Linda is a pianist, author, educator, mom, grandmother and businesswoman. Originally from Calgary, Canada, Linda made her musical debut at the age of eleven, performing with the Mount Royal College orchestra under the baton of J.S. Bach, the great-great-etc grandnephew of the legendary composer.

Linda is the author of Play Piano Chords Today. PPCT is a piano method for teens and adults who want to play current music and learn it quickly (less notes... more music). She loves teaching private and group piano, conducting workshops and classes for teachers, and inspiring students to share their joy of music by playing for each other at her famous Musical Matinees. Over the decades Linda has been on faculty as a piano teacher at Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta and the Victoria Conservatory of Music in Victoria, B.C.

Linda studied under a number of highly acclaimed teachers in both classical and jazz music, including Robin Wood, Peter Turner, Randy Halberstadt, Georgy Sebok, Karel Roessingh, and Lynne McNeil. In 2015, she received the prestigious Tech Teacher of the Year award at the national CFMTA conference in Vancouver.

Her musical performances include solo piano, concertos with orchestras, chamber music, jazz combos and 2-piano concerts with husband, Dave Paulson and with her Dragonfly Sister, Sue Gould. Most recently, in 2022, she was invited to perform in the International Stretto Piano Festival with her new narrow digital piano keys!

Linda launched the NK 5.5 keyboard with her partner Kathy Strauch that is available now.

https://www.narrowkeys.com/

https://www.playpianochordstoday.com/

Eliana Yi is a performer and private teacher in the Seattle area. She is known for fostering a love of music in her students and her teaching approach toward healthy piano playing. She performs regularly as a solo artist on her 5.5" DS keyboard and is a faculty member at the Chopin Academy of Music in Issaquah.

Eliana recently graduated from her position as a teaching fellow at the Meadows School of the Arts at southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Dave Paulson is a jazz pianist and former host of the TV show Jazz Victoria for over 10 years. He currently performs with a variety of jazz combos throughout Victoria.

Sue Gould is passionate about piano! and music of all types. Classically trained with regular doses of jazz and pop music, Sue has made herself versatile in all genres and is especially happy when collaborating with other musicians and composers.

Ms. Gould has travelled extensively throughout BC and Alberta performing in communities large and small and spent time as a faculty member at the Banff Centre for the Arts. She can be found performing with a variety of ensembles including the Music Mosaic piano trio, the Selkirk Trio, Storm Mountain Trio, the Lily Quartet, Fearing Gould, and The Dragonfly Sisters She is also the Music Director and conductor of the Purcell Mountain Orchestra.

Brenna Wee is a highly regarded pianist, collaborative artist and educator. She holds two Master’s degrees from the University of Melbourne, with specialisations in Collaborative Pianism and Piano Pedagogy.

A versatile pianist, she also studied Jazz Piano performance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Scholarships from both the Singapore and Australian governments funded her musical studies and her Graduate Diploma in Education.

Having grown up in South-East Asia and lived in many countries, Brenna founded Bridges Collective, a fine art ensemble which facilitates cross-cultural interaction through music-making. As Artistic Director of the ensemble, she was awarded multiple grants and awards from the Australia Council for the Arts, the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in recognition of the ensemble’s valuable work in bridging cultures. These awards have enabled Brenna to take the ensemble on musical exchanges to Canberra, Melbourne, Singapore and West Malaysia where the ensemble has a well-established artist residency and composition workshop program.

Brenna continues to share the joy of music-making in her work, both in performance and education. She currently holds a position as an accompanist at Monash University, as Deputy Head of Keyboard at Haileybury College and is engaged in regular visits to Singapore and Malaysia as a pianist, associate artist and educator.

She is excited to be part of the Stretto Festival and believes that the availability of alternate-sized keyboards will facilitate future generations of young and established pianists with smaller handspans to engage in music-making with ease and confidence.

As a contemporary international artist, Diana Wuli has performed in concerts throughout the USA, UK, Europe, Australia, and Asia. She has also performed with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, New Zealand Opera and Ballet Orchestra, and International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico.

Diana has been the recipient of numerous prestigious prizes and awards, including the Donovan Johnson Travelling Scholarship (AUS), Thornton Foundation Award (UK), Eva Heinitz Cello Award (USA), and Janos Starker Scholar (USA). Her studies have taken her across three continents: Double Degree in Music and Commerce (BMus/BComm) at University of Melbourne (AUS), Masters in Music (MMus) at Royal Northern College of Music (UK), and Performers Diploma (PDip) and Doctor of Music (DM) from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (USA).

In addition to performing, Diana is also a passionate educator. She has held faculty positions at Vincennes University (USA) as Adjunct Professor in Applied Strings and Director of VU String Ensemble, and has also given workshops and masterclasses as guest lecturer at Miami University, Indiana University, University of South Dakota, and Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico. Diana continues to collaborate with string pedagogues and music educators to research and develop new string teaching methods. She is currently a Board Director with the Victorian Music Teachers’ Association (VMTA).

As an avid believer in the purpose and power of music, Diana is actively involved in creating and collaborating in music projects with the mission of bringing music and music education into underserved communities around the globe. She is the Founder and Director of Melbourne String Academy (MSA), a music organisation which launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, featuring community outreach projects such as Virtual Cello Camp 2020 (VCC2020), and Virtual Music Connect (VMC). MSA was recently the recipient of awards and grants from Creative Victoria and Monash City Council.

Diana currently performs on a rare Australian made cello by W.H. Dow (1917).

Rozanne Mentzel is a passionate musician and has led a rich and colourful life as a flautist and music educator. Rozanne’s sense of adventure and long-standing commitment to collaborative music-making have taken her throughout South Africa, the UK and Australia. She currently resides in Melbourne where she continues to throw herself into life and music with passion.

Rozanne’s varied musical tastes and her versatility as a flautist are evident in the sheer diversity of the musical collaborations she has been involved with genres as diverse as folk, rock and classical. Some highlights from her life in South Africa include live performances with celebrated South African folk guitarist, Nibs Van der Spuy, for his album Beautiful Feet; with rock superstars, The Parlotones, and, with the Durban City Orchestra in Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G as principal flautist.

In Australia, Rozanne created Resonance, a chamber music ensemble which has performed regularly in Darwin and in Melbourne. Rozanne is also a member of the Arafura Music Collective, which strives to incorporate early music, classical, jazz, contemporary and intercultural collaborations into exciting and challenging performances. She is particularly proud of their performances of Following in their Footsteps by Brooke Green, Of Stars and Birds by First Nation’s composer Nardi Simpson and Djana by Brenda Gifford.

Orchestrally, Rozanne’s commitment to welcoming diverse musical traditions continued with her participation with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra in 2021 at Barunga Festival which featured folk and first nations artists such as Manuel Dhurrkay (Saltwater Band), Don Nunggarlu (Mambali), Jason Guwanbal Gurruwiwi, Galiwin’uk Youth Band and Ripple Effect. She also performed a world premiere of Yumani by Don Nunggarrgalu and Lachlan Skipworth, which is based on a traditional Numbulwar song.

