Competitor Selection Jury
Angela Cheng, Canada
Praised for her brilliant technique, tonal beauty, and superb musicianship, Canadian pianist Angela Cheng is one of her country’s national treasures. She has appeared as a soloist with more than 100 orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Buffalo Philharmonic, and the symphonies of Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, St. Louis, Houston, San Diego, Indianapolis, Syracuse, Utah, and Colorado.
An avid recitalist, Cheng has performed solo and chamber recitals throughout North America, Asia, and Europe, including New York City (Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the 92nd Street Y), Wigmore Hall in London, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as venues in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Montreal, Toronto, Taiwan, Italy, and Australia. In 2012, she made her Carnegie Hall debut as soloist with the Edmonton Symphony.
In 2009, at the invitation of Pinchas Zukerman, Cheng toured Europe and China with the Zukerman Chamber Players. She joined them again in the spring of 2010 for a U.S. tour, which included concerts at Kennedy Center and the 92nd Street Y in New York. Subsequent seasons have seen multiple tours of Europe and South America, including performances in Paris, London, Prague, Moscow, Warsaw, Budapest, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, at the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and at the Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier, and Ravinia festivals.
Cheng has been invited to give master classes throughout North America and in Asia, including the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, Taichung University in Taiwan, Indiana University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Texas. She has served on the jury of many competitions, including the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the Esther Honens International Piano Competition, the Montreal International Piano Competition, the William Kapell International Piano Competition, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the New Orleans International Piano Competition, and the American Pianists Association Competition.
A native of Hong Kong, Cheng studied extensively with Menahem Pressler at Indiana University and with Sascha Gorodnitzki at the Juilliard School. At Oberlin, she was honored with the 2011-12 Excellence in Teaching Award.
Marina Lomazov, Ukraine/United States
Praised by critics as “a diva of the piano” (The Salt Lake City Tribune), “a mesmerizing risk-taker” (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), and “simply spectacular” (Chicago International Music Foundation) Ukrainian-American pianist Marina Lomazov has established herself as one of the most passionate and charismatic performers on the concert scene today. Following major wins in the Cleveland International Piano Competition, William Kapell International Piano Competition, Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Ms. Lomazov has given major debuts in New York (Weill-Carnegie Hall) Boston (Symphony Hall), Chicago (Dame Myra Hess Concert Series), Los Angeles (Museum of Art), Shanghai (City Theater) and Kiev (Kiev International Music Festival).
She has performed as soloist with the Boston Pops, Rochester Philharmonic, Eastman Philharmonia, Chernigov Philharmonic (Ukraine), KUG Orchester Graz (Austria), Bollington Festival Orchestra (England), Piccolo Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Brevard Festival Orchestra and South Carolina Philharmonic, to name a few. New York Times chief music critic Anthony Tommasini describes a recent New York performance as “dazzling” and Talk Magazine Shanghai describes her performances as “a dramatic blend of boldness and wit”.
In recent seasons, Lomazov has performed extensively in China, South Africa, Italy, Spain, and in the United States. She is a frequent guest at music festivals in the U.S. and abroad, including Hamamatsu, Chautauqua, Brevard, Miami, Perugia (Italy), Burgos (Spain), Sulzbach-Rosenberg (Germany) and Varna (Bulgaria), among others. She has recorded for the Albany, Centaur and Innova labels and American Record Guide praised her recent recording of piano works by Rodion Shchedrin for its “breathtaking virtuosity”.
Before immigrating to the United States in 1990, Marina studied at the Kiev Conservatory where she became the youngest First Prize Winner at the all-Kiev Piano Competition. Ms. Lomazov holds degrees from the Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music, the latter bestowing upon her the highly coveted Artist’s Certificate – an honor the institution had not given a pianist for nearly two decades. Also active as a chamber musician, Lomazov has performed widely as a member of the Lomazov/Rackers Piano Duo. Praised for “demon precision and complete dedication” (Audio Society), the duo garnered significant attention as Second Prize winners at the Sixth Biennial Ellis Competition for Duo Pianists (2005), the only national duo piano competition in the United States at that time.
