2007 National Piano and Violin Competition

Annex 3

2007 National Piano and violin Competition

BIOGRAPHIES OF ADJUDICATORS

Piano

Roberto Plano

First prize winner of the 2001 Cleveland International Piano Competition, Finalist at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (2005), Laureates of the 2003 Honens International Piano Competition (Canada) and the 2006 Axa Dublin International Piano Competition, Italian pianist Roberto Plano has performed throughout North America and Europe, both in recital (in venues such as Lincoln Centre in New York, Herculessaal in Munich, among many others) and as a soloist with orchestras under the direction of conductors which includes including Sir Neville Marriner, James Conlon, Pinchas Zuckerman and Jahja Ling. Plano has also collaborated with some of the finest chamber music groups in the world, including the Takacs String Quartet, the Fine Arts String Quartet, the St. Petersburg String Quartet, the Jupiter String Quartet and the Enso String Quartets.

Plano has made guest appearances on a number of radio stations, including NPR’s Performance Today, WNYC in New York City and WGBH’s Classics in the morning (Boston). Plano has been featured in film documentaries “In the Heart of Music” and “Encores” which were aired on PBS stations across the United States, as well as in Europe through the satellite channel MEZZO. In 2006, Plano was chosen to participate in the DVD recording “A Masterclass with Jean-Michel Damase”, filmed in Paris by ARTE at Salle Cortot; and together with Philippe Entremont, a second video project about the music of Mozart, broadcast by NHK in Japan.

Plano has made three recordings: a CD of works by Chopin, Liszt and Scriabin on Sipario Dischi label and a disc of works by Liszt on Azica label. The third recording was released in 2006 by the Canadian label Arktos.

As a teacher, Plano has given masterclasses at Kent State University, Augusta State University, Utah State University and Cleveland Institute of Music (USA), Alberta Conservatory (Edmonton, Canada), Conservatory of San Juan (Puerto Rico), and in all the major cities of Schlewsig-Holstein, Germany.

Highlights of Plano’s recent concert season include his debut with the strings of the Berliner Philarmoniker in Italy, debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall, and concerts with the Milan, Forth Worth, Calgary, Bakersfield, Reading and Yakima Symphony Orchestras.

Paul Pollei

International ambassador for piano music, Paul Pollei, native of Salt Lake City, continues his energetic efforts as Founder-Director of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation which sponsors festivals and international competitions. The original festival-competition was Pollei’s brainchild, and through his specialized knowledge of competitions and musical contacts throughout the world, the Bachauer Competition continues to enliven a love of music in Utah and people everywhere.

Pollei is co-ordinator of Graduate Keyboard Studies and a member of the piano faculty at Brigham Young University. In addition, he serves as adviser for the music faculty of the Waterford School in Sandy, Utah. He served as faculty member of the Tuacahn Centre for the Arts in St. George, Utah.

Pollei has been a jury member for many national and international competitions throughout the world, including Japan, China, Australia, throughout Europe, and in all states of the United States. He is a founding member of the American Piano Quartet, devoted to research, performance, and re-publication of music for two pianos/eight hands. The quartet has performed in concerts worldwide and continues an active research, performing and recording career.

Pollei is a devoted teacher to many prize winning students and is a frequent lecturer for teacher workshops and masterclasses in America and throughout the world. He often writes about the issues of piano pedagogy and piano training for professional journals in the United States. He is the author of “Pedagogical Tips for Piano Teaching” and “Essential Technique for the Pianist: An Organised and Systematic Method of Teaching Piano Technique”.

In addition to his administrative work with the Bachauer Foundation, Pollei is on the International Advisory Board of the Alink-Argerich Foundation. Pollei is also very active in the work of the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy, the Music Teachers National Association, and the World Federation of International Music Competitions.

Mary Wu

Born in Hong Kong, Mary Wu gave her first public performance at an early age and has been captivating audiences ever since in Austria, Poland, Canada, England, Germany, Hong Kong, the United States and throughout Asia. Highly acclaimed for her piano playing, Wu is said to surprise with “her musical variety, profundity and sensitivity” by Vlado Perlemuter and “…a captivating poetical quality to her playing” by the late Lord Menuhin. She has performed in many of the world’s major concert halls and with international orchestras and chamber musicians. She has performed with the late Vlado Perlemuter in Queen Elizabeth Hall in UK, and with the late Lord Menuhin in UK and Germany. She is also a founding member of the Bauhinia Piano Trio formed in 1995.

She has recorded for the BMG, ASV, Dutton Sound, Paradisum and Hugo, CFM Deutschland and Universal labels that include solo and chamber music by classical and contemporary composers. She has given all-Chopin programmes and recently gave all-Ravel programmes in many major concert halls in China under the invitation of Alliance Francaise China.

Her prizes include the Clavichord and Harpsichord Prizes; Chappell Gold Medal -– the most prestigious pianist prize given at the Royal College of Music; first prizes at the London Royal Overseas-League Music Competition and the Mozart Bicentenary International Piano Competition of Asia. She has performed as a soloist with the Polish Gdansk Philharmonic Orchestra, Calgary Symphony Orchestra in Canada, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

She completed her doctoral degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA. Her teachers include Betty Drown, Peter Norris, Louis Kentner, Vlado Perlemuter, Kendall-Taylor, Gilbert Kalish and Constance Wu. She has been the artist-in-residence at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for many years and is currently a faculty member at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.

