"We are a wonderful, small, unpretentious, cooperative, supportive school for pianists. This is all we want to be."
-Edwine Behre, Founding Teacher
Traditional Session
July 20 – August 9
(arrive on July 19, depart on August 10)
Part I: July 20 – July 29
Part II: July 31 – August 9
An Immersive Experience
The Traditional Session is the beating heart of Adamant Music School: an opportunity to dive deeply into music, nature, and community for either 10 or 20 days.
Each morning, participants have daily studio classes with their dedicated faculty member. The studio builds a special rapport by learning from each others' lessons on repertoire as well as informal sessions on topics such as technique, style and interpretation, sight-reading, and music for 4-hands (and 6-hands, and more!).
In addition, participants are welcome to take private lessons free of charge with any member of the faculty, broadening their exposure to the richly diverse traditions of piano playing represented by our faculty.
Our faculty are remarkably accomplished, with performances in the world's most important halls and decades of experience guiding students towards the highest artistic ideals. Their profound dedication to teaching excellence and their warm personalities make the program ideal for transformative student growth that lasts a lifetime.
Our inspiring guest Artists-in-Residence each present a recital as well as masterclasses and selected private lessons, bringing world-class insights to participants. This is a rare opportunity to work with pianists at the top of the concert profession.
The experience culminates in multiple performance opportunities each week, including both on- and off-campus venues.
Participants of all ages and backgrounds are welcome to apply. To apply, submit your application by April 1st, including links to your videos of two pieces from contrasting stylistic periods.
Participants are encouraged to attend both sessions but may choose to attend Part I or Part II separately.
Sample Schedule
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8:00 Breakfast at your own pace
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9:00 Studio class with your primary teacher
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10:30 Snack in Barney Hall
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10:45 Studio class (continued)
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12:15 Lunch
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1:30 Practice (or free time)
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4:00 Optional lesson with another faculty member
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5:00 Free (walk on trail or boating on the pond)
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5:45 Dinner
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7:30 Faculty or student concert
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9:00 Stargazing by the campfire
Schedule outline subject to change.
Traditional Session Faculty:
Part I (July 20 – 29):
Caroline Hong (The Ohio State University)
Catherine Kautsky (Lawrence University)
Marina Lomazov (Eastman School of Music)
Andrius Žlabys (Boston University, Longy School of Bard College)
Sergei Glavatskih (Moscow Conservatory) - special guest lecturer
Part II (July 31 – Aug 9):
Caroline Hong (The Ohio State University)
Stanislav Khristenko (Michigan State University)
Luba Poliak (Bard Conservatory Prep)
Dmitry Rachmanov (CSU Northridge)
Sergei Glavatskih (Moscow Conservatory) - special guest lecturer
Traditional Session
Guest Artists-in-Residence
Part I: Anna Geniushene
Part II: TBA - check back soon for updates!
2025 Prices
All-Inclusive Pricing
For masterclass performers, masterclass auditors, and Traditional Session participants, the program fee covers everything:
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Tuition
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Dedicated grand piano studio
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Private single occupancy bedroom
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All meals and snacks
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Round-trip transportation from Burlington airport or Montpelier train/bus station
Traditional Session Three-Week Program:
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21-Day Session:
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Student: $2,950 (includes $550 scholarship)
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Adult: $3,600 (includes $250 scholarship)
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10-Day Session:
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Student: $1,825 (includes $225 scholarship)
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Adult: $2,100 (includes $150 scholarship)
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As shown above, for 2025 the fees feature an included scholarship for all accepted participants. Apply early before classes fill up.
Applications require a $50 application fee, paid via credit card as part of your application, in order for your submission to be considered. You may submit a single application (and fee) for multiple classes (Traditional Session and/or Masterclasses)
For students or adults enrolled in more than one session, we offer a $100 discount for each additional session (not including the combination of Part I and Part II of the Traditional Session, which together are considered one session).