This year she is looking forward to developing Resonance Music Collective in Melbourne and performing regularly with the Preston Symphony Orchestra.

In 2016, Aurelia Shimkus [Aurēlija Šimkus] received the prestigious German music prize "Echo Klassik" in the category Best Young Artist of The Year. She has been awarded with a scholarship by such world renowned institutions as the Orpheum Stiftung in Zürich and the Mozart-Gesellschaft Dortmund.

Since that time she has performed as a soloist together with the English Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Latvia, the Kaunas Philharmonic Orchestra, the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra, the Dortmund Philharmonic, the German State Philharmonic Rhineland-Palatinate and others. She has been invited to numerous music festivals and concert series, e.g. to the Interlaken Classics, the Next Generation Festival in Bad Ragaz, the Puplinge Classique, the Kissinger Sommer, the Kurt Weill Festival, the Schumann Festival in Bonn and the Meister von Morgen concerts in Herdecke and others.

Aurelia has performed in such concert halls like the Tonhalle Zürich, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Stadthalle Bayreuth, Rheingoldhalle Mainz and many others. ​

Aurelia Shimkus first perfected her piano playing at the Emīls Dārziņš Music School in Riga with Prof. Sergejs Osokins. Since 2017 she has been studying piano at the Cologne University of Music and Dance with Claudio Martínez-Mehner and in Sweden with Prof. Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist. ​ She has participated in various courses and masterclasses with renowned pianists and piano teachers such as Gabriela Montero, Milana Chernyavska, Dominique Merlet, Bernd Goetzke, Pavel Gililov, Peter Jablonski and others. Currently Aurelia is part of the Piano Academy Incontri con il Maestro in Imola, Italy where her mentors are Igor Roma and Ingrid Fliter.

An SMU Meadows music faculty member since 1996, Carol Leone is nationally recognized as an artist-teacher of piano. Dr. Leone has performed and taught throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and has been a prizewinner in piano competitions such as the National Beethoven Sonata Competition, the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition and the International Masters Piano Competition. Her performances have been lauded as “revelatory” (TheaterJones.com), possessing “great pizzazz … luminous in tone and nimble finger work … ” (Dallas Morning News) and providing “every nuance with clarity and charm … ” (Peninsula Review).

Her professional training included study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she received a Certificate and was a student of the Polish pianist Mieczysław Horszowski. Leone was also a student of Guido Agosti in Rome and holds the prestigious Honors Diploma from the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy.

Leone has recorded for MSR Classics, the Augusta Read Thomas Label, Gasparo Records and Crystal Records. Her solo CD Change of Keys was awarded two Silver Medals in the 2016 Global Music Awards. She performs regularly with the Grammy-nominated contemporary music ensemble Voices of Change as well as at universities and music conferences throughout the US.

Leone is also active in national and international keyboard festivals and conferences as a teacher, lecturer and adjudicator. She has been named Texas Music Teachers Association’s Collegiate Teacher of the Year and was one of 10 teachers selected nationwide to serve as Mobil Ambassador to the 9th Van Cliburn Competition. She has served on the piano faculty of numerous summer programs, including the Bösendorfer International Piano Academy in Vienna, the Cliburn Piano Institute, the International Fine Arts Institute in Moscow, the International Piano Master Class in Bojano, Italy and the Tong-Il Han International Music Festival in South Korea. Her students have been top prizewinners in international competitions such as the Virginia Waring, the Bradshaw and Buono, the Chopin Foundation Scholarship Program and the Center for Musical Excellence International Young Artist Awards.

Leone has presented at the Music Teachers National Association Conference, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference, and the European Piano Teachers Association Conference (Czech Republic), among others. Her articles on performance topics have appeared in American Music Teacher, Clavier Companion, Piano Today, Keyboard Companion, The Texas Music Teacher, and the Piano Professional (UK).Considered the world’s leading artist-teacher on ergonomic piano keyboards to promote a pianist’s wellness, she has been invited to write on the topic by several of the world’s leading piano journals.

Kahoru and Moegi Amano recently made their debut as Duo Fleur de Lis but as sisters, they have enjoyed playing together since they were young. Having shared many experiences and steps in their lives, their collaboration is impeccable, and yet allows each other to bring forth their unique voices into the music.

Originally from Japan, Kahoru began her piano studies at age five and moved to the United States in 2003. She completed her Bachelor of Music in piano performance at the University of Texas at Austin with Anton Nel. She studied with Carol Leone on the DS5.5 keyboard at SMU, where she completed two Master’s degrees in piano performance and pedagogy. In 2020, Kahoru was named a recipient of the Harold Von Mickwitz Prize in Piano and subsequently appeared as a soloist with Meadows Symphony Orchestra in 2022.

Moegi began her piano studies at the age of five with Keiko Yamaji. Since then, she has studied with Nancy Albrink in Kentucky and with Tohru Okumura in Singapore. She completed her Bachelor and Master in piano performance at the University of Texas at Austin under the tutelage of Anton Nel. As a soloist, Moegi received high ratings in music festivals, been selected as a finalist in the Ars Nova International Piano Competition, and won first prize in the Nilsson Piano Competition.

Now based in Singapore, Duo Fleur de Lis is passionate about developing the next generation of musicians and hopes to share their love of music through their performances.

Jonathan Mataragas lives in North Carolina and works from home as a fund accountant. He started playing the piano as a teenager with a cheap keyboard he borrowed from his grandmother. He initially was interested in learning piano because of progressive rock music, but eventually shifted to classical, especially after watching the film, The Pianist, which was his first introduction to the music of Chopin. He was going to school for music but changed his mind and thought it was better to keep it as a hobby. He got back into more serious practice in 2022 after deciding he would get a new piano with a 5.5 action, so he wouldn't be limited by hand size anymore.

Maryam Raya is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist and entrepreneur based in New York.

Described as “a first-rate pianist with a strong technical command and physical approach” (The National Film Awards) and a “Complete Artist of the 21st Century,” (Info Music France), Maryam Raya has performed recitals worldwide, including in England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Malta, Spain, China, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, and Dubai, and in world- renowned venues across the United States such as New York’s Stern Auditorium, multiple international embassies, among others. She studied with former professors from the Moscow Conservatory and St. Petersburg Conservatory, leading to her first performance at Carnegie Hall at the age of 16. She possesses a diverse and eclectic repertoire, including over thirty piano concerti, as well as many virtuoso works of history’s most legendary pianists.

A graduate of the world renowned SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy, Maryam Raya also possesses degrees in business management and comparative literature.

