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Jury Edition 2023
ROBERTO PLANO
Chairman
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… Miguel Harth-Bedoya. He has been a featured recitalist at the internationally acclaimed Newport Festival, the Portland Piano Festival, Ravinia Festival and the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival (USA), Chopin Festival (Poland), the Bologna Festival – Great Soloists (Italy), and many others. He played with String Quartets such as the Takacs, Cremona, St. Petersburg, Fine Arts, Jupiter, Muir, as well as soloists such as Ilya Grubert, Pavel Berman, Jiri Barta, Enrico Bronzi, and in duo with his wife Paola Del Negro.
Mr. Plano was the First Prize Winner at the 2001 Cleveland International Piano Competition, Prize Winner at the Honens, Dublin, Sendai, Geza Anda and Valencia Competitions and Finalist at the 2005 Van Cliburn and the Busoni Competitions, in addition to having won 15 First Prizes in National Competitions in Italy. In January 2018 he won the American Prize in the solo professional division. Mr. Plano’s engaging personality has made him a favorite guest on radio programs such as NPR’s Performance Today.
He has recorded more than 20 commercial CDs for Briliant, Sipario, Azica, Arktos, DaVinci, Concerto, being awarded five stars by several music magazines. and he recently released several World Première CDs with music by Andrea Luchesi (1741-1801). Mr. Plano gave the world premiere of two Luchesi piano concertos with the Busoni Chamber Orchestra in Trieste, Italy; the US premiere took place with the Toledo Symphony, Stefan Sanderling conducting. Mr. Plano’s debut recording with DECCA Classics was also recently released, featuring the “Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses” by Liszt, which have not been recorded by Decca since the 60’s. Recent events include soloist appearances with Kremerata Baltica at the Portogruaro International Festival in Italy, with the Royal Camerata at the Athenauem Theater in Bucarest (Romania) and with the Boston Civic Symphony at Regis College, and recitals and chamber music concerts at the Stellenbosh Symposium, Sudafrica, at the Yamaha Center, Taiwan, at Vivace Vilnius Festival in Lituania, Gijon International Piano Festival in Spain and at the Boston Athenauem in USA. He was also invited to give several concerts in Russia, including two concerts at the Kremlin State Palace in Moscow, and a 10-concert chamber music tour in China with The Juilliard School’s faculty Laurie Smukler and Darrett Adkins.
Mr. Plano studied at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan, the Ecole Normale “Cortot” in Paris, where he earned the Diplôme Supérieur de Concertiste, obtaining first prize with unanimous decision and congratulations of the Jury, and the Lake Como Academy. Mr. Plano has been described by The Chronicle as the “Pavarotti of the Piano” for his lyricism and defined by Chicago radio commentator Paul Harvey as the heir to Rubinstein and Horowitz. In Italy, he has appeared on the cover of the most important music magazine, Amadeus, and has been awarded several prizes, including the Lumen Claro, previously assigned to such noteworthy people as soprano Barbara Frittoli, stylist Ottavio Missoni, and economist Mario Monti. NY Times music critic Anthony Tommasini has written: “This Italian pianist showed artistic maturity beyond his years… there was a wonderful clarity and control of inner voices in his performances…”.
After joining in 2016 the Faculty of Boston University, in 2018 he has been appointed as Associate Professor of Piano at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. One of the most sought-after teachers in the world, Mr. Plano also regularly teaches during the summer at Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival and at Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. Starting in 2023, he will be on the Faculty of Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano, Switzerland) and Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (UK).
Lorenzo Di Bella
Artistic director
“Lorenzo Di Bella is a remarkable talented pianist, a brilliant virtuous, an exciting and refined musician. I was his teacher for three years and always admired his great technical skills and also his strong artistic personality, above all, his desire to “speak” to the public” …these were the words of Lazar Berman some months before he died.
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Prize winner of several international piano competitions he received in 2005 the 1st Prize and Gold Medal at “V. Horowitz” International Piano Competition in Kiev.
