Piano Faculty 2025

Giacomo Scinardo

Founder & Artistic Director
Sicily Intl Piano Festival & Competition

Italian concert pianist, recording artist and artistic director of the Italian label Dynamic, piano professor at the Conservatory of Brescia, Giacomo Scinardo has performed worldwide, and has been broadcast on international classical radio stations including Rai Radio 3, BBC Radio 3, Radio France, and Radio România Muzical.

At a very young age, Scinardo received many awards in national and international piano competitions. Since 2007 he has appeared in hundreds of concerts at prestigious venues such as the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Rachmaninov Concert Hall at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Ateneul Român in Bucharest, the Auditorium of the Swiss Radio in Lugano, the Auditorium RAI Arturo Toscanini, Turin, the Siam Ratchada Auditorium of Bangkok, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, Totsuka Municipal Concert Hall of Yokohama, Shiodome Bechstein Hall in Tokyo, Youth Square-Y-Theatre in Hong Kong.

Scinardo has given masterclasses and recitals worldwide, including at the prestigious Gnessin State Musical College and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, as well as the University of Michigan School of Music. His recordings received remarkable reviews and were able to achieve more than 20 millions of streams.

Mikhail Voskresensky

Concert Pianist President of Jury 

Mikhail Voskresensky is a renowned Russian pianist and pedagogue with a career spanning over six decades. Born in Berdyansk, Ukraine, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, studying under esteemed mentors such as Lev Oborin, Ilya Klyachko, Yakov Milstein, Boris Zemliansky, and Leonid Roizman (organ).

Throughout his illustrious career, Voskresensky has won top prizes at several international competitions, including the Schumann International Piano Competition, the Rio de Janeiro Competition, the Enescu Competition
in Bucharest, and the inaugural Van Cliburn Competition. His repertoire encompasses the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven, all works by Chopin, and over 50 piano concertos.

In 1957, he performed the European premiere of Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto at the Prague Spring Festival, with the composer in attendance. He has collaborated with esteemed conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, and Franz Konwitschny, and has worked alongside ensembles like the Borodin Quartet.

As a distinguished professor at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Voskresensky has mentored students who have collectively won over 120 international prizes, including 61 gold medals. His teaching influence extended to his role as a guest professor at Tokyo’s Toho Gakuen School from 1992.

In 2022, Voskresensky emigrated to the United States in protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has since been in demand across the U.S., serving as a visiting professor at the Juilliard School and performing at venues such as the Aspen Festival in Colorado. His upcoming engagements include masterclasses at Yale University, the Curtis Institute, Manhattan School of Music, Boston’s Berklee Conservatory, and Indiana University.

Voskresensky’s contributions to music have been recognized with honors such as the title of People’s Artist of Russia in 1989 and the Japanese Medal of the Rising Sun and Gold Rays, awarded by the Emperor of Japan.

Dmitri Alexeev

Concert Pianist & Chair of Advanced Piano Royal College Music London

Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev is one of the world’s most highly regarded artists. His critically acclaimed recitals on the world’s leading concert stages and concer- to appearances with the most prestigious orchestras have secured his position as one of “the most remarkable pianists of the day” (Daily Telegraph).

He has performed in all major concert halls around the world and has performed with all leading orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the five London orchestras, Orchestre de Paris, Israel Philharmonic and the Munich Bavarian Radio Orchestra amongst others. He has worked with conductors such as Ashkenazy, Boulez, Dorati, Giulini, Jansons, Muti, Pappano, Rozhdestvensky, Salonen, Svetlanov, Temirkanov, Tilson Thomas and Klaus Tennstedt amongst many others.

Alexeev has been a juror for many of the world’s most prestigious International Piano Competitions, including the Leeds, Chopin (Warsaw), Van Cliburn, San- tander, Beethoven (Vienna) and Tchaikovsky (Moscow) International Piano Com- petition. He regularly gives masterclasses around the world. .