An internationally acclaimed solo and chamber artist, pianist, Thomas Osuga garners accolades for his “prodigious talent” “Magnificent Interpretation(s)” and “Tour de force” performances. Founder of Aurista Chamber Music featured at IMPACT NYU, American Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully, Yale Club, JCCs, Youngstown State University (OH), and Betty Oliphant (Toronto). Nominated by the Cleveland Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League as Japanese American of the Biennium for JA piano repertory. On faculty at InterHarmony International Music Festival in Piedmont, Italy this coming July 16-28th, 2024 and Golden Keys Vienna 2023. Thomas curated at Puffin’s On the Rise festival (NJ) and Trattoria Machiavelli (NYC) presenting classical & jazz all day/night. Recordings for Capstone, Legacy and Coronet. Adjudicator for competitions for Lincoln Center/Carnegie Hall. His students are consistent competition winners. Performances at Hunter College Campus Schools (upcoming “SpongeBob” production 94th and Park Ave. NYC May 2024) and on piano/chamber music faculties at Collegiate School, Mannes The New School (NYC) and runs an active private piano studio.

Jaime is an 18 year old pianist who recently graduated from the School Of The Arts (SOTA) in Singapore. She was drawn to the piano at age 2 and began her journey through the Suzuki method, under the tutelage of Georgie Adamson. She continued her studies with Dr Albert Tiu, Dr Pei Ming Lee, Benjamin Loh, Dr Kim Bo Kyung and completed her LTCL in piano performance through the guidance of Erica Booker. Through the years she has been awarded Silver in the Asia International Piano Competition, Silver in the Nanyang International Music Competition, Silver in the ARS NOVA International Piano Competition, Bronze in the Singapore International Piano Competition, and “Excellent” in the Singapore Raffles International Piano Festival. She also performed at Carnegie Hall as part of the Winner’s recital for the American Protégé Competition and was the Audience Choice at the solo Singapore Youth Festival Competition.

Outside of the piano, Jaime enjoys playing the cello, chamber music and other performing arts. She is also an accomplished actress who is particularly passionate about film and TV, is on Netflix and has performed with the Sound Of Music West End production.

The Brazilian pianist and piano pedagogue Silvia Molan is engaged in the Future Initiative Sirius 6.0 of the University of Music and the Performing Arts Stuttgart (Germany) as a co-founder since 2020. As a lecturer for non-major pianists at the University of Catholic Church Music and Musical Education Regensburg and as a piano teacher at the Esslingen School of Music she educates students of different aspirations and all ages. She also serves as a visiting lecturer at the HMDK Stuttgart for “Coaching Sirius 6.0”, providing guidance to pianists experiencing playing-related overload syndromes.

Silvia Molan has been performing as soloist, with orchestra and as chamber musician on stages in Germany, France, Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Austria and the USA. She has won more than 30 piano competitions, mostly first prizes and special awards, from early age. Among them, the first prize at the sixth edition of the Brazilian national competition for young soloists “Preludio”.

Silvia Molan started having piano lessons with Regina Damiatti at 7 and during eight years, with Rosa Maria Tolón. She studied Bachelor of Music with Prof. Dr. Eduardo Monteiro at the University of São Paulo, where she also had lessons with Prof. Dr. Luciana Sayure. A scholarship brought her to Paris to study with Rena Shereshevskaya at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot for a year. Afterwards, she obtained a DAAD scholarship to study Master Piano Performance at the Karlsruhe University of Music (Germany), in the class of Prof. Michael Uhde, where she also had lessons with Anna Zassimova and chamber music lessons with Prof. Ralf Gothóni and Prof. Angelika Merkle. 2019-2022 she studied her second Master of Music at the HMDK Stuttgart with Prof. Ulrike Wohlwender (piano pedagogy) and Prof. Dr. Michael Göllner (instrumental pedagogy), supported by a scholarship from Piano Fischer, Stuttgart.

She carries with her significant learning and inspiration also from international festivals and master classes, among others, with Cristina Ortiz, Dina Yoffe, Maria João Pires, Sergio Gallo, Richard Raymond, Guigla Katsarava, Marina Lomazov and Klaus Hellwig.

Take a look at her recital for Stretto 2021 at the public premiere of Sirius 6.0!

In 1997, Hannah Reimann independently rebuilt her Steinway piano to better accommodate her hand size. Her success with the instrument has made her the face of the Stretto as a producer of concerts. Ms. Reimann was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal as a “musician on a mission to make the world safe for small pianists.”

In October 2023, she met David Klavins leading to the fruitful collaboration between Klavins Piano and Stretto Piano Concerts introducing the revolutionary Una Corda Stretto Piano. This unique new instrument has keys with a 5.8 inch (147 mm) octave width and is offered in both a 64-key model, suitable for music by JS Bach and his contemporaries, and an 88-key model for all music.

In the 1990s, Reimann played stretto pianos in Canada and Japan, and contacted all the major manufacturers including Steinway, Yamaha, Kawai, Bösendorfer, and Roland, presenting proposals and materials directly to executives to influence them. She offered her piano for concerts and traveled extensively to research and meet her goals.

She has produced public concerts using her personal Steinway “Stretto” piano in New York City since 2008.

In 2018, the CEO of Steinway & Sons told her to put her Steinway Model C stretto grand piano in a public place, again, to “see what happens.” In 2021, she became the only liaison for anyone wanting an original Stretto grand piano from Steinway & Sons.

For more than 30 years, her goal has been to influence piano manufacturers worldwide to offer narrow-key pianos (which we now generically call “Stretto”) and to produce concerts with them everywhere. Following in the footsteps of Josef Hofmann, Yoshinao Nakada, Christopher Donison, and Daniel Barenboim, these pioneers inspired her to tirelessly continue with this goal since they all advocated for, owned, and played pianos with narrow keys. She has promoted pianists who perform on DS Keyboards, a Sirius 6.0 Piano, and Kaduk keyboards via Stretto Piano Concerts and the ISPF since 2021.

Barbara Lister-Sink is an internationally acclaimed pianist and teacher, is a graduate
of Smith College and holds the Prix d’Excellence from the Utrecht Conservatory and an Ed.D. from Columbia University. A former member of the Artist Faculty of the Eastman School of Music, she has collaborated with some of the world’s most renowned performers, composers, and in numerous music festivals throughout North America, Europe, and in Australia. Formerly keyboardist for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, she has also taught on the piano faculties of the Amsterdam Muziek Lyceum, Duke University, and the Brevard Music Center and is currently directs America’s first Graduate Certificate Program and Master of Music in Performance and Pedagogy with an Emphasis in Injury-Preventive Keyboard Technique at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Lister-Sink is acknowledged as a global leader in injury-preventive keyboard technique. Her video/DVD Freeing the Caged Bird
– Developing Well-Coordinated, Injury-Preventive Piano Technique won the distinguished 2002 Music Teachers National Association-Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award and was praised as “A monumental work!” by pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. She is a frequent presenter at national and international conferences, including the Music Teachers National Association, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, Chicago, IL; and the International Society of Music Educators in Glasgow, Scotland, and the 2020 Virtual ISME Conference from Helsinki, Finland. Through her research-validated Lister-Sink Method©; 2016 TED X talk; hundreds of workshops at universities, conservatories, summer institutes, and professional conferences; and frequent articles in music journals, Lister-Sink has helped thousands of keyboardists from around the world remove technical obstacles to their musical development. A Steinway Artist since 1977 and a previewer for Oxford University Press, Lister-Sink was recently invited to write a series of articles for the Piano Magazine, The American Music Teacher, and European Piano Teachers Association Piano Journal. She was chosen by Musical America Global as one of America’s “Top Professionals of 2018” who have contributed to the music profession as innovators, independent thinkers, and visionary leaders.