Payments
The application fee is accepted on the application form via credit card. Tuition payments are accepted via Zelle, personal check or credit card.*
Zelle payments should be sent to admin@adamant.org. There is no processing fee for Zelle payments.
Personal checks should be sent to:
Adamant Music School
P.O. Box 22
Adamant, VT 05640
There is no processing fee for payments by check.
*If you wish to pay with your credit card, click here and your payment will be processed by Stripe. There is a 2.9% fee for Stripe payments, paid by the School.
2025 Traditional session
ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
Anna Geniushene’s fresh, layered, and powerful interpretations defined her participation at the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition—and won her the coveted silver medal and the adoration of fans around the globe. And the critics couldn’t get enough: “powerhouse sound, forceful musical personality, and sheer virtuosity…had this critic on the edge of his seat” (Musical America); “a performance of rare devotion and insight” (Onstage NTX); “a fresh version…that had this listener hanging on every bar” (La Scena). Accolades ensued—Musical America named her Young Artist of the Month in July 2022 and Pianist magazine featured her on the cover in June 2023—and invitations from well-respected institutions followed. Recent and upcoming engagements are highlighted by debut recitals for Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center, Wiener Konzerthaus, and the Bravo! Vail and Grand Teton Music Festivals; debut concerts at Tonhalle Zurich and Stadtcasino Basel, replacing Daniel Barenboim in recital; and collaborations with the Taipei and Lithuanian Symphony Orchestras, conductors Gábor Takács-Nagy, Eliahu Inbal, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and pianists Wu Han and Dmytro Choni. Anna’s newest album—a deeply personal project of lullabies spanning from John Field and Liszt to Dutilleux and Weinberg—is released in September 2023, and she is set to record a duo disc with her husband and frequent collaborator, pianist Lukas Geniušas, for release next year on the Alpha label. She joins the roster of the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 2024–2027. Born in Moscow on New Year’s Day in 1991, Anna made her recital debut just seven years later in the small hall of the Berlin Philharmonic. She has since developed a diverse and versatile career as an artist: performances in major venues throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia; appearances with famed conductors, including Marin Alsop, Edward Gardner, Nicholas McGegan, Arvo Volmer, Gintaras Rinkevičius, and Valentin Uryupin; and a dedication to chamber music, including close collaborations with Quartetto di Cremona and in duo piano repertoire with Lukas Geniušas. Anna’s debut recording, featuring works by Prokofiev and Rachmaninov, was released on LINN Records in March 2020. A laureate of major international piano contests, she previously had strong finishes at the Leeds (laureate and finalist), Tchaikovsky (semifinalist), and Busoni (third prize) Competitions. Anna Geniushene graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 2015, where she studied with Professor Elena Kuznetsova, and completed her Master’s with Distinction and Advanced Diploma from the Royal Academy of Music (London) in 2018 under the tutelage of Professor Emeritus Christopher Elton. Also an enthusiastic teacher, she actively teaches masterclasses and adjudicates competitions, and served as assistant professor at the Moscow Conservatory until 2022. She currently resides in Berlin with her husband and their two young sons.
Anna Geniushene
Part I Artist-in-Residence
2025 Traditional session Faculty
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 prizes 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 performances throughout North America, South America, China, South Korea, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Japan and in nearly all of the fifty states in the U.S. Marina 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 ten performances with the 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”. Marina Lomazov is a Steinway Artist. In recent seasons, Lomazov has performed extensively in China, including concerts in Shenyang, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Dalian, Guangzhou, Jinan, Nanjing, Qingdao and Yingkou. She is a frequent guest at music festivals in the U.S. and abroad, including Hamamatsu, Chautauqua, Brevard, Miami, Seoul, Art of the Piano, 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”. She has been featured on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today”, the “Bravo” cable channel and WNYC’s “Young Artist Showcase” and her recordings have been broadcast more than 100 times by WNYC and WQXR in New York, WFMT in Chicago and WBGH in Boston. 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. Her principal teachers include Natalya Antonova, Jerome Lowenthal and Barry Snyder. 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. As advocates of modern repertoire for duo piano, they have given premieres of numerous works across the United States, including several works written specifically for them. 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 organization 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 and where she is currently a Visiting Guest Artist. 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. Lomazov is a Steinway Artist.