Alexeev has made many fine recordings for EMI, BMG, Virgin Classics, Hyperion and Russian labels. Following his Virgin Classics recording of the complete Rachmaninov Preludes, which won the Edison Award in the Netherlands, BBC Music Magazine described him as “a pianist at once aristocratic, grand and con- fessionally poetic. This is an inspiring disc.” His recording of the complete Chopin Mazurkas was released in 2014. A recording that Gramophone Magazine referred to as “one of the best recordings of the Chopin Mazurkas that have appeared in the past three-quarters of a century – one of the best alongside those of Rubin- stein and Yakov Flier.“

His recordings of complete Scriabin’s works for piano solo were released by Bril- liant Classics in 2022.

Alexeev’s two piano transcriptions of works by Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Gershwin as well as a his transcription of Brahms’ Ballade for Viola and Piano were recently published.

Christopher Harding

Chair of Piano Department
University of Michigan
School of Music

Pianist Christopher Harding maintains an active international career, generating acclaim and impressing audiences and critics alike with his substantive interpretations and pianistic mastery. He has given frequent solo, concerto, and chamber music performances in venues as far-flung as the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the IBK and Recital Halls of the Seoul Art Center, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the National Theater Concert Hall in Taipei, the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, and halls and festival appearances in Newfoundland, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia, and China.

His concerto performances have included concerts with the National Symphony and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras, the San Angelo and Santa Barbara Symphonies, and the Tokyo City Philharmonic, working with such conductors as Andrew Sewell, Eric Zhou, Taijiro Iimori, Gisele Ben-Dor, Fabio Machetti, Randall Craig Fleisher, John DeMain, Ron Spiegelman, Daniel Alcott, and Darryl One, among others.

Mr. Harding’s chamber music and duo collaborations have included internationally renowned artists such as clarinetist Karl Leister, flautist Andras Adorjan, and members of the St. Lawrence and Ying String Quartets, in addition to frequent projects with his distinguished faculty colleagues at the University of Michigan. He has recorded solo and chamber music CDs for the Equilibrium and Brevard Classics labels.

He has additionally edited and published critical editions and recordings of works by Claude Debussy (Children’s Corner, Suite Bergamasque, the Arabesques and shorter works) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Viennese Sonatinas) for the Schirmer Performance Editions published by Hal Leonard.

Professor Harding has presented master classes and lecture recitals in universities across the United States and Asia, as well as in Israel and Canada. He is a Permanent Guest Professor at the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China, where he holds the privilege of presenting yearly masterclasses; he has additionally served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at both the Sichuan Conservatory (2008) and Seoul National University (2011). While teaching at SNU, he simultaneously held a Special Chair in Piano at Ewha Womans’ University. He has taught masterclasses and performed lecture recitals at all the major universities and schools of music in South Korea.

In addition to serving as Chair of Piano and teaching undergraduate and graduate piano performance and chamber music at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Mr. Harding also serves on the faculty of the Indiana University Summer Piano Academy and is a frequent guest artist and teacher at the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in Tampa, Florida. He is a founding faculty member of the White Nights International Piano Festival in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Harding was born of American parents in Munich, Germany, and raised in Northern Virginia. His collegiate studies were with Menahem Pressler and Nelita True. Prior to college, he worked for 10 years with Milton Kidd at the American University Department of Performing Arts Preparatory Division, where he was trained in the traditions of Tobias Matthay.

He has taken 25 first prizes in national and international competitions and in 1999 was awarded the special “Mozart Prize” at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, given for the best performance of a composition by Mozart.

William Fong

Professor of Piano
Royal Academy of Music

William’s international career was launched in 1984 when he won the first prize, gold medal and Rosa Sabater prize at the Concurso Internacional de Piano in Jaén, Spain. His concerto début at St. John’s Smith Square with the Philharmonia Orchestra followed soon after.

He subsequently added successes in the Busoni, Cleveland, Iturbi, and Scottish International Competitions. Performances in New York, Moscow and St Petersburg (under the auspices of the Sviatoslav Richter Foundation), and in Europe have drawn critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences. Invited to China, supported by Arts Council England, William has performed and given master classes in Shanghai. He has also performed in Australia at the invitation of the Chair of the Australian Piano Pedagogy Conference and was the keynote speaker, giving a recital and master classes, at the Institute of Registered Music Teachers of New Zealand conference in Auckland.