Additionally, Lister-Sink is a visual artist whose work is frequently exhibited. She is also a fitness and gym enthusiast who enjoys power-lifting.

The Brazilian pianist Camila De Oliveira began her musical studies at the age of 6. She completed her bachelor's degree in piano performance after attending the Faculdade de Artes Alcântara Machado, Brazil. In 2019 Camila received her postgraduate diploma in Music with a specialisation in piano performance at the University of Auckland under Dr Rae de Lisle, and in 2021 she completed her master's degree in Piano Performance also at the University of Auckland. Camila is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland.

Camila won many prizes in piano competitions, such as the 20th ArtLivre Piano Competition, 8th Piano Competition Maestro Rodrigo Tavares, 24th "Paulo Giovanini" Piano Competition, 7th National Piano Competition Maestro Spartaco Rossi, 1st Piracicaba International Piano Concerto Competition. In 2020 she not only was the recipient of the Ada Kathleen and Barbara Ellen Watson Scholarship, but she also won the Llewelyn Jones Prize in Music for Piano at the University of Auckland for the second consecutive year.

She has played with many orchestras, such as the Symphonic Orchestra of the Municipal Theater of São Paulo, Bachiana SESI-SP Foundation Orchestra, São Pedro Theatro Orchestra, and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

For four years, Camila was the principal pianist of the Academic Choir of the OSESP, Symphonic Orchestra of São Paulo State.

Furthermore, she has maintained an intense career as a collaborative pianist and piano teacher.

Charmian Keay is a New Zealand born violinist from Auckland. Born to musician parents Miranda Adams (Assistant Concertmaster of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra) and Nigel Keay (Paris-based composer), she has freelanced with all of the major orchestras in New Zealand and in 2021 won a permanent violin position in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Taught first mainly by her mother, other teachers included Justine Cormack (NZ Trio Founder), Kevin Lefohn (director of the Queenstown Violin Summer School) and Tessa Petersen (Concertmaster of Dunedin Symphony Orchestra).

Charmian studied a Postgraduate Diploma in violin performance in 2012 as a Trinity Laban Scholar studying with acclaimed soloist Matthew Trusler, at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Prior to this she graduated from the University of Otago with First Class Honours in Performance Violin in 2008, after which she was invited to be 2009 Elman Poole Fellow of the prestigious graduate orchestra, the Southbank Sinfonia, based in Waterloo, London.

European performances included a solo recital in Oxford of Mozart’s Concerto No. 5 in A Major, as well as various chamber music recitals in venues such as the Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall, and in festivals including the 2010 Paris Oboe Festival, and the Anghiari Festival, Italy.

Since coming back to Auckland she has performed regularly as a soloist with the Blackbird Ensemble, which did a national tour of their ‘Bjork’ show in 2019. She has led Auckland-based chamber music ensembles Moonshine Quartet, Korutet (which toured to Paris in 2014), and is currently leader of Auckland String Group. She is also violinist for the historically-costumed Wellington-based string trio, Quantum Femmes.

Charmian plays on a violin by Dimitri Atanassov, Cremona and bow by Doriane Bodart of Paris.

Chelsea Solis, 7, a first grader from Spence School (NYC) started

her piano journey when she was 4 years old. Her piano teacher is Dr. Natela Mchedlishvili. She

has made several successful appearances at international competitions, including first place in

AFAF Golden Era of Romantic Music International Competition 2021, first prize and exceptional

young talent special prize in 2022 Golden Classical Music Awards International Competition,

first Place Winner (Young Musicians Category) as well as Judges Distinction Award of the

American Protégé International Piano & Strings Competition 2022. And she recently won II

place in XV Chopin International Piano Competition. She has performed at Lincoln Center in

2022 and Carnegie Hall in 2022 and 2023.

Born in Madrid, Miguel began his music theory and piano studies and piano at an early age at the Royal Conservatoire. He also earned degrees in Clinical Psychology and Chemistry, before moving to the US to pursue a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. Miguel is now a professional in the pharmaceutical industry, based in London.

Since his return to piano studies in 2017, Miguel has earned the Associate of the Royal Schools of Music Diploma in 2020, and a Distinction in his Licenciate of Trinity College London Diploma in Piano Performance in 2021 under the guidance and mentorship of Graham Fitch.

Miguel's piano has been retrofitted with a 6-inch octave keyboard, which is the piano Miguel played in his video submission for his Licenciate Diploma. This makes it possibly the first time that an accredited qualification has been obtained on a stretto piano. Miguel's story has been featured on the Trinity website and can be found here: https://www.trinitycollege.com/about-us/success-stories/Miguel

Like all composers whose work has stood the rest of time, David Amram's 1960 Piano Sonata, like Amram himself, is a reflection of all his experiences in music and life. Each movement celebrates the many worlds of the neoclassical . masters, middle Eastern, jazz and global folklore, all inspired by the architecture of traditional classical music, so that the soloist and the listener can both feel that they are being spoken to.

As his 93rd birthday approaches, Amram is now regarded as one of the most influential living composers of his time, since his appointment by Leonard Bernstein as the NY Philharmonic's first-ever composer-in-residence in 1966.

With over 100 symphonic , chamber, choral , theatrical, and operatic scores, all published C.P Peters, as well as his classic scores for "Splendor the Grass", "The Manchurian Candidate" and Jack Kerouac's " Pull my Daisy.”

A new book, The Many worlds of David Amram: the Renaissance Man of American Music by Dean Birkenkamp is being released for worldwide distribution by Routledge/Francis & Taylor this November . with essays written by symphony conductors, jazz journalists, college professors, Native American activists, film historians, folk musicians, musicologists, orchestral and chamber music performers, singer -songwriters, theater and film directors, novelists and people from all the places in Amram's life where music has taken him to.

In addition to constantly writing new music, and a fourth book, he continues to perform around the world as a guest conductor, soloist, multi-instrumentalist, band leader at jazz, folk and classical festivals and narrates them in five languages.

