Alexander Korsantia

Pianist Alexander Korsantia has won great critical acclaim for his versatility, power and the unique sincerity of his playing. He can be heard performing in many of the world's foremost concert halls collaborating with renowned artists such as Valery Gergiev, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Jarvi, Gianandrea Noseda, Yuri Bashmet, Yuri Temirkanov, Vadim Repin, the Jerusalem Quartet and Sakari Oramo, among others. Korsantia has performed as soloist with orchestras throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Recent engagements have included a televised performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg; performances at the Stresa Festival in Italy under the baton of Yuri Bashmet; in the Newport, Tanglewood, Vancouver, Gilmore festivals; with the symphony orchestras of Louisville, Brazil, Bogota, Jerusalem and the City of Birmingham, the Georgian State Orchestra, the Kirov Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra and others. He has also participated in a United States recital tour with renowned violinist Vadim Repin.

Recent performance highlights include Prokofiev's Third Concerto and Mozart's B-Flat Major Concerto with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and with Boston Pro Arte Orchestra, Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto with RAI Orchestra, Turin, Dvorak's Concerto with Jerusalem Symphony and Oslo Philharmonic and Stravinsky Concerto with UK Youth Orchestra, as well as Israel Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Pacific Symphony Orchestra in LA, Elgin Symphony in Chicago, and Louisville Symphony Orchestras, giving performances in such a concert halls as Verdi Auditorium in Milan, and Santa Cecilia Auditorium in Rome.

As a very important part of his schedule, Korsantia appears frequently in his homeland of Georgia in concerts, on television and radio. In 2003, Georgian National TV released a full-length documentary about him, and in 2004, he performed at the inauguration of President Saakashvili. This season, Korsantia returns to Israel for the concerts with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Rafael de Burgos to perform Brahms's Second Concerto and Beethoven's "Emperor", and with Israel Chamber Orchestra for Beethoven's Fourth Concerto and E-flat Major Concerto, which Beethoven wrote when he was 14 years old. He is also appearing in concerts with Quebec City Symphony Orchestra, Georgian State Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic with Temirkanov, Kirov Orchestra with Noseda, recitals and chamber music concerts at the Barge Festival, New York, Boston, Tel-Aviv, Glasgow, Calgary, Toulouse and Noeburg and Nice among others.

An award-winning pianist, Alexander Korsantia received first prize and the gold medal of the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition, and first prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition. In 1999, to show appreciation for his efforts and contributions to the arts in Georgia, Korsantia was awarded with one of the most prestigious national award, The Medal of Honor, bestowed on him by then-Georgian President, Eduard Shevardnadze. Tbilisi Special School of Music. Performance Diploma, Postgraduate Diploma, Georgian State Conservatory. M.M., Indiana University/South Bend. Mr.Alexander Korsantia is the piano faculty member of New England Conservatory.

Winston Choi

Canadian pianist Winston Choi is Associate Professor of Piano and the Head of the Piano Program at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts. His professional career was launched when he was named Laureate of the 2003 Honens Piano Competition and winner of France’s Concours International de Piano 20e siècle d’Orléans in 2002. An inquisitive performer, his fresh approach to standard repertory, and masterful understanding, performance and commitment to works by living composers, make him one of today’s most dynamic young concert artists.

Choi maintains an active international performing schedule. In demand as a concerto soloist, orchestras he has appeared with include the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the CBC Radio Orchestra, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, the New Philharmonic, the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, La Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, the Symphony Orchestra of Oak Park and River Forest, l’Orchestre Symphony d’Orléans, l'Orchestre National de Lille, the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.

As a dedicated champion of contemporary music, Choi has premiered and commissioned over 100 works by young composers as well as established masters. A composer himself, being involved with the creative process is an integral part of his artistry. He was the first pianist to perform Pierre Boulez’s last version of Incises in North America and made the South American premiere of Luciano Berio‘s Sonata for pianoforte solo. He also regularly appears in concert at IRCAM, the world’s most renowned institution for contemporary music. Composers he has collaborated with include William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Brian Ferneyhough, Jacques Lenot, George Lewis, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Bright Sheng, Christian Wolff, Chen Yi and John Zorn. He is also a core member of Ensemble Dal Niente. A frequent performer on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's MusicNOW Series, Choi has also performed with Contempo and the Fulcrum Point New Music Project.

Prior to his position at Roosevelt University, he was on the faculties of Bowling Green State University and the Oberlin Conservatory. He has been a guest professor at Indiana University, and he also currently teaches at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago as well as the New Music School in Chicago.