In 2006 former Italian President C.A.Ciampi awarded him with the “Sinopoli Prize” in honour of the famous orchestra director Giuseppe Sinopoli, passed away in 2001.
In the last years he has performed with great success at the Two World’s Festival in Spoleto, Teatro “La Fenice” in Venice, “Teatro Olimpico” in Vicenza, “Teatro delle Muse” in Ancona, “Michelangeli” Hall in Bolzano, Montreal (Maison Symphonique), at the Liszt Festival in Utrecht, ETH of Zurich, Chopin Festival in Marianske Lazne, Sombor Festival, Hamburg, Berlin, Praha, Krakow, Sarajevo, Novi Sad, Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Xi’han, Guangzhou, Shanghai(Oriental Center and Conservatory Hall), Denver (C.I.P.A.) at the “Società dei Concerti” and “Serate Musicali” in Milan, and in the Auditorium “Parco della Musica” in Rome where he played with the Santa Cecilia National Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Conlon.
Lorenzo Di Bella began his piano studies at the age of 5. A promising pupil, he graduated at the Conservatorio ‘Rossini’ of Pesaro. The following five years he attended the courses of Franco Scala and Lazar Berman at the “Piano Academy – Incontri col Maestro” of Imola, graduating in 2002, and completed his studies at the “National Academy of St. Cecilia” in Rome with Sergio Perticaroli, where he graduated on June 2004 with the highest vote.
His intense musical activities led him to collaborate with many orchestras: Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, Orchestra “Pomeriggi Musicali” of Milan , San Remo Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonie of Bacau, O’Porto National Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ucraine, Nancy Symphony Orchestra, SudWestDeutsche Philarmonie, Villingen-Schwenningen Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonisches Kammerorchester Berlin, Moravian Philarmonic Orchestra, West Bohemia Orchestra , Podkarpacka Symphony Orchestra, Philarmonia Sudecka, Kielce Philarmonic and New World Philarmonic.
He has collaborated with important conductors: Kirill Karabits, Vassylis Christopoulos, Reinhard Seehafer, Jorge Iwer, Zbinĕk Müller, Vladimir Sirenko, Michael Maciaszczyk, Michel Brousseau, David Crescenzi, Francesco Lanzillotta, Luigi Piovano.
Lorenzo Di Bella has a very active teaching schedule as a main piano professor at the Conservatorio “G.Rossini” of Pesaro and also as artistic director of the “Accademia Pianistica delle Marche” in Recanati (Italy).
He is founder and artistic director of the “Civitanova Classica Piano Festival” , the “Mugellini Music Festival” and “La Palma d’Oro” International Piano Competition in San Benedetto del Tronto( Italy).
BORISLAVA TANEVA
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After her graduation Borislava Taneva started work as an assistant professor in the Piano Department of the Performance Faculty of the National Music Academy /NMA/ in Sofia. Currently she is a piano and pedagogical practice professor at NMA in Sofia and vice rector of the Academy. In 2012 a Doctor’s degree (PHD) was conferred on Borislava Taneva. For several years she had great success, teaching Interpretation of Contemporary Music in Athens. She gives masterclasses and delivers seminars on various topics at music colleges and academies in Europe, Brasil, USA, Singapore etc. Prof. Taneva has appeared as a jury member in many national and international piano competitions in Greece, France, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg, Singapore, Serbia, Spain, Bulgaria etc. Her students have been awarded with numerous of prizes from national and international forums and competitions.
Borislava Taneva is a desired and preferred partner of many Bulgarian composers She creates mainly chamber music and vocal music as well as songs and music for children. She is the author of several opuses of piano pieces for beginners, edited by MUSICA FERRUM in London. She is the founder and a member of the Swiss-Bulgarian Association of Culture – SBAC, based in Geneva. B. Taneva was awarded with special prizes for her contribution to Bulgarian culture.