Catherine Kautsky, Chair of Keyboard at Lawrence University, has been lauded by the New York Times as “a pianist who can play Mozart and Schubert as though their sentiments and habits of speech coincided exactly with hers … The music spoke directly to the listener, with neither obfuscation nor pretense.” She was the 2016 winner of the Lawrence Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2013 winner of the university’s Faculty Convocation Award, and in 2017 she was honored with the George and Marjorie Olsen Chandler Chair in Music. Her recording of the Debussy Preludes, released by Centaur in September 2014, was said to “bring out all the power, majesty, and mystery of Debussy’s conception,” and a recording of the complete Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano was released in 2019 to top reviews. Ms. Kautsky, whose teachers included Rosina Lhevinne, Gyorgy Sebok, Leon Fleisher, Martin Canin, and Gilbert Kalish, has concertized widely, performing in major halls such as Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, the Phillips Collection, Jordan Hall, and the Chicago Cultural Center. She has soloed with numerous orchestras, including the St. Louis Symphony and Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, and appeared frequently on public radio. She has spent two sabbaticals in Paris and played abroad in France, England, Italy, Spain, Poland, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, Brazil, Australia, Russia, and South Africa. Known as both a solo and collaborative performer, Ms. Kautsky has performed chamber music at the Aspen, Tanglewood, and Grand Teton Festivals, and presented masterclasses on five continents, including January 2018 appearances in Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hanoi. Ms. Kautsky, whose students have won prizes across the country and gone on to leading graduate programs, has taught at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music since 1987, with a 6 -year hiatus as piano faculty and chair of the Keyboard Dept. at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Known for her cross-disciplinary interests, she was awarded the Arts Institute Creative Arts Award at UW-Madison and has presented frequently at national conferences on such topics as “On the Trail of Chopin and George Sand,” “WWI: A Centenary Look at the Musical Wars, “ and “Celebrating Debussy and the Arts du Spectacle.” Her articles have appeared in Clavier Companion, American Music Teacher, and International Piano, and her book, Debussy’s Paris: Piano Portraits of the Belle Epoque, was published by Rowman&Littlefield in September 2017. Reviewed by Booklist as “a fascinating fusion of music, literature, and social history,” it has won accolades from eminent pianists across the country. Ms Kautsky is currently engaged in creating a 24 video set, “Great Works for the Piano” for Great Courses/The Teaching Company. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory, a master’s from the Juilliard School, and a doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Marina Lomazov
Part I Faculty
Catherine Kautsky
Part I Faculty
Andrius Žlabys
Part I Faculty
Grammy-nominated pianist Andrius Žlabys has received international acclaim for his appearances with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including The New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Rotterdam Symphony, and Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires. He is a featured soloist in "Between two Waves" by Victor Kissine for piano and string orchestra released on ECM in 2013 in collaboration with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica. In 2012 Andrius Žlabys made his concerto debut at the Salzburg Festival performing Mozart’s Concerto K.467 with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra conducted by Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla. Andrius Žlabys—born in Lithuania and trained at the Curtis Institute of Music—was 18 years old when the Chicago Tribune wrote: “Pianist-composer Andrius Žlabys is one of the most gifted young keyboard artists to emerge in years.” Žlabys was also heralded by The New York Sun in a review titled “A Shining Hope of Pianists” after his recital at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Žlabys’s artistry has received many other accolades from the press for his performances of “easy virtuosity” (The Strad), “generous and all encompassing“ sound (The Philadelphia Inquirer),“spell-binding interpretation” (The Plain Dealer) and his “wealth of musical perception” (The Greenville News). This international acclaim has followed his uniquely honest approach to music, as described by The Philadelphia Inquirer: “The beloved C-major chord... rippled off Žlabys' hands with such open-hearted rightness that you couldn't escape the notion that the pianist was acting as Bach's ventriloquist...” Mr. Žlabys’s concerts have included appearances on many of the world’s leading