William maintains a busy schedule of recitals, master classes, teaching and lecturing both in the UK and abroad, as well as regular commitments to some of the finest international piano summer schools. A musician of wide interests, William has performed with ensembles such as the Brodsky Quartet and members of Guildhall Strings. He has also collaborated with singers Steve Davislim and James Rutherford and has recorded some fascinating and little known repertoire in the chamber music field. His concerts have been broadcast on television and on radio in Europe and the US. William has performed at all of London’s major venues. His concerts have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, and BBC television. A distinguished teacher, William is in demand for master classes and adjudication in the UK and overseas. He is a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music www.ram.ac.uk and Head of Keyboard at the Purcell School for Young Musicians www.purcell-school.org – one of Europe’s leading specialist schools for talented young musicians, visiting professor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Artistic Director of “Piano Star” – an educational project and festival for young pianists in Romania.

His students’ achievements have included places and scholarships to study at Curtis Institute of Music USA, Universität der Künste Berlin, Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien (MDW), the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Trinity Laban. His students have also won important international competitions, including Liszt International Competition (Budapest), Weimar Liszt International Competition, Jeunesses Musicales Romania, and Lagny-Sur-Marne International Piano Competition. Students have also established successful careers as recording artists.

Boris Slutsky

Distinguished Professor of Piano Peabody Conservatory of Music

Consistently acclaimed for his exquisite tonal beauty and superb artistry, Boris Slutsky has earned top prizes at numerous international competitions. He has performed as soloist with orchestras and as a recitalist and chamber musician across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa.

An avid chamber musician, Slutsky’s has over three decades of chamber 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.

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, Slutsky received his early training at the Gnessin School for Gifted Children and completed his formal studies in New York at the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. His teachers included Anna Kantor, Nadia Reisenberg, Nina Svetlanova, John Browning, Joseph Seiger, and Alexander Eydeleman.

Slutsky joined the faculty of The Peabody Conservatory of Music in 1993 where he is currently Distinguished Professor of Piano. He has also held visiting faculty positions at Bienen School of Music of Northwestern University, Eastman School of Music, and served as Professor in the Practice of Piano at The Yale School of Music.

Yin Zheng

Co-Founder
Associate Professor of Piano
Virginia Commonwealth University

Concert pianist Yin Zheng, currently Associate Professor of Piano at Virginia Commonwealth University, enjoys a vibrant career of performing and teaching across Europe, the US, and Asia. She has graced prominent music stages such as Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall in New York, and the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Additionally, she has been a featured artist at prestigious music festivals in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Canada, and Estonia.

Dr. Zheng has worked with eminent pianists including Paul Badura-Skoda, Alicia de Larrocha, and Aldo Ciccolini. She is highly praised by the legendary British-Chinese pianist Fou Tsong as a distinctive interpreter of Mozart’s music. Originally from Shanghai, China, she earned degrees from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels under Dominique Cornil and completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts under Nelita True at the Eastman School of Music.

A first-prize winner in several national and international competitions held in New York, she was notably the first pianist from North America invited to perform at the Kirovohrad Spring Music Festival in Ukraine. Dr. Zheng regularly performs and teaches as a guest artist at universities and conservatories around the globe, including the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Shanghai Normal University, Kasetsart and Mahidol University College of Music in Bangkok, and the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.

Critically acclaimed, her CD set Complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin by W.A. Mozart (Vermeer/Naxos) was recorded at the University Mozarteum Salzburg following extensive research at the International Mozart Foundation. Together with violinist Bin Huang, gold medalist of the Paganini International Competition, Dr. Zheng performed the entire Mozart cycle twice in the US and made a featured appearance at the Shanghai Spring Music Festival. These live performances were broadcast in the US, China, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates. The concerts were also featured in Lifeweek Magazine, one of China’s most widely read publications, reaching over 13 million online readers.

From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Zheng debuted as a soloist and chamber musician in Colombia, China, and Taiwan, presenting concerts, workshops, and masterclasses in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran. Highlights of her 2018–19 season included a debut solo concerto performance with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, a research and recording project in Paris, and a featured artist appearance at the West Virginia Music Teachers’ Association Conference, where she also served as a competition adjudicator.