All of David Amram’s classical concert music for the past 60 years is published by CF. Peters Corporation. He is represented by Douglas A. Yeager. His continuing adventures in music and life can be seen on his webpage www.davidamram.com

Thomas Weaver is an American pianist, composer, and conductor currently on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music and Boston University Tanglewood Institute. An active soloist and chamber musician, Weaver has been presented by organizations including Carnegie Hall, La Jolla Music Society, Princeton University Concerts, New York Chamber Music Festival, Waterford Concerts, and the Kimmel Center. This has brought him to many cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, San Diego, Washington DC, Nashville, Dallas, and Berlin, in addition to festival appearances at Tanglewood Music Festival and Red Rocks Music Festival. Weaver has performed with a number of eminent musicians such as Jess Gillam, David Amram, Elmira Darvarova, Kenneth Radnofsky, Philip Myers, Eric Ruske, Jennifer Frautschi, Gene Pokorny, and members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared as a featured soloist with ensembles including Curtis Institute’s 20/21 Ensemble, Alea III, and Boston University Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artists Orchestra. An active chamber musician, Weaver is currently a member of the Amram Ensemble, Trio Ardente, and New England Chamber Players. A champion of new music, Weaver has premiered many new compositions, including works by David Amram, Reena Esmail, David Loeb, Anthony Plog, John H. Wallace, Francine Trester, Alistair Coleman, and Christopher LaRosa. He has multiple albums with Affetto Records including From Liszt to Ligeti, featuring Hungarian music for violin and piano and Horn Trios From Mozart to Piazzolla and Beyond, which both were released in 2024.

As a composer his music has been performed across four continents, including countries such as the United States, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Australia. His works have been commissioned by a number of organizations and musicians including Boston University (150th Anniversary), Penn Museum, The Marian Anderson Historical Society, The New York Chamber Music Festival, Elmira Darvarova, Dr. Brittany Lasch, Kenneth Radnofsky, Pharos Quartet, Alea III, and the Daraja Ensemble. Weaver’s works have been performed by large ensembles such as the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Mannes American Composers Orchestra and was the winner of the Bohuslav Martinu Composition Award.

An active educator, Weaver has presented lectures and classes at a variety of locations, including Northwestern University, Murray State University, and Austin Peay State University. Recent students have been accepted to Princeton University, Juilliard Pre-College, and have won awards including the Morton Gould Young Composers Award from ASCAP. Weaver is the former music director of the Marian Anderson Historical Society. For more information please visit www.thomaseweaver.com.

Hailed as “… a deity of elegance” by the New Brunswick Beacon, Dr. Tina Chong is an international award-winning pianist and teaching artist. A native of Banff, Canada, Tina has been described as, “…mature and yet fresh, imbued with tradition and yet inhabited by individuality, the marks of an artist” (The Herald Times).

She currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at San Diego State University and performs regularly with the San Diego Symphony as principal keyboardist. Tina’s recital career has brought her to such venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and Sala Chopin in Mexico City. She has been featured in La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, the Portland International Summer Festival, and the WFMT Series of Chicago. Under the management of Jeunesses Musicales of Canada, Tina has gone on extensive concert tours throughout Canada. She is the prizewinner of several international competitions, including the Montreal International Musical Competition and the Jacques Klein Piano Competition in Brazil.

An artist of great versatility, Tina performs in a wide range of genres such as classical, pop, Broadway, and film music in orchestra and chamber ensembles, as well as dance collaborations. Her prowess on piano, harpsichord, fortepiano, celesta, synthesizer, and harmonium have led to projects with artists such as Rachel Barton Pine, Inon Barnaton, Anthony McGill, Stefan Jackiw, and Tyler Duncan. This breadth of creative activity continues to inspire Tina’s engagement and cross-pollination with a wide community of musicians and audiences.

Tina is a passionate advocate of alternatively-sized keyboards and is responsible for the acquisition of two reduced-sized piano keyboards at San Diego State University. She is an active clinician, giving frequent national and international presentations, masterclasses, and adjudications. Tina earned her Doctor of Music degree at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music with a major in piano performance and minors in music education and historical performance practice. Her mentors were Arnaldo Cohen, Menahem Pressler, and Elisabeth Wright. Tina is also a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she studied with Angela Cheng. She has worked closely with artist-teachers Robert McDonald, Jerome Lowenthal, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Julian Martin, Arie Vardi, and Menahem Pressler at numerous international summer festivals.

Award winning pianist Donna Weng Friedman enjoys a distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, curator, producer, filmmaker and app developer. In 2023 she was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame and was the inaugural winner of the Women Who Innovate Grant 2023, awarded by the International Alliance for Women in Music, Global Initiatives committee for her "impactful and meaningful" work.

Donna wrote, directed and produced the award winning documentary short, NEVER FADE AWAY featuring Chun Wai Chan, the first principal dancer of Chinese descent in New York City Ballet’s 75-year history. Never Fade Away premiered at NYU"s Jack Crystal Theater, appeared on the big screen at Times Square in honor of AAPI Heritage Month in May 2023 and has since won thirty-nine laurels from film festivals worldwide.

Her album Heritage and Harmony: Silver Linings, featuring exclusively AAPI/BIPOC artists, garnered the Silver Medal at the 2023 One Earth Award, and two Silver Medals at the 2022 Global. Music Awards. Donna was awarded a 2022 New York Women Composer’s grant for her series “Five Composers and a Pianist”.

In collaboration with WQXR, Donna created and produced Heritage and Harmony, a virtual concert series in celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

She is the co-creator and co-host of HER/MUSIC;HER/STORY, a mini-series on WQXR that shines a light on women composers, past and present.

On March 8th, 2022, she launched a virtual education program in collaboration with the National Women’s History Museum called Heritage and Harmony: Her Art, Her Voice, featuring leading female BIPOC role models in the arts to inspire and empower future generations of groundbreaking young women.

Donna has performed in concert halls worldwide, and appeared as soloist with major symphony orchestras, including the Atlanta, Philadelphia and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras. She has collaborated with world-class artists including Carter Brey, Anthony McGill, Elizabeth Mann, Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Paul Neubauer, Marya Martin and Kelly Hall-Tompkins.

The curator of the Donna Weng Friedman '80 Master Class Series at Princeton University, she is a member of Princeton University Music Department’s Advisory Council. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University where she was a University Scholar and a Master’s of Music Degree from the Juilliard School where she was a winner of the highly coveted Gina Bachauer Piano Competition as well as the William Petschek full scholarship award. Donna had the honor and privilege of studying with the great pedagogue Nadia Boulanger and the inimitable pianist Radu Lupu.