stages, such as Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Phillips Collection, Teatro Colón, Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and Suntory Hall. He has also appeared at numerous festivals both in the U.S. and abroad, including the Menuhin, Salzburg, Lockenhaus and Caramoor music festivals, and made his Carnegie Hall debut at the Isaac Stern Auditorium with the New York Youth Symphony conducted by Misha Santora in 2001 in a performance of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. He was also invited the following season as soloist with Kremerata Baltica to perform Benjamin Britten’s Young Apollo at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. Andrius Žlabys has enjoyed collaborations with several esteemed musicians, including violist Yuri Bashmet, violinist Hilary Hahn, and an enduring collaboration with violinist Gidon Kremer with whom Zlabys has toured extensively in Europe, Japan, South America, and the U.S. In 2003, Žlabys received a Grammy nomination for his recording of Enescu’s Piano Quintet with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica. A multifaceted musician of wide-ranging repertoire, Andrius Žlabys holds a special reverence for J. S. Bach, while remaining a strong advocate for the contemporary stage with numerous works commissioned by and written for him. He was a winner of 2000 Astral Artists National auditions. Andrius Žlabys began piano studies at the age of six in his native Lithuania with Laima Jakniuniene at the Ciurlionis Art School, and continued his studies in the U.S. with Victoria Mushkatkol (Interlochen Arts Academy), Seymour Lipkin (Curtis Institute of Music), Sergei Babayan (Cleveland Institute of Music), and Claude Frank (Yale School of Music).
Dmitry Rachmanov
Part II Faculty
Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov is Chair of Keyboard Studies at California State University, Northridge. A sought-after performer, master class clinician, adjudicator and lecturer, Dr. Rachmanov has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and has been a guest artist/lecturer/clinician at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Royal Northern College of Music (UK), Shanghai and Beijing Central Conservatories. Rachmanov has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, London’s Barbican and South Bank Centres, at venues across Europe and Asia, and has collaborated as a soloist with the Ukraine National Symphony, and National Orchestra of Porto, among others. He has recorded for Naxos, Parma, Master Musicians and Vista Vera labels. An active member of the American Liszt Society, Dmitry Rachmanov is the president of the society’s Southern California chapter. He was the Artistic Director of the ALS 2016 Festival “Liszt and Russia,” hosted by CSUN. His summer festivals include Piano Sicily and InterHarmony in Italy, Corfu Piano Institute in Greece, Montecito in California, Adamant in Vermont; In the summer of 2019 he was a resident at the Brahmshouse in Baden-Baden, Germany. He has served as a Co-Director of the ChamberFest @ CSUN Festival. A proponent of Russian repertoire, Rachmanov gave the US premiere of Boris Pasternak Piano Sonata, broadcast by the NPR, and he is a founding member and President of the Scriabin Society of America. His April 2014 commemorative all-Scriabin program at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall was described as “a ‘poem of ecstasy’ in every sense: giant in conception, quantity, quality, execution, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity” by the New York Concert Review. His 2022 Cambria 2-CD album release “Alexander Scriabin, the 150th Anniversary Celebration,” was praised as a “distinguished recital[…]full of riveting performances” by Fanfare magazine, adding that “Rachmanov may be considered alongside the great Scriabin interpreters.” He is in the process of recording a video anthology of Alexander Scriabin’s piano works. Dr. Rachmanov is a recipient of numerous awards, among them “Jerome Richfield Memorial Scholar” at CSUN and receiving an “Outstanding CAPMT Member State Recognition Award” by California Association of Professional Music Teachers. Dmitry Rachmanov is a Steinway Artist. http://dmitryrachmanov.com/
Luba Poliak
Part II Faculty