Post-COVID, Dr. Zheng’s schedule includes a guest residency at the EAFIT Piano Festival in Medellín, Colombia, a series of concerts in Italy, and a solo debut recording featuring piano works by Joseph Jongen.

An avid explorer of innovative art forms and cross-disciplinary collaborations, Dr. Zheng has performed with jazz violinist Regina Carter, blending classical and jazz traditions. She has also collaborated with French-Canadian painter and filmmaker Jean Detheux, creating works showcased in international film festivals and at the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music.

A frequent adjudicator for the American MTNA Competitions, Dr. Zheng is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Global Summer Institute of Music @ VCU, an international summer music festival based in Richmond.

Marina Lomazov

Piano Professor Eastman School of Music

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.  Her primary teachers were Leonid Fundiler and Valery Sagaidachny in Ukraine, Barry Snyder, Jerome Lowenthal, and Natalya Antonova in the United States.  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 was the longest serving chair of the National Panel for YoungArts, 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 served as Artistic Director of the Southeastern Piano Festival in Columbia, SC for 20 years, and they now serve as Artistic Directors of the Vivace Music Foundation.

Ms. Lomazov is a Steinway Artist.

Joseph Rackers

Piano Professor Eastman School of Music

Hailed as an “American Virtuoso” (Audiophile Audition), “enormous power and intelligent, instinctive interpretation” (Spoleto Today), and “simply dazzling” (The State), pianist Joseph Rackers has performed for enthusiastic audiences in New York, Boston, Chicago, Kiev, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Seoul and Washington D.C., at venues across Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Bulgaria, Ukraine and extensively throughout the United States.  His performances around the world include the Shanghai and Sichuan Conservatories of Music, Kiev International Music Festival, Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival, Seoul International Piano Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series and Banff Centre for the Arts, in addition to recitals in most of the fifty states in the U.S. Gramophone writes, “the results are consistently compelling… if Rackers response were primarily to his relationship with the composer as some sort of kindred spirit.”

Joseph Rackers is an International Steinway Artist.  His recordings as soloist, collaborative pianist and producer are available on MSR Classics, Navona, Centaur, Equilibrium, Beauport Classics and Steinway Spirio and his performances have been broadcast on radio and television across the United States and Europe.  His recent solo release with MSR Classics was widely recognized by the press; “unflappable virtuosity…highly expressive…committed to letting the composer’s voice—as he hears it—come through” (American Record Guide), “compelling power, rhythmic persuasiveness…consummate style…complete mastery” (Audio Society).  

Rackers is Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, Co-Founder of the Southeastern Piano Festival and Artistic Director of the Vivace Music Foundation.  A devoted teacher, Rackers’ students have earned awards in dozens of national and international piano competitions, including the Bonn Beethoven International Piano Competition (First Prize, Audience Prize, Contemporary Music Prize, Chamber Music Prize and Bärenreiter-Urtext Prize), Leipzig Bach International Piano Competition, Concours International de Piano d’Orléans, National Winner of the MTNA National Competition, Minnesota International, Seattle International, Yamaha Young Performing Artists, National Society of Arts and Letters, Steinway, Shenzhen, YoungArts, Eastman Concerto Competition, Blount-Slawson, Liszt-Garrison, Dubois, and numerous others.  His students have performed for venues including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Minnesota Orchestra, Aspen and Cliburn music festivals, From the Top on NPR and Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theater. 

Rackers has given performances and masterclasses at Indiana University, University of Michigan, Boston University, Cincinnati, UCLA, UNLV, Vanderbilt, and at conservatories and music festivals across Europe and Asia.  He has recently served as Schwartz Artist in Residence at Emory University and as faculty or guest artist at the Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, Chicago International Music Institute, Seoul International Piano Festival, Perugia International Music Festival, Southeastern Piano Festival, Texas State International Piano Festival, American Liszt Society Festival, Yantai International Music Festival, Varna International Piano Festival and as a National Reviewer for the National YoungArts Foundation.  He has given presentations and performances for conferences of the Music Teachers National Association and College Music Society and has been honored by the South Carolina House of Representatives and South Carolina State Senate for his personal contribution to the arts and leadership of the Southeastern Piano Festival. 