Anna Arazi is a Boston-based Russian-Israeli classical pianist and educator who enthusiastically advocates for contemporary and rarely performed music by female composers. Anna has premiered dozens of solo and chamber works by American, British, Israeli and Russian composers, including Ketty Nez, Vera Ivanova, Talia Amar and Angela Slater. Her performance credits include the Bell’Arte festival in Belgium, Paine Hall at Harvard University, the Mishkenot Sha’ananim Center in Jerusalem, and Weill Recital Hall in NYC. Anna works with advanced students in her private studio and serves as a collaborative pianist at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Anna is an afNiliated artist at MIT and the current president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the World Piano Teachers Association.

Award-winning concert pianist, Julia Siciliano has been heralded as a musician with “fabulous creative power” by the Bonn General-Anzeiger. Ms. Siciliano has become a well respected artist on the world stage, being invited as a solo artist by many prestigious orchestras, and festivals, most recently with the Orquestra Sinfónica de la Region de Murcia for the MurciArt Music Festival. A winner of many local and international piano competitions, Julia has won top prizes at the Sicily International Piano Competition, Heida Hermanns International Competition, Iowa Piano Competition, and MTNA National Competition. A highly active chamber musician, Julia has been invited to perform on concert series and festivals with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players, the Euskadiko Orchestra (Basque National Orchestra)’s chamber music series “Miramon Matinees”, the MurciArt Festival in Murcia, Spain, and with the soloists of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano. She has given recitals with Metropolitan Opera stars Amanda Pabyan, Eric Owens, and Marina Domashenko, and internationally acclaimed string players Ray Chen, Simone Lamsma, and Kyril Zlotnikov. Most notably, Julia performed the complete “accompanied sonatas” of Beethoven in the year 2020 at the Teatro Victoria Eugenia in Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain, and in various venues throughout the United States, France, and Sweden.

A top prize winner at the New York Summer Music Festival Concerto Competition and the Rondo Young Artist Competition, pianist Julia Furlan has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Tenri Cultural Institute, Montclair State University, Nyack NY’s Carnegie Room, Maureen’s Jazz Cellar, and the Greenwich House, among others. She has performed as a soloist for the Leschetitzky Association Gifted Young People’s concerts and Summit Music Festival’s Solo Gala.

An advocate of musician’s health and performing arts medicine, she received her Master’s degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy with an emphasis in Injury Preventive Piano Technique from Salem College, under piano technique pioneer Dr. Barbara Lister-Sink. Julia also holds a certificate in the “Essentials of Performing Arts Medicine” and teaches at the Intensive Training Workshops of the Lister-Sink Institute. She received her Yoga Teaching Certification to further her knowledge of the body and how it relates to playing the piano.

As a William Macdonald Scholarship recipient, Julia graduated from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music with a Bachelor’s in Piano Performance under Sara Laimon, with a minor in Music Entrepreneurship. From her first lessons at age 4, she has also studied with David Budway, Christine Renstrom, Michael Oelbaum, and Mark Pakman, the latter at Manhattan School of Music’s Precollege Program. Throughout her studies, she has premiered several works written by living composers Henri Colombat, Gabriel Dufour- Laperrière, and Drew Harris.

After studying and playing on alternatively sized keyboards with narrow piano keys, also known as stretto pianos, she is an advocate for smaller-handed, female pianists who have been disadvantaged by the large, conventional keyboard size. She has worked with the International Stretto Piano Festival since 2023, which champions these instruments and the artists that play them.

Apart from her career as a performer, Julia started as a writer for the classical music news source, The Violin Channel, in 2018. She now serves as acting Editorial Manager, leading a team of writers and supervising the website’s content and international partnerships.

Description text goes herePianist ELIZABETH WOLFF has developed a large following both as a chamber musician and as a soloist. She has collaborated with such noted string quartets as the Shanghai, the Brunswick, the Rosamonde, and the Zapolski, and has participated in music festivals including Music Mountain, Aspen, Music at La Gesse, Mohonk, The Beethoven Festival, and the Festival de Musique en Lorraine. Founder and Director of Music at Lake Willoughby, Ms. Wolff has also been on chamber music faculties of Summertrios and Music Mountain and was for 5 years, Co-Director of Chamber Music Retreats at Vassar. She is currently on the faculty of the Young Artist World Piano Festival and is the Artistic Director of Music @ 10,000 Lakes.

Ms. Wolff is recipient of numerous awards and sponsorships including the Pro Musicis Foundation's International Award, The Belsky Music Award, a Music at La Gesse Fellowship, and The Jerome Foundation debut recording grant. In New York, she was presented as recitalist on The Distinguished Artist Series at The Tisch Center of the 92nd Street 'Y', by Pro Musicis at Merkin Concert Hall and Florence Gould Hall, by The Metropolitan Museum of Art for their instrument collection, and at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

As well, she has been featured pianist in live radio broadcasts on WQXR, WNCN and WNYC. Other United States solo concert performances include The Phillips Collection in Washington DC, The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago, The Schubert Club in St. Paul, and numerous Pro Musicis sponsored national recital tours. Miss Wolff's appearance at London's Purcell Room received rave critical acclaim and was followed with highly successful tours of Austria, Holland and France. She was invited back to Vienna to perform works of Brahms in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of his death. Ms. Wolff's affinity for and love of the piano works of Rachmaninoff have garnered special notice. She was guest soloist on WQXR's "Russian Nights" special broadcast, and she has conducted master classes as well as performed in recital at the renowned Rachmaninoff Institute in Tambov, Russia. In 2005, her article on Brahms' evolving use of three was published for the Institute's International Science Conference. In addition, Ms. Wolff has performed for the International Conference of the Rachmaninoff Society in London and Vienna. Of her recording of the Six Moments Musicaux, Opus 16, American Record Guide noted, "I have never heard anything quite like the enchanting soft playing in No. 5, and No. 6 is a remarkable performance...a stimulating and musical pianist." This disc, which also features a premiere recording of the two sets of Moments Musicaux (Opus 7 and 84) by Moritz Moszkowski, is currently available at www.magnatune.com/artists/wolff.

Elizabeth Wolff's commitment to teaching is demonstrated through the broad range of her educational activities. She was seen on CBS '60 Minutes' in a segment featuring her student, the prodigious young composer Jay Greenberg. She has been on faculties and given master classes for numerous colleges, including the University of Minnesota,

Hunter College, SUNY at Purchase and New York University and has presented for The College Music Society, the World Piano Pedagogy Conference and for The Piano Teachers Congress of New York. She has coached chamber music in affiliation with Chamber Music Associates, as well as maintained a diverse class of individual students. Her Access To Music series, whose intention is to introduce works by contemporary composers while simultaneously providing more visibility and viability for the solo recital is celebrating its 10th year. Ms. Wolff received a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University and a Master of Science degree from The Juilliard School where she was a scholarship student of Rosina Lhevinne. Her mentor is currently and always Seymour Bernstein.