Ms. Lomazov is a Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music. She has served as jury member for the Cleveland International Piano Competition, Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Eastman International Piano Competition, Minnesota International Piano e-Competition, National Federation Biennial Young Artist Auditions and is the chair of the National Panel for the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts, the only organization in the United States that nominates Presidential Scholars in the arts. For 17 years she served on the faculty of the University of South Carolina School of Music, where she held the chair of Ira McKissick Koger Professor of Fine Arts Music. Together with her husband and piano duo partner Joseph Rackers, she co-founded and serves as Co-Artistic Director of the Southeastern Piano Festival in Columbia, SC and they recently began serving as a Co-Artistic Directors of the Vivace Music Foundation.
Ms. Lomazov is a Steinway Artist.
Boris Slutsky, United States
Consistently acclaimed for his exquisite tonal beauty and superb artistry, Boris Slutsky emerged on the international music scene when he captured the First Prize along with every major prize, including the Audience Prize and Wilhelm Backhaus Award, at the 1981 William Kapell International (University of Maryland) Piano Competition. His other accomplishments include first prizes at the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition and San Antonio International Keyboard Competition, and major prizes at the International Bach Competition in Memory of Glenn Gould, Gina Bachauer, Busoni, Rina Sala Gallo, and Ettore Pozzoli International Piano Competitions.
Since his orchestral debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony in 1980, Mr. Slutsky has appeared on nearly every continent as soloist and recitalist, collaborating with such eminent conductors as Dimitri Kitaenko and Valery Gergiev. He has performed with the London Philharmonic, Stuttgart State Orchestra, and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Neuss am Rhein in Germany, Bern Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland, Bergen Philharmonic in Norway, the RAI Orchestra in Milan, KBS Symphony Orchestra in Korea, and major orchestras in Spain, Russia, Colombia, and Brazil. In South Africa, he has been soloist with the orchestras of Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg. His North American engagements have included concerts with the Baltimore, Florida, Utah, and Toronto Symphonies. Mr. Slutsky has been heard on recital series throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, Latin America, and the Far East, making appearances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Kaufmann Concert Hall, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, National Concert Hall in Taipei, Performing Arts Center in Seoul, and the Teatro Colon in Bogota, among many others.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Slutsky’s almost three decades of chamber music collaborations include the critically acclaimed recording of Schumann’s Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Ilya Kaler on the Naxos label, as well as performances with many renowned artists.
Mr. Slutsky has served as a jury member of many international piano competitions and presented master classes throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. His students have won prizes at numerous prestigious international events.
Born in Moscow into a family of musicians, Mr. Slutsky received his early training at Moscow’s Gnessin School for Gifted Children as a student of Anna Kantor, and completed his formal studies at the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, studying with Nadia Reisenberg, Nina Svetlanova, John Browning, and Joseph Seiger. In addition, he has worked for many years with his mentor Alexander Eydeleman.
Mr. Slutsky joined the faculty of The Peabody Conservatory of Music in 1993. He was visiting faculty at Bienen School of Music of Northwestern University (2017-2018), and Visiting Professor of Piano at Eastman School of Music (2018-2019).
In the fall of 2019 Mr. Slutsky was appointed Visiting Professor of Piano at The Yale School of Music.
Competition Jury
Jon Kimura Parker, Canada
Chair
Pianist Jon Kimura Parker is known for his charisma, infectious enthusiasm, and dynamic performances. A veteran of the international concert stage, he has performed regularly in the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, London’s South Bank, the Sydney Opera House, and the Beijing Concert Hall. He was recently named Creative Partner for the Minnesota Orchestra’s Summer at Orchestra Hall, serves as the Artistic Director for the Honens International Piano Competition and Artistic Advisor for the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and is on the faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
Highlights of his 2019-20 season includes performances of the Barber, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, and complete Beethoven concertos with the Toronto Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Colorado Music Festival, and others. He also appears in programs for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ravinia Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and Toronto Summer Music. In addition, he performs widely throughout North America and Europe with the Montrose Trio (together with violinist Martin Beaver and cellist Clive Greensmith), and will be undertaking an extensive tour of Australia together with violinist Cho-Liang Lin.
A collaborator in a wide variety of styles, Jon Kimura Parker has performed with Doc Severinsen, Audra McDonald, Bobby McFerrin, Pablo Ziegler, and Sanjaya Malakar. As a founding member of Off the Score, he also performed with Stewart Copeland – the legendary drummer of The Police – for the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival’s 20th Anniversary Season, featuring his own arrangements of music by Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky.