Also active as a chamber musician, Rackers 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 the Second Prize winners of the Sixth Ellis Competition for Duo Pianists, the only national duo piano competition in the United States at that time. Gramophonepraises the duo for “assured and centered pianism” and American Record Guidewrites “the ensemble between Lomazov and Rackers is dead-on”.  Rackers earned the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees at the Eastman School of Music, where he was also awarded the Performer’s Certificate.  His principal teachers were Raymond Herbert and Natalya Antonova.  

Solungga Liu

Piano Professor & Chair
Bowling Green State University

Solungga Liu has earned acclaim as a pianist of remarkable breadth, celebrated for her advocacy of early 20th-century American music, underrepresented works in the classical repertoire, and her mastery of contemporary compositions. Her artistry has been described as nuanced, expressive, and deeply insightful.

Liu’s 2017 debut at the Library of Congress showcased her extraordinary skill, featuring works by Charles Griffes, Amy Beach, and César Franck. The Washington Classical Review praised her “rhythmic precision, expression, and finely calibrated sense of balance between all of the moving parts.” This recital included a world premiere of Griffes’s 1915 piano transcription of Debussy’s Les parfums de la nuit from Iberia, rediscovered by the Library of Congress. The Washington Classical Review lauded her performance, stating that Liu brought an “orchestral spectrum of colors” to the transcription.

Her recordings have received widespread acclaim. The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan: Piano Works of Charles Tomlinson Griffes (Centaur Records) was praised by the American Record Guide for its “excellent sound, sensitivity, and beguiling color.” Her newest album, The Passionate Amy Beach: Piano Quintet and Selected Works for Solo Piano (Centaur, 2023), was lauded by Piano Magazine as “full of depth, color, and nuance,” and Fanfare Magazine described it as “a genuine and beautiful performance.”

A passionate advocate for new music, Liu has premiered and recorded numerous contemporary works. Highlights of her collaborations include performing Lutosławski’s Piano Concerto with OSSIA, Steve Reich’s The Desert Music and Tehillim with Alarm Will Sound, Aaron Travers’s Concierto de Milonga with the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, and Gregory Mertl’s Piano Concerto, commissioned for her by the Barlow Endowment. The 2017 Bridge Records release of Mertl’s concerto garnered significant critical acclaim.

Liu’s career spans five continents, performing as a soloist and chamber musician with orchestras such as the National Theater Symphony Orchestra of Brazil, the Taipei Metropolitan Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra/Choral Society, and the National Institute of Health’s Philharmonia in Washington, D.C. She has appeared at iconic venues like Carnegie Hall, The National Concert Hall in Taiwan, and the Goethe Center in Bangkok. In Brazil, she presented a series of solo recitals at the Brazilian National Museum of Sculpture (MUBE) and the Cultural Center of Brasília (CCBB), performing for both public audiences and members of Brazil’s Cabinet and Supreme Labor Court.

In addition to her international performance career, Liu is a dedicated educator at Bowling Green State University and a sought-after Artist-Teacher at international festivals and competitions. These include the 2023 Lied Center for Performing Arts Summer Piano Academy, the Eastman School of Music Summer Piano Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, the Sicily International Piano Festival and Competition, the Thailand International Mozart Competition, and the Piano Plus International Piano Festival in Greece.

Liu holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Alan Feinberg, Douglas Humpherys, and Elizabeth DiFelice. Her career exemplifies her dedication to artistic excellence and the promotion of both traditional and innovative repertoire.

Tang Jin

Piano Professor Shanghai Conservatory of Music

Tang Jin, a renowned Chinese pianist and educator, is a piano professor of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Pujiang Scholar, the Artistic Director of the Shanghai Chopin International Piano Art Week, and a visiting professor at Guangxi Arts University. She became the first pianist from mainland China to earn a Master’s Degree in piano performance from Mozarteum University Salzburg, Austria with top honors, and also obtained an artist’s Diploma from the Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media, Germany with outstanding results. She has studied under famous mentors such as Russian piano master Alexei Lubimov and German piano professor Markus Groh.

