Mikhail Voskresensky

The last celebrated pianist representing the old Russian school in the 20th century, Mikhail Voskresensky “proved an imposing, magnetic presence” as noted by Los Angeles Times. He has given hundreds of recitals on stages of Salzburg Mozarteum, St. Petersburg Grand Philharmonic Hall, Prague Rudolfinum, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Hall, Beijing Forbidden City Hall, Moscow Conservatory Grand Hall, Mexico City Palacio de Bellas Artes, Budapest Franz Liszt Academy, Rio de Janeiro Theatro Municipal, just to name a few.

Mr. Voskresensky has soloed with some finest orchestras like Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, Hungarian Radio Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, Christchurch Symphony and many others.

The memorable moment of Mr. Voskresensky’s artistic life was a study with Dmitry Shostakovich on his Second Piano Concerto which received its European Premiere at the Prague Spring Festival in the presence of the composer. He also championed contemporary works dedicated to him by Edison Denisov and Yuri Butsko, and presented World Premieres of newly discovered Sonata E flat minor by Scriabin and Piano Concerto by Taneev. He distinguished himself with the feats like All Chopin in 9 recitals, All Beethoven’s Sonatas in 7 recitals, All 27 Mozart Concertos in 4 seasons and recordings, All Scriabin Sonatas in recordings. His other numerous discs were released by labels Melodia, Triton, Victor, Classical Records, Aquarius and Supraphon.

Mr. Voskresensky has graduated from Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and since his early successes at competitions including top prizes at the First Schumann International Competition and First Van Cliburn International Competition, he has reached the artistic heights and earned accolades like the title of National Artist of Russia, Order of the Rising Sun by The Emperor of Japan and Nikolai Rubinstein Gold Medal. Following the steps of his teacher Lev Oborin, he rose to become one of the most influential professors in the history of his alma mater. His preeminent teaching is in demand in many world’s major conservatories and universities. This success can be measured by the fact that his students have won 120 top prizes at world’s major international competitions.

Currently Mr. Voskresensky is Artist-in-residence at the Juilliard School in New York.

Steven Spooner

At the very fore of American pianists, critics and audiences have unanimously hailed the distinctive and compelling performances of pianist Steven Spooner describing him as “a pianist in the tradition that many believe died with the likes of Horowitz, Arrau, Bolet, Cziffra, and Wild. His talent, to my ears, is easily the equal of most major pianists of today and far superior to a large number of those “most exciting and dynamic pianists of their generation”
(FANFARE MAGAZINE).

Passionately devoted to the recital as a platform for innovation, he has been engaged and often re-engaged at prestigious venues such as the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Shanghai Concert Hall, Budapest’s Great Hall of the Liszt Academy, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Rome’s Santa Cecilia, and Singapore’s Esplanade. During the past seasons he has daringly reinvented the solo recital by allowing audiences to vote on the spot for one of five programs he has prepared and like golden age pianists, his programs often feature his own glittering arrangements and compositions.

In 2016 he released a monumental project of 16 CDs honoring his heroes of the Russian School called Dedications. This mammoth project was met with enormous critical acclaim from all over the globe. His enthusiasm for new music has produced an ongoing collaboration with renowned Deutsche Grammophon composer, Mohammed Fairouz (commissioned by the ROKI Foundation) to premiere and record several of his works during the next few seasons. Steven is currently the co-star, along with his wife Jung, of their internet-based show about all things piano, A Life of Music.

Steven has served as guest artist-in-residence at Paris Conservatory Summer Sessions and has been appointed to the Artist Faculty of the Colburn Music Academy, Amalfi Coast Music Festival, Musicfest Perugia, the International Institute for Young Musicians, the Adam Gyorgy Castle Academy in Budapest, and even his own Steven Spooner Inspire Festival in Singapore.

Steven is increasingly in demand for his masterclasses at major music institutions all over the world such as the Paris Conservatory, Milan Conservatory, Liszt Academy of Music, and the Shanghai and Beijing Conservatories and in America at Rice, Indiana, Colburn, Oberlin, and many others. Steven serves as Professor of Piano at the Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University.

A dedicated and caring teacher of students from around the world, Steven’s pupils have been named winners of multiple prizes at important international and national piano competitions and enjoy performing careers of their own. Steven Spooner is a Steinway Artist.