Jed Distler

If you're familiar with Jed Distler as one of the most engaging music writers and radio hosts in the United States, you might be surprised to learn he is also "an altogether extraordinary pianist" (NEWARK STAR-LEDGER) and New York's “Downtown keyboard magus" (THE NEW YORKER). He has premiered works by Frederic Rzewski, Lois V. Vierk, Virko Baley, Wendy Mae Chambers, Andrew Thomas, Simeon ten Holt, Virgil Thomson, David Maslanka, William Schimmel, Kitty Brazelton, Alvin Curran, and Eleanor Hovda -- many which were written especially for him. In addition to recent commissions from Jenny Lin, IonSound, and Song in Music, his works have been recorded by Margaret Leng Tan, Guy Livingston, and Quattro Mani, among other New Music luminaries, And no summer would be complete without WNYC’s ritual broadcast of Jed’s "String Quartet No. 1" (the Mister Softee Variations). Distler is a Yamaha artist. As Composers Collaborative’s co-founder and Artistic Director, Jed has created and programmed such innovative festivals as Solo Flights, Non Sequitur, and the long-running Serial Underground series at New York’s landmark Cornelia Street Café. A regularly featured CD reviewer and blogger for GRAMAPHONE and CLASSICS TODAY where he mostly writes about piano music. He taught for more than 20 years at Sarah Lawrence College, and has received grants from ASCAP, Meet the Composer, and American Composers Forum, plus a coveted Macdowell Colony residency。

Igor Resnianski

Formally trained in Russia and the USA Steinway Artist, Igor Resnianski, is a prize winner of numerous international piano competitions including the First Prize in New Orleans International Piano Competition, the Silver Medal in World Piano Competition, Bronze Medal in Nena Wideman International Piano Competition, Fifth Prize in the First China International Piano Competition, and the Second Prize In All-Russia Piano Competition Sodrujestvo. He extensively performed in Russia, USA, South America, China, Hong Kong, etc. His performances were televised and broadcasted in Russia and the USA including the PBS/WHYY Y-Arts television channel. Named 2016-2020 Top Teacher by Steinway and Sons and 2012 Teacher of the Year for the state of Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Music Teaches Association, Dr. Resnianski teaches master-classes in the USA and abroad and judges local, state, national, and international piano competitions. His students were winners of many local, state, national, and international piano contests. They appeared with many orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Fort Worth Symphony. Since 2014 Dr. Resnianski is a Co-Directors of the annual New Orleans Piano Institute. Dr. Resnianski is an Assistant Professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and also teaches at the Nelly Berman School of Music in Haverford PA.

Sunnat Ibragimov

Sunnat Ibragimov has established himself as an artist of creativity, passion and technical command. He is one of the most prominent cellists to emerge from the Central Asian republics and has studied with many of the top artists of our time. He has performed live and on radio with major soloists, chamber musicians, orchestras and conductors. He performed with orchestras (“Soloists of Uzbekistan,” Uzbek National Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Shenyang Symphony, Hays Symphony, Southeast Kansas Symphony), chamber musicians (Shmuel Ashkenasi, Roberto Diaz, Borromeo String Quartet); festivals (the Orford Music Festival in Montreal, Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival) and has worked under such prominent conductors as Carl St. Clair, Gerard Schwarz , John Williams, Hugh Wolff, Michael Stern ,Thomas Wilkins and Marin Alsop. In 2022 he led the cello section of the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra under the baton of Andris Nelsons.

Born in Tashkent, he began the cello at 7 and studied at the Glière State Music School and the Uzbek State Conservatory. Ibragimov earned a Bachelor of Music from Park University’s International Center for Music, where he studied with Martin Storey and Daniel Veis, and he continued, also on full scholarship, at the University of Southern California with Andrew Shulman and Ben Hong. In 2017, he finished his Masters degree at the University of Kansas under the tutelage of Hannah Collins and Mark Gibbs. Currently, Sunnat Ibragimov is working on his Doctoral Degree at Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University with Alan Stepansky and serves as associate faculty at Peabody Preparatory Division. He currently is a cellist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

Ji Hye Jung ( Jury of CIMC )

Percussionist Ji Hye Jung has been praised as "spectacular" by the Los Angeles Times and "extraordinary" by the Ventura County Star, with the Times further describing her as "a centered player who can give the impression of being very still yet at all places at once." Jung began concertizing in her native South Korea at the age of 9, going on to perform more than 100 concerts, including solo appearances with every major orchestra in Korea. Soon after coming to the United States in 2004, Jung garnered consecutive first prizes at the 2006 Linz International Marimba Competition and the 2007 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition.

