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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Paul Badura-Skoda
- 2019
Paul Badura-Skoda is one of the most important pianists of our time. A legendary artist who has been heard in all the world´s greatest concert halls, and for years was the pianist who had the largest number of records available in the market. His musical personality is characterized by complete immersion in music, a passionate search for the essential, and a sense of artistic responsibility. It soon becomes evident to any listener that he loves music with every part of his being.

In 1945, Paul Badura-Skoda entered the Vienna Conservatory. Two years later he won first prize in the Austrian Music Competition and a scholarship which allowed him to study with Edwin Fischer. In 1949, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan became aware of Badura-Skoda´s outstanding talent and invited him to play concerts. Practically overnight the young viennese became a world-famous artist.

Since then, Badura-Skoda has been a regular and celebrated guest at the most important music festivals and a soloist with the world´s most prestigious orchestras. In addition to Furtwängler and von Karajan, he has collaborated with such renowned conducters as George Szell, Karl Böhm, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Georg Solti, Kent Nagano and John Eliot Gardiner.

Paul Badura-Skoda has recorded a vast repertoire - more than 200 LPs and dozens of compact discs including the complete cycles of the piano sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

Badura-Skoda performs with equal authority on both period and modern instruments. He was a pioneer in proposing the use of period pianos in perfomance. His profound knowledge of instruments from Bach´s and Mozart time up to the present has given him the capacity to extract from modern instruments a quality of sound which never fails to amaze audiences and critics alike.
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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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André De Groote
Belgium, °1940
A prize-winner in a number of important contests, the eminent Belgian pianist André De Groote was awarded the Harriet Cohen Medal in London and was a laureate of the Tchaikovsky (Moscow), Queen Elisabeth and ARD (Munich) competitions, all of which gave him access to the world´s major musical venues.

His art has thus been widely heard, not only in the main European centers, but also in the Americas, Africa, the Middle and Far East. He has appeared with such distinguished conductors as Dean Dixon, Neëme Jarvi, Michael Gielen, Christoph Eschenbach, Igor Markevitch... His chamber music activities include close association with the Chilingirian and Via Nova string quartets, the violinists Yayoi Toda and Augustin Dumay, while his duo with the cellist Viviane Spanoghe has become a landmark in Belgian musical life. Together they have recorded works by Beethoven, Brahms, Britten, Enesco, Jongen, Shostakovitch, Tournemire and Vierne.

André De Groote's wide-ranged repertoire includes some 50 concertos, Brahms´ entire output for solo piano (all of which has been recorded), Beethoven´s 32 piano sonatas that he performed three times in Brussels, at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, in Zaragoza (Spain), and in Hiroshima (Japan); the recording of these sonatas has been released by Naxos. Other recordings include the three piano sonatas by Erich Korngold, Charles Camilleri´s three piano concertos, Arthur de Greef´s two, and works for piano and ensemble by Poulenc and Françaix. A new recording of Brahms´ two sonatas for piano and clarinet (with Wolfgang Meyer) and viola (with Pierre-Henri Xuereb) has been released.

An honorary professor at the Brussels Royal Consevatoire, he has given many master classes in France, Germany, Spain and Japan. In 1986 he was a visiting Professor at Arizona State University and in 2007-2008 at Indiana University, Bloomington.
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Eduardo del Pueyo
°1905 - 1986
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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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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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Jacques Genty
- 2014
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Emil Gilels
Russian Federation, °1916 - 1985
Emil Gilels was born in Odessa. He did not come from a musical family: his father worked as a clerk in the sugar refinery and his mother looked after the large family. At the age of five and a half he was taken to Yakov Tkach, a famous piano pedagogue in Odessa. He completed his first period of studies with unprecedented ease. In 1929 aged twelve, he gave his first public concert. In 1930 he was accepted to the conservatory in Odessa into the class of Berta Reingbald. Her main goal was his participation in the First All-Union Competition of Performers which was announced to take place in 1933 in Moscow. Gilels’ playing created a sensation - when he finished his programme the auditorium rose up in tumultuous ovation and even the jury stood to applaud. The question of first prize was not even discussed: in a unanimous decision Gilels was announced the winner. The competition changed Emil’s life - he was suddenly famous throughout the land. Following the competition, Gilels embarked on an extensive concert tour around the USSR.

Gilels graduated from the Odessa Conservatory in the autumn of 1935. Subsequently, he was accepted into the class of Heinrich Neuhaus as a postgraduate student at the Moscow Conservatory, and Gilels renewed his commitment to giving concerts. The phenomenon, ‘Gilels’, found its recognition from the outside. Upon arriving to Moscow at the start of 1936, the conductor Otto Klemperer performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Opus 37 with none other than Gilels as the soloist. In 1936 he participated in his first international competition - the International Vienna Music Academy Competition. Despite attracting the attention of Europe and the unquestionable prestige of being a finalist, he looked upon the second place awarded to him as a failure. First place was awarded to his friend Jacob Flier - an intensely Romantic pianist.

In 1938 Gilels and Flier set off to the Queen Elisabeth Competition. They were expected to uphold the victories of the Soviet violinists, lead by David Oistrakh a year earlier, and to return in triumph. Gilels was awarded the first prize and Flier took the third. The whole musical world began to talk about Emil Gilels. Following the competition he was meant to embark on a lengthy concert tour, including a tour of the USA. These plans were abruptly interrupted by the Second World War. On home soil Gilels became a hero: he received a medal for his achievements, was greeted by a welcome party upon his return and in the Soviet consciousness his name sounded in equal rank with the names of famous explorers, pilots and film stars.