Violist Jessica Thompson is a passionate chamber musician who performs regularly throughout the United States and abroad as a member of the Daedalus Quartet. The quartet, Grand Prize winner of the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition and resident quartet at Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two from 2005-07, is currently in residence at the University of Pennsylvania. As a member of Daedalus, Ms. Thompson has premiered works by such composers as Fred Lerdahl, Joan Tower, Richard Wernick, and Vivian Fung. Ms. Thompson has also toured with Musicians from Marlboro and has performed at numerous festivals, including the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the Halcyon Music Festival, Mimir Chamber Music Festival, and the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. She performs often as a member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, of which she serves as co-Executive Director.

\Ms. Thompson has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and in recital in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC. She currently teaches at Princeton and Columbia Universities. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Karen Tuttle.

Kathryn Mientka Farruggia performed internationally to critical acclaim as the pianist in the Mientka Duo, which she and her late husband, Tyme Mientka co-founded in 1983. The Duo gave concerts for 20 years in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, and the USA, where they were featured nationally on radio and television. Their debut at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. was received with an enthusiastic standing ovation. They also were featured numerous times on National Public Radio´s Performance Today, and in 1995 they were featured on PBS television in an hour-long documentary, “Almost Famous: the Mientka Duo”. The documentary was subsequently submitted by PBS for an Emmy. The Mientka Duo was the recipient of many honors and awards, including a special prize at the Concours International de Musique de Chambre in Paris.

Kathryn holds a Master’s Degree in Music Performance from the University of Southern California. She taught at Montana State University for two years. Subsequently she and her husband moved to Germany, where they lived for eight years, teaching and touring internationally. In 1995 they moved to Colorado. From 1999 to 2004 they founded and directed an after-school music and dance conservatory, a youth orchestra and a youth choir.

Kathryn founded the Western Slope Concert Series in Colorado, now in its 24th season, and is a founding member, pianist and music arranger in the cross-over Celtic band FEAST, which has toured nationally with great success and has been featured on PBS. Kathryn is founding member of Il Divo Colorado, a singing group which has toured Colorado with great success. She was staff pianist for the vocal faculty for six years at Colorado Mesa University and was staff piano accompanist for the vocal faculty at Northern Arizona University for two years.

Her special crusade is promoting the DS 5.5 narrow-keys keyboard, made by David Steinbuhler especially for small hands. She performs regularly on the keyboard, which fits into her Yamaha grand piano. In 2019 she presented a lecture-demonstration on the narrow keyboard at Northern State University in Flagstaff, for the Arizona State Music Teachers Association. In 2021 she performed a series of three piano recitals on the DS 5.5 at the Homestake Opera House in Lead, South Dakota. The themed lecture recitals were titled The Romantic Piano, The Epic Liszt Sonata, and The Piano through History. Kathryn and her husband Charles Farruggia recently relocated from the Black Hills to the beautiful Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. In December of 2022 they opened “Farruggia’s Music and Supper Club” in Mountain View, Arkansas. The supper club offers Italian cooking by Charles, and following dinner, Kathryn and Charles perform a show. The show features “oldies” songs sung by Charles, an accomplished baritone, and classical piano solos featuring Kathryn. Kathryn performs on her Yamaha C-7 grand piano with the DS 5.5 keyboard.

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Composer/pianist and Steinway Artist Jed Distler studied with Andrew Thomas, Stanley Lock and William Komaiko, and taught for more than 20 years at Sarah Lawrence College. Early in his career Distler gained acclaim for his transcriptions of jazz piano solos by Art Tatum and Bill Evans, while his new music piano recitals have offered premiers of works by Virgil Thomson, Andrew Thomas, Richard Rodney Bennett, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, Lois V Vierk and many more.

Distler’s presenting organization ComposersCollaborative, Inc earned a 2013 Guinness Record for world’s largest keyboard ensemble, featuring an composition of his own scored for 175 electronic keyboards. In 2012 he became the first pianist to perform jazz legend Thelonious Monk’s complete songs over the course of a single 90-minute concert. In 2021 Distler embarked on a multi-year project performing all of Mahler’s Symphonies in four-hand arrangements with pianists around the globe. His 2023 European tour included performances, master classes and artist residencies at the Bari Piano Festival, the Karlskrona Piano Festival, the Rovigo Comservatory, Cremona Mondomusica, and Festival Musical Durtal. He currently is composing 1,827 Bagatelles for the 2027 Beethoven anniversary year. Distler has recorded prolifically for the high resolution Spirio player piano, and his solo piano CD “Fearless Monk” is available from TNC Music.

Distler is the new Artistic Director for Salon Concerts at Klavierhaus, a weekly series that provides an inclusive environment and expressive forum for pianists of all generations. As Artist-in-Residence for WWFM.Org The Classical Network, Distler is the creator, host and producer of the 2017 ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award radio program Between the Keys. Distler contributes reviews and articles to Gramophone and Classicstoday.com, and has written numerous CD booklet notes for Sony/BMG and Universal Classics. Most importantly, Distler turned down an offer to become head of the Music Department at Trump University.

Pianist Eric Clark has performed to great acclaim throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Praising his debut performance of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka at the International Piano Series in Charleston, South Carolina, Charleston Today wrote: “Clark managed brilliant execution throughout, perfectly capturing Stravinsky’s ingeniously quirky structures and headlong rhythmic drive.” Of his appearance at the prestigious Concerts at One series at Trinity Wall Street Concerts, Lucid Culture wrote that “it’s not often that audiences get to hear the thoughtful side of Liszt: Kudos to Clark for delivering it with grace and, if anything, understatement.”

Eric has appeared as soloist with several orchestras, performing Saint-Saens’s Concerto No. 2 under the baton of maestro Sergei Babayan in Perugia, Italy at Music Fest Perugia; the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Queensboro Symphony Orchestra; Chopin Concerto No. 2 with the Rockland Symphony Orchestra; Mozart Concerto No. 24 and Bach Concerto No. 1 in D Minor with the Palisades Sinfonietta; the Haydn D Major Concerto with Sinfonia Perugina under Enrico Marconi; the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Space Coast Symphony on two consecutive evenings; and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic. As orchestral pianist, he performed in Gabriela Lena Frank’s Three Latin American Dances for Orchestra in Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium under the baton of maestro Keith Lockhart. Other orchestral piano performances include Michael Tippett’s Concerto for Orchestra in Heinz Hall under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis, and Hindemith’s Der Dämon in Severance Hall under maestro Juan Pablo Izquierdo.

Eric regularly performs at prestigious venues throughout New York City and Europe, including Carnegie Hall, the Klavierhaus Concert Series, Piano Evenings with David Dubal, the Musicians Club of New York, Victor Borge Hall at Scandinavia House, the Roerich Museum, Trinity Wall Street, the Juilliard School, and the Manhattan School of Music. He was invited to compete in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2013, and was the only American contestant selected to attend the First International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw, Poland in 2018. His awards and accolades include second prize in the 2023 International Chopin Competition of Hartford and the 2019 Paderewski International Competition in Farmington, Connecticut.