Born in Siberia, Luba Poliak made her debut playing Mozart concerto with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eleven. In 1990, she immigrated to Israel, where she continued her studies and graduated magna cum laude from the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv. She studied in Brussels and earned her master’s degree with honors at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Ms. Poliak completed her doctorate in 2008 at Stony Brook University, where she worked and coached with Gilbert Kalish, Pamela Frank, Ida Kavafian, Colin Carr, and members of The Emerson String Quartet. After winning the Stony Brook Concerto Competition in 2004, Ms. Poliak performed with the Stony Brook Symphony, conducted by David Stern. The same year her performances at the Sydney competition were aired on ABC Classic FM in Australia. Luba Poliak has been performing solo and chamber music recitals across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia at the venues such as Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, Belgium; Jordan Hall, Boston; Dame Myra Hess Concert Memorial Series, Chicago, IL; 92nd Street Y and Harvard Club, New York City; Bulgarian Embassy, Washington D.C.; Dudley Hall, Houston; and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Ms. Poliak has received numerous grants from the America Israel Cultural Foundation and was a fellow at such music festivals as Aspen, Colorado, Verbier, Switzerland, and the exclusive “German for Singers and Vocal Coaches” program at Middlebury College, Vermont. Dedicated to the music education of the younger generation, Ms. Poliak was invited to give master classes and lecture-recitals at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, the University of Houston, and Lehman College in New York. During fall 2010, and spring 2013 semesters, Ms. Poliak served as a full-time visiting piano faculty at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. She was invited again for an intensive weekend of a solo recital, a technique workshop, and a master class in the fall of 2013. Luba Poliak teaches and performs regularly at such festivals as the Texas Music Festival at the University of Houston, Heifetz Music Festival, Bowdoin Festival, and Bard College Piano Camp. In addition to being on the faculty of the Bard Conservatory Preparatory division, Ms. Poliak is also a piano faculty at the 92nd Street Y school of music in New York and a chamber music coach at the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program.
Stanislav Khristenko
Part II Faculty
Described as a “poet of piano” by Le Soir (Belgium), Ukrainian-born American pianist Stanislav Khristenko has performed in some of the world’s major concert halls. He has been praised for “emotional intensity”, “charismatic expression”, “pallette of touches”, “solid” and “precise technique” by The New York Times, The Washington Post and Miami Herald , The Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine and El Pais. Khristenko has appeared as a piano soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, Phoenix Symphony, Liege Royal Philharmonic, Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as Bilbao, Madrid, Tenerife, Puerto Rico, Richmond symphony orchestras, among others. His performance highlights include solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Palais de Beaux-Arts in Brussels, as well as performances with orchestras in The Berlin Philharmonie, Seoul Arts Center, Prague Rudolfinum, Moscow Conservatory Great Hall, among others. Khristenko’s performance as a piano soloist with The Lviv National Orchestra of Ukraine in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall has been chosen as one of 15 highlights of the 2022/2023 Carnegie Hall season by The New York Times. His recordings were released on Steinway & Sons label (“Fantasies”, “Romeo and Juliet”), Naxos (“Soler Sonatas”), Oehms (“Krenek: Piano Works”), and Toccata Classics (“Ernst Krenek Piano Works: Volume One”, “Ernst Krenek Piano Works: Volume Two”). He is a Steinway Spirio Artist with a significant recording presence in the Spirio recording catalogue. Khristenko is a prizewinner of numerous piano competitions including Gold Medal at Cleveland Piano Competition, First Prize at Maria Canals Piano Competition, Second Prizes at Isang Yun and Takamatsu Piano Competitions, and Fourth Prize at Queen Elisabeth Music Competition. In the United States, he also received First Prizes at Bosendorfer, Jose Iturbi, Virginia Waring, and Wideman Competitions, among others. He has been on the jury panel of many international piano competitions. In his hometown in Ukraine, Khristenko co-founded music festival KharkivMusicFest that presented world’s top classical musicians as well as unique projects including Festival Orchestra, classical music conference, Children’s Orchestra, artist-designed pianos for interactive public display. As a Music Director, he founded Nova Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra of Ukraine that performed works of over 40 composers in its first three seasons. Khristenko gave his first piano solo recital in Kharkiv Philharmonic Hall at the age of 11. He graduated from Moscow Chopin College and Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he studied with Vera Gornostaeva. In 2008, he moved to the United States to study with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He also completed Postgraduate Artistic Training in Orchestral Conducting at The Chopin University in Warsaw, Poland and Short Course in Orchestral Conducting at The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. Stanislav Khristenko is a Steinway Artist.