As a soloist, she has performed in major concert halls across Europe, Japan, and China. She was the first Chinese pianist to present the recital “Bach Dialogues with Chinese Music” at the Leipzig Bach Music Festival and has been invited to perform at numerous important music festivals both domestically and internationally. She has collaborated with orchestras such as the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Shanghai Opera House Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai City Symphony Orchestra, the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum University Symphony Orchestra, the Salzburg-Munich Joint Symphony Orchestra, the Wernigerode Chamber Symphony Orchestra, and the Osaka Forte Symphony Orchestra.

She has received many awards and honors for her performance and teaching. Her debut solo album “Yang Liqing Piano Works Performance Album” has been published and released by Shanghai Music Publishing House. Several of her academic papers and articles have been published in national core journals. Recognized by the international piano community, she often serves on the jury for international piano competitions: A. Scriabin International Piano Competition in Italy, Pozzoli International Piano Competition in Italy, Sanremo Russian Piano Music International Competition in Italy, Nordic International Piano Competition in Sweden, Neue Sterne International Piano Competition in Germany, International Piano Competition of Hamburg Composers in Germany, International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Russian etc.

Currently, over 40 of her students have won prizes in many important international and national competitions. 

Alberto Firrincieli

Professor of Music Entrepreneurship, Piano and Harpsichord
Assumption University of Thailand

Alberto Firrincieli is an esteemed Italian pianist, harpsichordist and composer. Since almost 20 years he is an active educator, performer and scholar. He was honored with the title of Knight of the Star of Italy (Cavaliere della Stella d’Italia) and with the prize “Ragusani nel
mondo”. Additionally, he won the second prize in the International Contest SIMM 2018 – New Music for Harpsichord with the work “13 new variations on La Folia”, published by DaVinci publishing.

In the last two decades he has devoted himself to the study of music pedagogy and he invented his own piano method “Think in music”. This approach stands in sharp contrast to the prevalent routine that emphasizes mere note-reading and mechanical repetition without fostering a genuine awareness and understanding of the music. Currently, he is Assistant Professor in the Department of Music Entrepreneurship at Assumption University of Thailand, where he instructs students majoring in piano, harpsichord, and composition. He is the founder of the International Keyboard Academy (IKA) in Thailand and the Italian Thai Youth Orchestra (ITYO). For ten years he held the position of Artistic
Director for the Bangkok International Piano Festival and he presently collaborates with various embassies in Thailand and abroad, as well as other international institutions, in organizing cultural and artistic events.

Among his most notable publications is the book “A method-logical approach to J. S. Bach two-part Inventions” in which he offers insight into understanding and composing music, starting from an historical contrapuntal approach and combining it with logical reasoning and music creativity. Moreover, he has recorded three CDs (released by Naxos and DaVinci Publishing), and
he authored over ten books (published by Edizioni Pian&Forte and DaVinci Publishing), and published eight academic articles dedicated to music pedagogy. In 2019, he made his debut at Carnegie Hall, performing a Toccata by Frescobaldi as a special guest and jury member for the IBLA GRAND PRIZE competition. He is frequently invited as a guest speaker and performer by
international institutions to conduct recitals, conferences, masterclasses, workshops, and to present his scholarly contributions at international conferences and symposiums. His piano video courses are distributed by iClassical Academy and Cicerone Music Club. He began playing the piano at the age of eight and graduated at twenty under the guidance of Sebastiano Cannizzo at “Vincenzo Bellini” Conservatory in Caltanissetta, Italy. He then dedicated himself to the study of ancient keyboard instruments, learning the organ with
Enrico Viccardi and graduating in Harpsichord under Maria Pia Jacoboni. Concurrently, he studied Composition with Giorgio Tosi and Electronic Music with Francesco Giomi and Marco Biscarini at the “Arrigo Boito” Conservatory in Parma, Italy, where he also graduated.

He furthered his education by graduating in Musicology from the University of Pavia, Italy, with a dissertation on Carlo Antonio Marino, an Italian Baroque composer, and his music. He also studied Harpsichord with Francesco Baroni and attended the “Ars et Labor” advanced Piano and Chamber Music Course with Christa Bützberger and Marina Rossi in Vicenza, Italy. During his studies, he participated in masterclasses with Enrico Baiano, Bob van Asperen, Michele Barchi, and Emilia Fadini.

