stereo Review, the New York Times, Time Magazine and Newsweek. In November 2000 Supraphon presented Mr. Moravec with their Platinum Disc in honor of having sold more than 250,000 recordings on that label. His legendary Connoisseur Society recordings of music by Chopin, Ravel, Debussy, Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart were released by VAI Audio and again most recently in a four CD set by Supraphon. He is also one of the pianists included on Philips' historic series Great Pianists of the 20th Century. One of his recordings of the Mozart Concerti with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields on the Hänssler label was awarded a Cannes Classical Award for Solo with Orchestra 18th Century.
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Karl-Heinz Pick
Germany, °1929 - 2009
Karl-Heinz Pick (1929-2009) studied at the Hochschule für Musik Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig, where he was a piano professor until 1994. He also led the piano department of the Musikhochschule Leipzig. As a concert pianist, he performed troughout Europe and Asia. As a composer, he wrote chamber music pieces, works for piano and Lieder. He was often invited to be on the jury of international piano competitions and was one of the founders of the Chopin-Gesellschaft der DDR in 1962, today known as the Deutsche Chopin-Gesellschaft. In 1986 he became the President of the foundation and in 2006 its Honorary President. Karl-Heinz Pick received the Art Prize of the City of Leipzig and was honoured by the Republic of Poland for his merit to the Polish culture.
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Jeffrey Swann
United States of America, °1951
Jeffrey Swann enjoys an international performing career which has taken him throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. He won first prize in the Dino Ciani Competition sponsored by La Scala in Milan, 2nd prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and top honors at the Warsaw Chopin, Van Cliburn, Vianna da Motta and Montreal Competitions, as well as the Young Concert Artists auditions in New York City. His large and varied repertoire includes more than 60 concertos as well as solo works ranging from Bach to Boulez.

In addition to presenting lecture/recitals worldwide, Jeffrey Swann has performed with the symphonies of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Indiana, Dallas, Saint Louis, Houston, Baltimore, San Antonio, New Jersey, Louisville, New Orleans, Honolulu and Minneapolis; and in Europe with the orchestras of Rotterdam, The Hague, Belgian National and Radio, Warsaw Philharmonic, La Scala, Santa Cecilia, RAI Turin and Rome, Czech Philharmonic, Radio France de Montpellier and the London Philharmonia, among many others. The conductors with whom he has performed include Zdenek Macal, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Marek Janowski, Kazimirz Kord, Myung-Whun Chung, Roberto Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti and Leonard Slatkin. In addition, he continues to lecture regularly at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, and at Wagner Societies in the United States and Italy. He has also served as a judge at many competitions, most recently the Utrecht International Liszt Competition.

A native of Northern Arizona, Jeffrey Swann studied with Alexander Uninsky at Southern Methodist University and with Beveridge Webster and Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School, where he received his B.M., M.M. and D.M.A. Degrees. He can be heard on Ars Polona, Deutsche-Gramophon, RCA-Italy, Replica, Fonit-Cetra, Music & Arts, and Agorá recordings. His CD, "The Virtuoso Liszt" (Music & Arts) won the Liszt Society's Grand Prix, and his first volume of the Complete Beethoven Sonatas (Agorá) was chosen one of the Best of the Year by Fanfare magazine. His most recent release features works for piano and orchestra by Chopin with the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano.

Since 2007 Jeffrey Swann has been Music Director of the Dino Ciani Festival & Academy in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. In 2008 he was appointed the inaugural Adel Visiting Artist-in-Residence at the School of Music at Northern Arizona University and in 2010 Professor of Piano at New York University.
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Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden
Belgium, °1947
Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden was only 16 years of age when he was proclaimed a laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1964. That sought-after distinction launched a brilliant career that has taken him to the world’s leading concert halls and the most prestigious festivals, including the Korsholm (Finland), Umea (Sweden), Prades, la Chaise-Dieu, and Giverny (France), Delft (the Netherlands), Seoul (Korea), and Stavelot and Seneffe (Belgium) festivals. In chamber music, he has played with outstanding Belgian and international partners such as Véronique Bogaerts, Marie Hallynck, Augustin Dumay, Silvia Marcovici, Mihaela Martin, Miriam Fried, Gérard Caussé, Frans Helmerson, José Van Dam, Walter Boeykens, the Enesco Quartet, the Melos Quartet, the Quatuor Ysaÿe, and the Ensemble César Franck. His formidably extensive repertoire includes almost all the great concertos, a wide array of chamber music pieces, and the complete works for solo piano of Maurice Ravel. Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden was knighted by King Philippe in 2018.
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Daniël Wayenberg
The Netherlands, °1929
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Kazuko Yasukawa
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