Jung frequently performs with many of today's most important conductors and instrumentalists. For six years she has served as principal percussionist with West Coast chamber ensemble Camerata Pacifica, with whom she has premiered works by Bright Sheng and Huang Ruo. She has also recorded Stravinsky’s Les Noces with JoAnn Falletta at the Virginia Arts Festival, performed as soloist with David Robertson conducting an all-Messiaen program at Carnegie Hall, and made her concerto debut with the Houston Symphony under the baton of Hans Graf in 2005.

In 2015, Jung was named Associate Professor of Percussion at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. She previously served as Associate Professor of Percussion at the University of Kansas for six years. An active educator and clinician, Jung has presented master classes at the Curtis Institute, the Peabody Conservatory, Rice University, Beijing's Central Conservatory, and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland. Jung completed a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Jay Hershberger ( CIMC Festival Faculty )

Pianist Jay Hershberger has played throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. His domestic performances include the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Library of Congress. He has also been frequent guest artist at the Great Romantics Music Festival in Canada. In years past he performed in Europe, including the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in southern Italy and the South Bohemia Music Festival in the Czech Republic. Recent tours have included major cities in China, and at music festivals in Scotland and Italy.

He is a founding member of Excelsior! Trio, a chamber group that performs an eclectic mix of classical, folk, jazz, and fusion. Excelsior! Trio tours extensively in the US and in Europe. Jay is currently Professor of Piano at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. His undergraduate students regularly win competitions and have been accepted into prestigious graduate schools in piano performance and pedagogy, many with teaching assistantships.

An active adjudicator, Hershberger has judged for the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, the Phoenix Young Artist Competition, the San Angelo Symphony Sorantin Awards, the Lee Biennial Competition, the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Young Artist Competition, and the Music Teachers National Association. He is the president of the American Liszt Society. His first compact disc recording, featuring works by Franz Liszt was featured on Michael Barone’s New Releases radio program on Minnesota Public Radio.

Chris Thompson ( Jury )

Described as a “supremely nuanced” (Gramophone), “remarkable baritone” (Opera News), Chris Thompson is an international artist noted for compelling performances on stage and in the concert hall. He has performed leading lyric baritone roles ranging from Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia to the title role in Elijah to Carl Magnus in A Little Night Music. A frequent recitalist, Chris’s numerous performances of Schubert’s Winterreise with acclaimed concert pianist Steven Spooner, have generated excitement throughout the country.

A strong advocate of new music, Chris made his Carnegie Hall debut singing Posh, a song cycle by composer Mohammed Fairouz. The premiere performance of MSU colleague Michael F. Murray’s song cycle, Neutral Tones, at the Parma New Music Festival was received enthusiastically. Chris has appeared in several world premieres including Guest from the Future (Lincoln Center), The Scrimshaw Violin (92nd Street Y), Box and Cox (University of Utah) and Hester Prynne at Death (Mercantile Library, NYC). In addition, Chris made his Off-Broadway debut in Fermat’s Last Tango. His performances have been featured on recording labels such as: Naxos, Original Cast Recordings, Albany Records, Koch-Schwann, and Novana Records.

Chris is a graduate of the University of Kansas, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London), Loyola University (New Orleans), and Kansas State University. Chris is a devoted teacher with successful singers winning competitions, singing at major summer programs, and performing leading roles as young professionals. He presently serves as Coordinator of Vocal Studies at Missouri State University and is past-president of Ozark NATS.

Véronique Mathieu ( Jury  )

Described as a violinist with 'chops to burn, and rock solid musicianship' (The Whole Note, Toronto), Canadian violinist Véronique Mathieu enjoys an exciting career as a soloist, chamber musician, and music educator. An avid contemporary music performer, she has commissioned and premiered numerous works by American, Brazilian, and Canadian composers, and has worked with composers such as Pierre Boulez, Hanz Holliger, and Krzysztof Penderecki. Current projects include the commission of a large-scale solo violin work by Odawa First Nations composer Barbara Croall and 12 pedagogical pieces by 12 internationally renowned composers.

Véronique has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, Shenyang Symphony Orchestra, Saskatoon Symphony, Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, Montreal Contemporary Ensemble, and the Orquestra Sinfonica de Indaiatuba.She recorded for the labels of Radio-Canada, Parma, Centrediscs, Naxos, and Pheromone, as well as the CD series New Music at Indiana University.

Véronique Mathieu holds the David L. Kaplan Chair in Music at the University of Saskatchewan where she serves as an Associate Professor of Violin. She previously served on the faculty at State University of New York in Buffalo, and the University of Kansas.