Parker’s discography of a dozen albums features music ranging from Mozart and Chopin to Barber and Stravinsky. His most recent recording “Fantasy,” built around Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy, was described by Musical Toronto as giving “a big, clear picture window of a rich soul and great artistic depth.” His YouTube channel features a series of Concerto Chat videos, which explore the piano concerto repertoire.
Jon Kimura Parker studied with Edward Parker and Keiko Parker, Lee Kum-Sing at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Columbia, Marek Jablonski at the Banff Centre, and Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School. After winning the Gold Medal at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition, Parker has gone on to become an Officer of The Order of Canada and to receive Honorary Doctorates from the University of British Columbia and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto.
Fabio Bidini, Italy
Italian pianist Fabio Bidini is one of this generation’s top-flight pianists. His appearances have included performances with The London Symphony Orchestra at The Barbican, The Philharmonia Orchestra of London at Royal Festival Hall, San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Forth Worth Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra Prague at the Rudolphinum, and Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra at Liszt Academy Hall. He has collaborated with conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Carlos Prieto, Max Valdes, Dimitry Sitkovetsky, Ivan Fisher, Jesus Lopez Cobos, JoAnn Falletta, Zoltan Kocsis, Michael Christie, and Gianandrea Noseda,
Bidini’s schedule for the 2020-21 season includes orchestral appearances with Buffalo Philharmonic, Puerto Rico Symphony, and Portland Symphony as well as a performance of the Brahms Quintet with Modigliani Quartet in Kansas City.
Fabio Bidini’s 2019-20 season included performances with Colorado Symphony, a recital in Kansas City, and a chamber music concert with members of San Diego Symphony under their auspices.
Mr. Bidini has repeatedly performed at the prestigious festivals of Europe, including the Tuscan Sun Festival Cortona/Napa, Festival Radio France Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli International Piano Festival, Festival dei due Mondi and most recently, Grant Park Festival.
Fabio Bidini is also in great demand as a chamber music partner. He is the pianist of the highly acclaimed ensemble Trio Solisti and has enjoyed artistic collaboration with many ensembles and artists including American String Quartet, Janacek Quartet, Brodsky Quartet, Szymanowski Quartet, Modigliani Quartet, Zoltan Kocsis, Alexis Pia Gerlach, Maria Bachmann, Eva Urbanova, Nina Kotova, Dimitri Ashkenazy, and Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker.
Fabio Bidini began his piano studies at the age of five. He graduated magna cum laude from Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and studied composition at Florence Conservatory. He has been awarded first prize in eleven of Italy’s most prestigious national piano competitions and has been the recipient of the top prizes awarded in eight international competitions – Terni, Köln, Busoni 1988 and 1992, Pretoria, Marsala, London and Van Cliburn Fort Worth. He made his North American debut in 1993 with Atlanta Symphony.
In 2015 Fabio Bidini became the first recipient of the Carol Grigor Piano Chair – a new position enabled by a $5,000,000 endowment gift from the Colburn School’s board chairwoman Carol Colburn Grigor in Los Angeles. Mr. Bidini has been Professor of Piano at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, one of Europe’s premiere music conservatories. He also serves as an Artist-in-Residence at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Köln.
Fabio Bidini’s discography comprises thirteen CDs recorded under the labels BMG, Classichord, Musikstrasse, EPR and True Sounds. He is a Steinway artist.
Olga Kern, USA
Pianist Olga Kern is now recognized as one of her generation’s great pianists. She jumpstarted her U.S. career with her historic Gold Medal win at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas as the first woman to do so in more than thirty years. First prize winner of the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition at seventeen, Ms. Kern is a laureate of many international competitions. In 2016 she served as Jury Chairman of both the Seventh Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition and the first Olga Kern International Piano Competition, where she also holds the title of Artistic Director. Ms. Kern frequently gives masterclasses and since September 2017 has served on the piano faculty of the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. Additionally, Ms. Kern has been chosen as the Virginia Arts Festival’s new Connie & Marc Jacobson Director of Chamber Music, beginning with the 2019 season.