Wu was selected as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Awardees Hong Kong in 2003. She has been invited to be a jury member at several competitions including the Steinway Competition and the Ibiza International Piano Competition in Spain.

Violin

Natalia Boyarsky

Natalia Boyarsky began her music education in Moscow first at the Gnesin School of Music under Professor Isaac Urovetsky (former student of Leopold Auer), then at the College of Music which is affiliated to the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire under Professors Maya Glezarova and Yuri Yankelevich. She then studied at the Gnesin Institute under Professors Felix Andrievsky and Mark Lubotsky.

Boyarsky has appeared as a soloist and a chamber music player at the main venues in USSR. In 1965, Boyarsky began teaching the violin at the above-mentioned school and college where she was appointed Head of the String Department. She has distinguished herself by introducing a new method of teaching based on all the traditions of the legendary Russian School of Music, which gained her a well-deserved reputation as an outstanding violin teacher. Her method has produced many talented young virtuosi.

Boyarsky became a UK resident in 1991 when she was invited by Lord Yehudi Menuhin to teach at the Yehudi Menuhin School and in 1996 was appointed Violin Professor at the Royal College of Music in London.

Many of her pupils have won prizes at national and international competitions. Her pupils have also won other awards and have become members of prestigious orchestras.

Boyarsky gives master classes worldwide and also serves on several international juries.

“I have known Natasha Boyarskaya for a number of years and consider her one of the best teachers I have come across…” - Yehudi Menuhin

Stan Kornel

Born in Canberra, Stan Kornel started his violin studies with Josette Esquidin-Morgan and Ernest Llewelyn. He later studied music at the Bydgoszcz Conservatorium of Music and the Academy of Music in Lodz (Poland). Kornel was the assistant concertmaster of Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra, leader of the Torun Chamber Orchestra and associate concertmaster of the TV and Radio Symphony Orchestra in Lodz.

A bronze medalist at the Henryk Wieniawski International Young Violinist Competition and second prize winner at the Pomerania Violin Competition, Kornel has also participated in the International Music Camp in Umea (Sweden) where he performed both as concertmaster and in concert with the Oslo Trio, and also at the Jeunesses Musicale World Youth Orchestra in London and Fribourg (Switzerland).

In 1985 Kornel moved to Italy where he worked in opera theatres such as La Scala in Milan, La Fenice in Venice and the Verona Amphitheatre during the famous Summer Festival. Kornel returned to Australia in 1987 and has since performed with the Sydney Bach Ensemble, Bicentenary Trio, Gallery Players Ensemble and Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Kornel is currently with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Kornel was Head of Strings at the Australian International Conservatorium of Music, and holds teaching appointments at Torun Conservatorium of Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music and International Grammar School in Ultimo, Sydney.

Kornel has recorded several CDs of works by Australian composers Dulcie Holland, Derek Strahan and Allan Holley. He also has a keen interest in the baroque violin and viola d’amore. Kornel is the founder and Artistic Director of the early music ensemble The Sydney Consort which performs extensively and records regularly for Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The ensemble’s debut album featured works by Telemann and Buxtehude. In 2005 the ensemble toured Poland, Italy and Germany, and in 2007 enjoyed a successful concert tour to Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark and Poland.

Aki Sauliere

French violinist Aki Sauliere is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she studied with David Takeno. Subsequently, she completed a postgraduate course in Salzburg with Helmut Zehetmaier and spent two years at the Karajan Akademie in Berlin where she performed and toured regularly with the Berlin

Philharmonic Orchestra. During this time she continued her studies in masterclasses with Georgy Kurtag and Yuko Mori at festivals such as Prussia Cove and Szombathely.

As a chamber musician, Sauliere performs regularly with musicians such as Franck Braley, Nicholas Angelich, Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Gerard Caussé, and Bernard Lanskey, with whom she performed all ten Beethoven violin sonatas this past season. She is a founding member of the Capuçon Quartet, created seven years ago with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, and violist Beatrice Muthelet. They recently completed a cycle of Brahms’ chamber music at the Festival du Perigord Noir, and will repeat it the Salle Pleyel in Paris in 2008 as well as in Bilbao. Other recent performances include Gstaad, Bel-Air Festival, Deauville, and the Schubertiades in Schwarzenberg where they performed the Schubert Quintet with Valentin Erben, cellist of the Alban Berg Quartet. Next season they will play in the Musikverein in Vienna as well as the Festival de Saint Denis, and their recording of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet with Paul Meyer is to be released in October on Virgin.

Sauliere is a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe where she has worked with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Claudio Abbado and Paavo Berglund. She has also played with the London Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Mozart Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, and in period instrument ensembles such as Le Concert d’Astrée with Emmanuelle Haim and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysees under Philippe Herreweghe. For several years she has also worked with the acclaimed Nagaoka Kyo ensemble which she co-founded with Yuko Mori, performing without conductor in the finest halls in Japan and winning numerous awards. Sauliere is Artistic Director of La Loingtaine, an artistic space near Fontainebleu where she organises concerts and master classes throughout the year.