Emil Gilels completed his postgraduate studies in 1938 and began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory (from 1952 becoming a professor). His pedagogical work continued sporadically until 1976, but because of the huge demands of his concerts he could not devote much time to teaching. Nevertheless his class numbered important pianists such as Marina Mdivani, Valery Afanassiev, Igor Zhukov and the pianist-composer Vladimir Blok.

When the war broke out he was not evacuated with the conservatory. Instead he joined the civilian resistance and following an order for his return, he began to perform on the Front and in hospitals. At the start of 1943 he performed Stravinsky’s bravura piece Petrushka to the weary inhabitants of besieged Leningrad.

When the war ended Emil Gilels was to undertake a special mission. He was to represent the Art of a victorious country. He took to the stage amongst the ruins of Eastern Europe, and soon after the war he went on concert tours of Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Scandinavia and numerous other countries. Every European country considered it a great privilege to invite Gilels to perform or record. He was decorated with medals and honours - the public worshiped him.

In 1955 Emil Gilels became the first Soviet Artist, since the Second World War, to travel on a concert tour of the USA. The years between the 1950s and 1970s saw him at the height of his powers in all aspects of his playing. He performed under the baton of many of the finest conductors: Mravinsky, Melik-Pashayev, Svetlanov, Ivanov, Rakhlin, Gauk, Ginsburg, Eliasberg, Niyazi, Jarvi, Kitayenko, Dudarova, Barshai. Gilels’ collaboration with Sanderling and Kondrashin were particularly important and longstanding. Within the USSR he had further collaborations with Gusman, Paverman, Maluntsyan, Gokieli, Kolomiytseva, Shaposhnikov, Gurtovoy, Rabinovich, Katz, Feldman, Vigners, Sherman, Stasevich, Sokolov, Tiulin, Kravchenko, Karapetyan, Dubrovsky, Tolba, Provatorov, Katayev, Aranovich, Chunikhin, Yadikh, Nikolayevsky and many others. Through his collaborations he also was able to find new, talented conductors such as Verbintsky and Ovchinikov.

Emil Gilels also played in ensembles: with pianists Flier and Zak, and later with his daughter Elena Gilels; violinists Elisabeth Gilels (his sister), Tziganov, Kogan; with the Beethoven Quartet; in a trio with Tziganov and Shirinsky, as well as his own trio (Gilels, Kogan, Rostropovich); with flautist Korneiv; and the French horn player Shapiro. Abroad he collaborated with the Amadeus Quartet and the Sibelius Academy Quartet.

Emil Gilels’ commitment to the recording studio was as intensive as his commitment to his concert tours : he recorded with many record companies, including Melodiya, Angel, Ariola, EMI, Eterna and Deutsche Grammophon. His earliest recordings are from the 1930s and include Loeillet-Godowsky’s Gigue, the Fantasia on Two Themes from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart-Liszt-Busoni, Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G minor Opus 23, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9, Schumann’s Toccata and Mendelssohn’s Duetto from the Songs without Words. All in all Gilels committed to record over five hundred works (not counting the multiple versions that exist for many of the cycles and individual pieces): the exact number however may never become known because of the numerous amateur audio and video recordings made from Gilels’ recitals.

Between the 1950s and 1970s Gilels continued to teach at the Moscow Conservatory whilst maintaining an active profile as an important public figure. He could not however refuse the invitation to preside over the jury at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition - a position that he maintained for the first four competitions.

In the middle of the 1970s Emil Gilels started to limit any activities that were not directly related to his performing. He retired as a jury member of international piano competitions and stopped teaching.

Emil Gilels had to his name the Peoples’ Artist of the USSR, was a recipient of the Lenin Prize (1962), and in 1976 in honour of his sixtieth birthday was bestowed the highest possible governmental award - Hero of Socialist Labour.
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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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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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Angelica Morales von Sauer
°1911 - 1996
Mexicon-born pianist Angelica Morales von Sauer (1911-1996) made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker at age 13 and her New York debut at Carnegie Hall in 1929. She taught at the Mexico City Conservatory of Music. Then, in 1955, she went to Kansas University as a visiting associate professor of piano. She became a full professor in the Department of Piano in 1958, the position she held until she retired in 1973. Angelica Morales von Sauer was married with composer and pianist Emil von Sauer. In 1995 the Concurso Nacional de Piano Angélica Morales-Yamaha was founded.
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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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Mitsuko Uchida
Japan, °1948
One of the most revered artists of our time, Mitsuko Uchida is known as a peerless interpreter of the works of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, as well for being a devotee of the piano music of Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and György Kurtág.
She has enjoyed close relationships over many years with the world’s most renowned orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and - in the US - the Chicago Symphony and The Cleveland Orchestra, with whom she recently celebrated her 100th performance at Severance Hall. Conductors with whom she has worked closely have included Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Muti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Vladimir Jurowski, Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, and Mariss Jansons.
Since 2016, Mitsuko Uchida has been an Artistic Partner of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom she is currently engaged on a five-year touring project in Europe and North America. She also appears regularly in recital in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London, New York and Tokyo, and is a frequent guest at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and Salzburg Festival.
Mitsuko Uchida records exclusively for Decca, and her multi-award-winning discography includes the complete Mozart and Schubert piano sonatas. She is the recipient of two Grammy Awards - for Mozart Concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, and for an album of lieder with Dorothea Röschmann - and her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra won the Gramophone Award for Best Concerto.
A founding member of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and Director of Marlboro Music Festival, Mitsuko Uchida is a recipient of the Golden Mozart Medal from the Salzburg Mozarteum, and the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association. She has also been awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society, and holds Honorary Degrees from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In 2009 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
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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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Gongyi Zhu
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