For the 2019-20 season, Kern will perform with the Allentown Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, New Mexico Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, New West Symphony, and the Sao Paulo Symphony, as well as appearing on United States Tour with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. She is also the guest soloist at the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center for Leonard Slatkin’s 75th Birthday Celebration. She will appear in recitals in Orford, Sunriver, Fort Worth (Cliburn), Carmel, San Francisco, Sicily, Calvia, and Helsingborg. Olga Kern will be hosting the Third Olga Kern International Piano Competition in the fall of 2022. This season, she served as a juror at the following piano competitions: Sydney International Piano Competition, Gurwitz International Piano Competition, Gershwin Piano Competition, Schumann Prize Competition, and the Scriabin International Competition.
In recent seasons, Kern performed with the Moscow Philharmonic, Santa Fe Symphony, and the St. Louis Symphony, as well as opened the Pacific Symphony’s 2018-19 season. Kern was also a featured soloist for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra during the 2018-19 Tour. She also served as Artist in Residence for the San Antonio Symphony’s 2017-18 season and had her debut with the National Youth Orchestra on their China tour. Ms. Kern opened the Baltimore Symphony’s 2015-2016 centennial season with Marin Alsop. Other season highlights included returns to the Royal Philharmonic with Pinchas Zukerman, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice with Giancarlo Guerrero.
Ms. Kern’s discography includes her Grammy Nominated recording of Rachmaninoff’s Corelli Variations and other transcriptions (2004), Brahms Variations (2007) and Chopin Piano Sonatas No. 2 and 3 (2010). She was featured in the award-winning documentary about the 2001 Cliburn Competition, “Playing on the Edge.”
Cecile Licad, Philippines
Cecile Licad is considered the foremost Philippine pianist of our time. She has shown brightly in the solo literature, chamber works, and as soloist in concertos throughout the world. Her teacher, the great Rudolf Serkin said, “Cecile Licad has an incredible instinct for all kinds of music and seems equally at home at any style.”
She began her piano studies at the age of three and made her debut as soloist with the Philharmonic orchestra in Manila at age seven. At twelve she was admitted to at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and studied there with three renowned teachers, Rudolf Serkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, and Seymour Lipkin. She was a regular visitor at Marlboro where she often played duet literature with Horszowski.
In 1981 her international career was launched by receiving the prestigious Leventritt award gold medal. Since then, Miss Licad has been among the most traveled pianist in the world and has been soloist with most of the important orchestras such as Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia, London symphony and the NY Philharmonic, as well as the National Symphony and the major orchestras of Germany, Japan, Russia. Among the conductors she has worked with are Ozawa, Previn, Abaddo, Dutoit, Marriner, Ormandy and Solti.
Her appearances as a chamber artist includes some of the celebrated instrumentalists of our time including the violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Cellist Alban Gerhardt, Peter Serkin, among many others. And She has been soloist with the Guarneri, Takács and other leading string quartets.
Her Chopin CD was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque, and her recording of the music of Gottschalk on Naxos has been a constant best seller. Over the years Miss Licad has developed a deep interest in the neglected piano music of American composers from the revolution era to the present, and her recent four CD’s on Danacord label of American piano music have garnered extraordinary reviews throughout the world. Her next recording with Danacord is the complete piano and orchestra works of Gershwin. She has collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on the film “Louis”, a film by Dan Pritzker.
Robin McCabe, United States
Celebrated American pianist Robin McCabe has established herself as one of America’s most communicative and persuasive artists. McCabe’s involvement and musical sensibilities have delighted audiences across the United States, Europe, Canada and in seven concert tours of the Far East. The United States Department of State sponsored her two South American tours, which were triumphs both artistically and diplomatically.
As noted by the New York Times, “What Ms. McCabe has that raises her playing to such a special level is a strong lyric instinct and confidence in its ability to reach and touch the listener.” The Tokyo Press declared her a “pianistic powerhouse,” and a reviewer in Prague declared, “Her musicianship is a magnet for the listener.” Richard Dyer, the eminent critic of the Boston Globe: ‘Her brilliant, natural piano playing shows as much independence of mind as of fingers.”
Her recordings have received universal acclaim. Her debut album for Vanguard Records featured the premiere recording of Guido Agosti transcription of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. Critics praised it as “mightily impressive.” Stereo Review described her disc of Bartok as “all that we have come to expect from this artist, a first-rate performance!” She was commissioned to record four albums for the award-winning company Grammofon AB BIS in Stockholm, which remain distributed internationally, including the CD “Robin McCabe Plays Liszt,” (AB BIS No. 185).