FRANCÕISE CHOVEAUX
“Her music brings a new way of writing and very special . She is following the lead of the great French composers”. (Rheinist Post)
“A composer Whom music should be willingly the Debussy of today” (Le Nouvel Observateur)
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« Her musical universe is strong and colored » (Marc Vignal, musicologue et critique, Le Monde de la Musique)
“Un jeu tout entier dominé par le goût du beau piano”.
(Diapason. Jean-Yves Bras)
“It benefited from F. Choveaux probing playing, revaling hitherto undemonstrated expressive and the rare ability to communicate pathos” (Los Angeles Times)
Laureat of Harald Genzmer Composition Competition in Munich 2018
Françoise Choveaux takes up with a musical tradition anchored in the 19th Century. She is a composer but also a pianist. As of today she has already written more than 280 opus for all instruments and all formations, from solos to symphony orchestras. And her works are performed in all Europe and around the world: Asia, Russia & Baltic countries, North and South America.
Numerous live recordings and in studio were made of her music, among which the integral works of her quartets recorded by the famous Vilnius string quartet. The richness of sounds and colors for strings is a discovery of every moment. For a composer, I think that the string quartet offers infinite possibilities, similar to the use of a painter can make of its palette. It is one of the forms of writing that I prefer, she explains in the notebook of the CD.
Each of her her scores is inspired, either by journeys, emotions, or connected directly with a literary or visual work.from March 1999 ill March 2001, she was invited in the Abbey of Prée (Académie des beaux-Arts) as pianist and composer for a creation residence…
In her musical route, chamber music has always played an important role with works written for soloists( Jean Ferrandis, Gérard Poulet, Isabelle Moretti, Pavel Berman, Emile Naoumof, Michel Mikalakakos, , Jacques Mauger, Dominique de Williencourt, Whilhem Latchoumia, Romain Descharmes …) and also established formations. Her quartets were created by Vilnius string quartet, Rimski-Korsakov quartet, Debussy and Ravel Quartet, Danel quartet and Stanislas quartet.
In 2002, she began an important cycle dedicated to orchestras. First of all, by pursuing her series with symphonies London primavera orchestra, Baden Baden orchestra, St Petersbourg orchestra, Toscanini Foundation orchestra, Vilnius Philarmonic orchestra, Sao Paulo orchestra, Bahia Philarmonic Orchestra, Bulgaria chamber orchestra.
La prée orchestra for her White Symphonie for organ and strings world premiere in Notre Dame de Paris.
Françoise Choveaux was trained in the Academy of Lille, in Ecole Normale supérieure de Musique de Paris, in the Institute Peabody of Baltimore then Juilliard School of New York.
Costantino Mastroprimiano
Costantino Mastroprimiano is one of the leading experts in historical piano performance internationally. After his studies in piano and chamber music with Michele Marvulli, Guido Agosti and Riccardo Brengola, devoted himself to the Fortepiano (historical piano).
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His vast discography features compositions by Chopin, Alkan, Burgmüller, Staehle, Moscheles, Ries, Hummel, Beethoven, Kraus, and in particular the complete piano sonatas by Muzio Clementi and by Hummel for Brilliant Classics.
He is currently recording all Beethoven piano sonatas for Aulics Classics. He is frequently invited to give concerts (Accademia Filarmonica Romana, I Concerti della Normale, Società del Quartetto di Milano, Accademia Cristofori di Firenze, Micat in Vertice, etc.) and abroad (Les Nuits de Septembre – Liège, Noites de Queluz, Mozarteum di Salzburg, Salle Cortot, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sans Souci, Haydn Geburtshaus Rohrau, la Grange aux Pianos, Ignaz Pleyel Zentrum, PBA Charleroi, etc.).
He regularly teaches masterclasses in Italy, Europe, the US and Russia (APM Saluzzo, Ecole Normale de Paris, Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, Universität – Mozarteum Salzburg, Conservatorio di Stato P. I. Čajkovskij, CSM di Malaga, Sam Houston State University – Texas).
He teaches Historical Keyboards and Chamber Music in the Conservatory of music in Perugia (Italy).