Caroline Hong
Part I and Part II Faculty
Hailed for her “expressive and powerful playing”, “formidable technique”, as well as her “keen sense of lyricism and the classical style.” (Columbus and Richmond Times Dispatch), pianist Caroline Hong continues to flourish in her career as an internationally active soloist, chamber musician, artist-teacher, guest-lecturer, adjudicator, and recording artist. Pulitzer Prize and Academy award-winning composer John Corigliano referred to her as “one of the greatest pianists I have ever heard” after a performance of his Etude Fantasy (1976). Critics wrote that it was “breathtaking” and “hard to imagine a better performance.” Favorably reviewed by American Record Guide, she has recorded for Fleur de Son and Mark Records, establishing herself as an interpreter of 20th and 21st century piano solo music. She has been featured on numerous radio and television broadcasts worldwide. Caroline Hong made her debut at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall as a winner of the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition. She was selected to participate in the Van Cliburn International Audition, the Robert Casadesus International Competition, William Kapell International Piano Competition, UNISA International Piano Competition, Beethoven Foundation, and was Distinguished Performer of the Palm Beach International Piano Competition, Winner of the Society of American Musicians, and Bach Festival of Southern California, among others. She has been a featured performer on Robert Sherman’s “Young Artists Showcase” (New York Times Radio) and countless other radio broadcasts throughout the nation and abroad, also as a performer for the Sergei Babayan International Piano Academy. As winner of the Chicago Civic Orchestra Soloist Competition, she performed in Symphony Center under the baton of Michael Morgan. She has also appeared as soloist the Utah Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Indiana University Philharmonic, and West Texas Symphony, among others. Hong has had the privilege of studying with luminaries such as Martin Canin, Jerome Lowenthal, Sergei Babayan, Dmitrii Paperno, Ann Schein, and Karen Shaw, M. Deitzer, and in solo masterclass with Claude Frank, John Browning, Leon Fleisher, and chamber masterclasses with the late Gyorgy Sebok and Menahem Pressler, among others. Her first teacher, with whom she began study of piano at the age of 2, was her own mother, Mrs. Koon Ja Hong. Caroline Hong received her training from the Juilliard School in New York (M.M.), the Peabody Institute (B.M.), and holds a doctorate in piano performance from Indiana University (D.M.). She has served on faculty for the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Piano Festival, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Summer Piano Academy, Vianden International Festival and School (Luxembourg), Longwood University, and was the first female faculty member at the Piano at Peabody Roads Scholar summer program (2005). She has served as a jury member for Mid Atlantic Artists USArtists International, Aarhus International Piano Competition (Denmark), Pianale International Piano Academy and Competition, Los Angeles International Liszt Piano Competition, Bartok-Kabalevsky International Piano Competition (U.S.), Princeton Symphony Orchestra International Piano Competition, and International Young Artists Concerto (of which she is currently on the Jury Alumni Board). She is currently serving as Professor at The Ohio State University where she is the area head of the Keyboard Department. Dr. Hong has a strong teaching record reflected by successful students who have won competitions and positions in music academia. As a chamber musician, she has performed with many fine artist groups including the Vermeer String Quartet and the Dorian Wind Quintet and toured extensively in the U.S. as a member of the piano-violin duo, Duo Viardot. She is a Steinway Artist, the principal founding member and President of the American Liszt Society Ohio Chapter, and the Executive and Artistic Director of the Franz Liszt (U.S.) International Festival and Piano Competition, and a board member of the American Liszt Society. Other professional affiliations include Music Teachers National Association, Ohio Music Teachers Association, and the Columbus Symphony where she holds the Reinberger Foundation Chair.