McCabe, earned her bachelor of music degree summa cum laude at the University of Washington School of Music, where she studied with Béla Siki, and her master’s and doctorate degrees at the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with Rudolf Firkusny. She joined the Juilliard faculty in 1978 then returned to the UW in 1987 to accept a position on the piano faculty. In 1994 McCabe was appointed Director of the School of Music, a position she held until 2009. She has held a Ruth Sutton Waters Professorship and a Donald Petersen Professorship in the School of Music. In addition, McCabe is a dedicated arts ambassador and advocate for arts audience development, frequently addressing arts organizations across the country. With colleague Craig Sheppard, she has launched the highly successful Seattle Piano Institute, an intense summer “immersion experience” for gifted and aspiring classical pianists that enjoyed its sixth session in 2105. Also In 2015, McCabe performed and recorded the complete cycle of Beethoven’s ten sonatas for violin and piano, with colleague Maria Larionoff.
The winner of numerous prizes and awards, including the International Concert Artists Guild Competition and a Rockefeller Foundation grant, McCabe was the subject of a lengthy New Yorker magazine profile, “Pianist’s Progress,” later expanded into a book of the same title.
In 1995 McCabe presented the annual faculty lecture — a concert with commentary — at the University of Washington. She is the first professor of music in the history of the University to be awarded this lectureship. Seattle magazine selected McCabe as one of 17 current and past University of Washington professors who have had an impact on life in the Pacific Northwest. In 2005, to celebrate its 100th year as an institution, The Juilliard School selected McCabe as one of 100 alumni from 20,000 currently living to be profiled in its centenary publication recognizing distinction and accomplishments in the international world of music, dance, and theater. Today she is a highly- sought teacher at the University of Washington, with students from around the world seeking admission to her studio.
McCabe performs regularly throughout the United States, and in September of 2011 she made her first visit to South Korea. In October, 2015 she will perform a solo recital and give numerous master classes at the Beijing International Piano Festival. She appears often as an invited jurist for international piano competitions, most recently in New Orleans, San Antonio, and Vancouver, Canada. In June of 2016 she is invited to serve on the jury of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition.
Awadagin Pratt, United States
Among his generation of concert artists, pianist Awadagin Pratt is acclaimed for his musical insight and intensely involving performances in recital and with symphony orchestras.
Born in Pittsburgh, Awadagin Pratt began studying piano at the age of six. Three years later, having moved to Normal, Illinois with his family, he also began studying violin. At the age of 16 he entered the University of Illinois where he studied piano, violin, and conducting. He subsequently enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory of Music where he became the first student in the school’s history to receive diplomas in three performance areas – piano, violin and conducting. In recognition of this achievement and for his work in the field of classical music, Mr. Pratt received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins as well as an honorary doctorate from Illinois Wesleyan University after delivering the commencement address in 2012.
In 1992 Mr. Pratt won the Naumburg International Piano Competition and two years later was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since then, he has played numerous recitals throughout the US including performances at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and the NJ Performing Arts Center. His many orchestral performances include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and the Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Louis, National, Detroit and New Jersey symphonies among many others. Summer festival engagements include appearances at Ravinia, Blossom, Wolftrap, Caramoor and Aspen and the Hollywood Bowl. Internationally, Mr. Pratt has toured Japan four times and performed in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Israel, Columbia and South Africa.
Recent and upcoming appearances include recital engagements in Baltimore, La Jolla, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Ravinia, Lewes, Delaware, Duke University and at Carnegie Hall for the Naumburg Foundation; as well as appearances with the orchestras of Cincinnati, Indianapolis, North Carolina, Utah, Richmond, Grand Rapids, Memphis, Fresno, Winston-Salem, New Mexico, Rockford, IL and Springfield, OH. He also serves on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina where he coaches chamber music, teaches individual pianists and performs chamber music and concertos with the festival orchestra.
Also an experienced conductor, Mr. Pratt has conducted programs with the Toledo, New Mexico, Vancouver WA, Winston-Salem, Santa Fe and Prince George County symphonies, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the Concertante di Chicago and several orchestras in Japan.