Yoshikazu Nagai

Praised by audiences and critics alike for his fresh interpretations and dramatic presentation style, Yoshikazu Nagai has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout Asia, Europe and America in such venues as Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, Shanghai Concert Hall in China, National Concert Hall and Recital Hall in Taiwan, Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall in Canada, Carnegie Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York, Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre, The National Gallery and Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., and Seattle’s Benaroya Hall. His schedule in recent seasons includes recitals in Naples, Seoul, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Beijing, Cincinnati, Chicago, San Francisco, and in collaborations with the Ives Quartet, violinists Robert Mann, Anthony Marwood and with orchestras across the country.

Mr. Nagai has appeared at many international music festivals, and his live performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today”, RAI Italian National TV, Hong Kong National Radio RTHK4, and on public radio stations in San Francisco, Houston, Cleveland, and Salt Lake City. Winner of numerous international piano competitions, including first prize at the 2002 Washington International Piano Competition. Mr. Nagai is also a major prizewinner of the San Antonio, Missouri Southern, New Orleans, IBLA Grand Prize International Piano Competitions, and the Concert Artists Guild International Music Competition.

Born in Germany and raised in the United States, Mr. Nagai studied with John Perry at Rice University, Paul Schenly and Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he was awarded the Malvina Podis Prize in Piano upon graduation, and Duane Hulbert at the University of Puget Sound with whom he recorded the Glasunov Fantasie for two Pianos, Op. 104.

He has been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancements in the Arts for excellence in teaching and Mr. Nagai’s students are top prizewinners of national and international competitions including the Gina Bachauer, International Piano Competition of Lyon (France), Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli International Piano Competition (Italy), Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition (Australia), Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition, Hilton Head, Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists, Music Teacher’s National Association Piano Competition, New York International Piano Competition, Nina Wideman, Dallas International, International Russian Music, Lennox Young Artists, Bösendorfer and Yamaha USASU, Heida Hermanns, International E-Piano Competitions, Gilmore Young Artists Award, and Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Mr. Nagai frequently gives master classes at universities and conservatories throughout the United States and Asia including recent classes at Yale University, Peabody Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, and Northwestern University, Seoul National University, Korean National University of the Arts, Hanyang University, Yonsei University and Seoul Arts School in South Korea, Shanghai Conservatory, Beijing’s Central Conservatory, Xinghai Conservatory, Shenzhen Arts School in China, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and Taipei National University of the Arts,. He also regularly serves as adjudicator of international piano competitions and has served on the juries of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competitions, Seoul International Piano Competition, Hilton Head International Piano Competition, World Piano Competition, and Alaska International Piano E- Competition amongst others.

Currently Professor of Piano and Chamber Music, he is chair of the piano department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Mr. Nagai teaches regularly during the summers at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy as faculty chair, at “Art of Piano” and BayPianofest in San Francisco where he serves as Artistic Advisor. He has also been faculty at Seoul National University International Piano Academy in South Korea, Shanghai and Beijing International Piano Festivals in China, Maestro International Piano Festival in Taiwan, Brancaleoni Festival in Italy, Chautauqua, Summit Festivals in New York, Pianofest in the Hamptons, South Eastern Piano Festival in South Carolina, Colburn Academy and Montecito International Music Festival in California, JPA Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, and RPPF in Florida.

Mr. Nagai was also a recent faculty member at Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University as Visiting Professor of Piano, and former faculty at the Interlochen Arts Academy and is a Visiting Professor of Piano at the Shanghai Middle School affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China.

Alan Chow 

Acclaimed for his “elegant poetry and virtuosic fire," Chow has won major competitions including First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the Palm Beach International Piano Competition. Chow also was a prizewinner in the William Kapell International Competition and was Silver Medalist and Audience Favorite at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. A Steinway artist, Chow has performed in recital and in concert with orchestras from coast to coast in major music centers in over 45 states. He regularly tours Asia with performances in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. Chow studied with Nelita True at the University of Maryland where he graduated Co-Valedictorian; with Sascha Gorodnitzki at The Juilliard School where he was awarded the Victor Herbert Prize in Piano; and with Menahem Pressler at Indiana University where he received the Joseph Battista Memorial Scholarship. Previously on the piano faculty at Northwestern University for 19 years, Chow joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music in fall 2017.

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。

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.

Jay Hershberger 

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

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.