Sergei Glavatskih
Part I and Part II: Guest Lecturer
Sergei Glavatskih is an heir to the great Neuhaus piano tradition. A student of Evgeny Malinin and long-time assistant of Vera Gornostaeva, Glavatskih continues the school of Heinrich Neuhaus. As part of his energetic and devoted work at Moscow Conservatory, both as a professor and assistant, he taught first-prize winners of the Van Cliburn, Sydney, and Dubai competitions, laureates of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, and many others. Glavatskih regularly holds master classes. Internationally, these classes have been held at Taipei University (Taiwan), at the International Academy named after Evgeny Malinin in Kassel (Germany), at Lynn University near Miami (USA), among others. As a participant in the program "Yuri Bashmet - To Young Talents of Russia,” he constantly gives master classes and concerts in both major and outlying cities of Russia and the former USSR. He serves as a jury member for national competitions in Russia and also internationally. He performs numerous solo, chamber and symphony concerts in Moscow, other cities of Russia, as well as in various countries of the near and far abroad, including tours of Finland, Yugoslavia, Greece, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Malaysia. He has broad experience as a concerto soloist and performed with major orchestras, including the Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra, The State Cinematography Orchestra of Russia, Yekaterinburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Minsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Novosibirsk State Opera Orchestra, JNA Symphony Orchestra (Belgrade), Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Mozart Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra (Tokyo), the Le Havre and Montbelliard symphony orchestras (France), and the Estonian State Orchestra (Tallinn). He has recorded with the State Bolshoi Opera Theatre Orchestra. Glavatskih has been soloist of the Moscow Academic Philharmonic since 1994. He is also a dedicated chamber musician. Among Glavatskih's partners are such musicians as violinists Alexander Trostyansky, cellist Alexander Rudin, and pianist Mikhail Lidsky. Since 2008, he has been a permanent member of the soloist ensemble "New Trio" (together with violinist Dmitry German and cellist Oleg Bugayev). Sergei Glavatskih was born in 1970 in Yekaterinburg (then called Sverdlovsk). He began studying music at the age of seven at the Children's Music School No. 3, in the class of teacher L.I. Raitsyna. In 1980, he entered the Secondary Special Music School at the Ural State Conservatory in the class of the famous teacher M.I. Olle. During his studies, he successfully performed in concert halls of Yekaterinburg, participated in city and regional competitions. In 1982, he took part in the International Children's Arts Festival in Sofia (Bulgaria) as a pianist and composer. In 1988, Glavatskih became a laureate of the All-Union Competition of Young Performers in Tbilisi (Georgia). In the same year he entered the Moscow Conservatory in the class of the famous professor Evgeny Malinin, where he completed postgraduate studies in 1995. These studies coincided with his prizewinning performances at several international competitions: the Emil Hayek Memorial (Belgrade, 1990), the First International Rachmaninoff Competition (Moscow, 1993), the Eduard Flipse International Piano Competition (Rotterdam, Holland, 1996), the Epinal International Piano Competition (France, 1997), and the Porto International Piano Competition (Portugal, 1997). His awards include prizes for the best performance of Beethoven as well as for contemporary music. In 1999, Glavatskih began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory. His first position was as an assistant to Elena Richter (formerly a student of Heinrich Neuhaus and assistant of Stanislav Neuhaus), then for over a decade he served as assistant to Vera Gornostaeva at the department she headed. Sergei has also taught at the Faculty of Early and Contemporary Performance. Currently he is Associate Professor at Moscow State Conservatory.