A passionate advocate of new music, Eric recorded Le Mat-XXII Arcana, a solo piano work by Christian Kriegeskotte, available for download on Spotify. The work is an ambitious cycle of twenty-two pieces, each based on one of the “major arcana” of the tarot. A keen performer of chamber music, Eric has also performed throughout the East Coast with violinist Artur Kaganovskiy; together, they recorded the three Brahms Violin Sonatas for Centaur Records. He also has diverse interests in Cuban music, jazz, improvisation, and historical fortepiano performance.

Hailing from Bergen County, NJ, Eric received early musical instruction from Kai Pangune Kim, winning many competitions in the tri-state area. He has formed a close musical association studying with Andrei Gavrilov in Zürich, Switzerland and Mikhail Voskresensky in New York. Other teachers and mentors include Earl Wild, Ilana Vered, Byron Janis, Juana Zayas, Ann Schein, Michael Blum, Simon Mulligan, and Nina Lelchuk.

Eric earned a bachelor’s degree with university honors (equivalent of summa cum laude) and a full scholarship for his master’s degree in music from Carnegie Mellon University, where his primary teachers were Enrique Graf and Sergey Schepkin. He is also an accomplished visual artist, and his award-winning works have been displayed at art festivals throughout New Jersey.

Three-time Emmy-nominated pianist/composer/raconteur Steve Sandberg plays classical masterpieces as well as original music that masterfully blends classical, global music traditions, and jazz with the excitement of virtuosic improvisation.

In his concert, Mr. Sandberg will perform a selection of his favorite classical compositions (several Chopin Mazurkas, plus pieces by Debussy, Ravel, Bach); his original compositions inspired by these masterpieces; and 20th century jazz masterpieces by Billy Strayhorn, Chick Corea, and others. There will also be selections from Mr. Sandberg’s “Dream Music Project,” begun during the pandemic, in which he turns his listeners' dreams into music.

Mr. Sandberg began playing the piano at the age of four and has studied with the legendary pianist/teacher Seymour Bernstein. While getting his classical music degree at Yale University, he fell under the spell of Latin rhythms and it changed his life. Deeply drawn to these rhythms, he moved back to New York after graduating to immerse himself in the world of jazz and Afro-Caribbean music. His mentor was multi-instrumentalist Mario Rivera, a member of the Dizzie Gillespie, Tito Puente, and George Coleman ensembles. Mr. Sandberg was pianist, composer and arranger for Rivera’s “Salsa Refugee” group, and also performed with Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, and Ruben Blades. A highlight of this period was an appearance in Rio and São Paolo in a duo with vocalist Bebel Gilberto.

Steve has toured with David Byrne (“Rei Momo") as keyboardist and vocalist, and was musical director for Lincoln Center’s summer Brazilfest series. He has conducted and arranged for Broadway (Chronicle of a Death Foretold) and for many regional and off-Broadway theatres, including the New York Shakespeare Festival. He was lead composer and musical director for Nickelodeon’s landmark children’s programs “Dora the Explorer” and “Go, Diego, Go!”

In 2017, Mr. Sandberg founded the Steve Sandberg Quartet, featuring the violinist Zach Brock (critically acclaimed as “the pre-eminent improvising violinist of his generation”), bassist Michael O’Brien, and drummer Mauricio Zottarelli. Their first CD, “Alaya,” was released on ArtistShare. Dan Bilawsky of All About Jazz called this CD “... a breathtaking composite of world music, jazz, and classical expressions ... personal and precise in its direction, yet universal in its language and ability to connect.” The quartet has performed at Birdland, the DiMenna Center, Sidedoor Jazz, the Allentown Symphony Jazz Upstairs series and many other venues.

In August of 2021, Mr. Sandberg and Mr. Brock performed a duo concert at New York’s Bargemusic series and in October, 2022, gave a series of concerts and taught several masterclasses in Egypt, sponsored by the American University of Cairo and the U.S. Embassy.

In 2019, Mr. Sandberg was commissioned by Kelly Hall-Tompkins’ Music Kitchen project, which presents classical music at New York City homeless shelters, to write an original song for tenor and string quartet. The song, setting lyrics by former Music Kitchen clients to music, was presented at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in April, 2022.

Violinist Zach Brock is a sought-after soloist, sideman, and educator, as well as a multi Grammy Award-winning member of the contemporary jazz band Snarky Puppy. Born to a musical family in Lexington, KY, Zach began studying violin at the age of four and was performing publicly by the age of six. Zach’s improvisational skills were honed in the rich Chicagojazz scene while studying classical violin at Northwestern University. He released his debut album, Zach Brock & The Coffee Achievers, in 2003. Two years and two records later he was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall by trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas. Zach joined the band of legendary bassist Stanley Clarkein 2007 and that same year he and his wife, filmmaker Erin Harper, relocated to Brooklyn. From 2010 to 2012 Zach led a chord-less trio of violin, bass and drums called The Magic Numberand since 2012 he has released three albums on Criss Cross Jazz, as well as two co-led projects with renowned pianist Phil Markowitz. In 2017 Zach formed a new “chord-less” trio with Matt Uleryand Jon Deitemyer. Their collective 2019 album Wonderment garnered rave reviews and inclusion in the “Best of 2019” lists by Downbeat and Jazziz Magazines.

Zach is most widely recognized through his sixteen years of touring and recording with the genre-bending supergroup Snarky Puppy. Since his first appearance on Snarky’s 2008 on Bring Us The Bright, Zach has appeared on seven subsequent recordings including the 2017 Grammy Award-winning album Culcha Vulcha, 2019’s Immigrance, the 2021 Grammy Award-winning Live At The Royal Albert Hall, and the 2023 Grammy-award winning album Empire Central (to which he contributed his song “Honiara''). In February 2023 Zach performed with legendary guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkelat the GroundUP Festivalin Miami as part of Kurt’s Caipi Band. In November ‘23 GroundUP Records released Drawing Songs, the debut recording by “Brock, Lanzetti, Ogawa,”a new co-led trio with fellow Snarky Puppy members Bob Lanzetti and Keita Ogawa.

A passionate educator, Zach has coached hundreds of musicians through the workshops of Jamey Aebersoldand Mike Block, masterclasses at the Sibelius Academyin Helsinki and Carnegie Hallin New York, and as a five-year “Artist In Residence” at Temple Universityin Philadelphia.

His eleventh solo album, the Grammy-nominated Dirty Mindz featuring Eric Harland, Mark Lettieri, Justin Stanton, and Jonathan Maron, was released in 2022 on GroundUP Records. Zach's latest collaborative album with fellow Snarky Puppy bandmates Bob Lanzetti and Keita Ogawa, Drawing Songs, was released in November 2023. Zach remains a perennial coffee fanatic and skateboard enthusiast, and currently lives with his wife and daughters in the NYC area.