A great favorite on college and university performing arts series and a strong advocate of music education, Awadagin Pratt participates in numerous residency and outreach activities wherever he appears; these activities may include master classes, children’s recitals, play/talk demonstrations and question/answer sessions for students of all ages. He is also frequently invited to participate on international competition juries, such as the Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Israel, the Cleveland International Piano Competition, Minnesota e-Competition, the Unisa International Piano Competition in International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in the Ukraine.
In November 2009, Mr. Pratt was one of four artists selected to perform at a classical music event at the White House that included student workshops hosted by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, and performing in concert for guests including President Obama. He has performed two other times at the White House, both at the invitation of President and Mrs. Clinton.
Mr. Pratt’s recordings for Angel/EMI include A Long Way From Normal, an all Beethoven Sonata CD, Live From South Africa, Transformations and an all Bach disc with the St. Lawrence String Quartet. His most recent recordings are the Brahms Sonatas for Cello and Piano with Zuill Bailey for Telarc and a recording of the music of Judith Lang Zaimont with the Harlem Quartet for Navona Records.
Mr. Pratt is currently a Professor of Piano at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He also served as the Artistic Director of the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati and is currently the Artistic Director of the Art of the Piano Festival at CCM.
Logan Skelton, United States
Logan Skelton is a much sought-after pianist, teacher, and composer whose work has received international critical acclaim. As a performer, Skelton has concertized widely in the United States, Europe, and Asia and has been featured on many public radio and television stations including NPR’s Audiophile Audition, Performance Today, All Things Considered, and Morning Edition, as well as on radio in China and national television in Romania. He has recorded numerous discs for Centaur, Albany, Crystal, Blue Griffin, and Naxos Records, the latter on which he performed on two pianos with fellow composer-pianist William Bolcom.
Skelton regularly appears in such festival settings as Gina Bachauer, Amalfi Coast, Gijón, Eastman, Tunghai, Chautauqua Institution, American Romanian, Eastern, New Orleans, Poland International, Indiana University, Hilton Head Island, and the Prague International Piano Masterclasses. He is a popular presenter at music teacher organizations including numerous appearances at MTNA national conventions and EPTA World Piano Conferences, as well as serving as convention artist for state conventions in New York, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, North Carolina, Wyoming, Indiana, Ohio, and Iowa. Moreover, he has given countless performances and masterclasses at colleges and conservatories throughout the world. He is a frequent juror for international piano competitions. His Centaur Records compact disc, of all 20th-century American solo piano music, is titled American Grab Bag: Piano Music of Our Time. American Record Guide described this as a “fascinating recording,” commenting on Skelton’s “superb, wonderfully subtle and elegant playing … Bravo!”
As a composer, Skelton has a special affinity for art song, having composed nearly two hundred songs, including numerous song cycles, many of which have been recorded commercially and performed internationally. Critics have noted the close fusion of text and music in Skelton’s songs, how words are “…illuminated with brilliance and deep emotional power” (American Record Guide). In Fanfare magazine reviews, Skelton as a composer of song has been singled out for his ability to “… plumb the depths of emotion … these are exquisitely crafted art songs in the American tradition … we are in the hands of someone who lives and breathes song.”
A devoted teacher himself, Skelton has been repeatedly honored by the University of Michigan, including in 2003 the Harold Haugh Award for excellence in studio teaching, and most recently in 2017 with the Arthur F. Thurnau named professorship, among the highest honors given to faculty members at the university. Skelton’s own piano students and former students have won awards in many national and international competitions including Hilton Head, San Antonio, Cincinnati World, Washington, Bartók-Kabalevsky-Prokofieff, Fischoff, Jacob Flier, Iowa, Frinna Awerbuch, Eastman, Crescendo, Dallas, Missouri Southern, Los Angeles Liszt, Wideman, Concorso Internazionale di Esecuzione Musicale, Schimmel, Liszt-Garrison, Grieg Festival, Del Rosario, Beethoven Sonata, Ithaca, Piano Arts, Heida Hermanns, Dubois, Schmidbauer, Peabody Mason, Janáček, Seattle, Kingsville, New York, Oberlin, Idyllwild, as well as numerous Music Teachers National Association national competitions. His former students hold positions of prominence in music schools and conservatories throughout the world. He has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music, Missouri State University, and is currently Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Piano and Director of Doctoral Studies in Piano Performance at the University of Michigan.