Xi You

Piano Professor Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing

Pianist You Xi is internationally recognized for her refined artistry, deep musical insight, and wide-ranging contributions to performance, education, and cultural leadership. A Steinway Artist and Professor of Piano at the Central Conservatory of Music, she also serves as a doctoral supervisor and the founder and artistic director of the Beijing Central Conservatory International Chamber Music Festival, a landmark series she has led since 2008.

Born in Kunming, Yunnan Province, You Xi entered the Primary School of the Central Conservatory of Music at the age of ten and was later admitted to the Conservatory’s Middle School, eventually progressing directly into the Piano Department of the Central Conservatory of Music. She graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing), the Zurich University of the Arts (HMT) in Switzerland, and the Manhattan School of Music in New York.
Her mentors include distinguished pianists and pedagogues such as Ye Jun-Song, Chen Bi-Gang, Li Qi-Fang, Homero Francesch, Solomon Mikowsky, Nina Svetlanova, and Robert McDonald. She was also fortunate to become the only Chinese disciple of the legendary pianist Alexis Weissenberg. As one of the few pianists profoundly versed in both Eastern and Western European traditions, inheriting the pure German–Austrian and Russian piano schools, You Xi has performed extensively across the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.

She has appeared at major venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tonhalle (Zurich), The Teatro Regio (Turin), the National Centre for the Performing Arts (China), Beijing Concert Hall, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Qintai Grand Theatre (Wuhan), Xinghai Concert Hall, and Hong Kong City Hall. She is a frequent guest at international music festivals and esteemed institutions, giving performances and lectures every year.

You Xi has long devoted herself to performing contemporary music and actively promoting new works by Chinese composers. Her recordings include the chamber music album You Xi with Friends – “Music，Poems, and Paintings”, Highlights of the CCOM Chamber Music Festival, and her solo album In the words of Xi – “Les Affinites”. She has edited and published “Selected South American Piano Works”——a practical anthology of piano repertoire. In 2016, she directed and produced the recording of the Closing Concert of the 8th Central Conservatory International Chamber Music Festival featuring Lynn Harrell. She then curated and edited Compositional Highlights of the CCOM International Chamber Music Festival – A Joyous Musical Ode to Our Motherland in 2020. In 2025, under Universal Audio & Video, she released the live concert album : Fire of Life · Rays of Hope, a violin and piano sonata recital.

Professor You has served as the jury member of numerous prestigious international competitions, including:
Deputy Jury Chair of the Sichuan “Xuehui Cup” College Piano Competition;
Pearl River Kayserburg International Youth Piano Competition, the Sterinborgh National Youth Piano Competition, “Joy of China” (Xingfu Zhongguo) Youth Piano Competition, and the Cadenza Youth Piano Competition.
the “Yanzi Cup Samick Youth Piano Competition,” the “White Magnolia International Piano Festival and National Piano Competition,” the Seiler & Samick Youth Piano Competition (Shanghai), the national piano competition at Shanghai International Piano Festival, and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts’ 1st piano competition at the Nanyang Piano Festival (Singapore). In 2018, she took the role of vice chairperson at the 11th International Frederic Chopin Competition for Young Pianists (the Gotrian Cup). In 2019, she sat on the jury of prestigious competitions both at home and abroad, including the “Chopin at Wawel” International Piano Competition (Krakow), the China Division of the Liszt International Piano Festival; the Helen “Talent Award” International Piano Festival; In 2021, she was invited to assume the position of vice chairperson for the “Institute Cup” Piano Competition (youth & academic groups) and the 14th Lagny Sur Marne International Piano Competition. the Osaka International Music Festival; the Macau Greater Bay Area Youth Arts Week, and many other renowned competitions worldwide.

She is frequently featured in interviews on major media platforms such as CCTV News, CCTV-15, BRTV, Xinhua News Agency, People.cn, People’s Music magazine, Music Weekly, Beijing Youth Daily, Art Today by BRTV, Piano Explorer, Music Space, Musical Instrument Magazine, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (“New Journal of Zürich”, Switzerland), New York Concert Review (U.S.).

Since 2021, she has been working as the artistic director for the Winland Concert Hall – a concert series performed by young pianists from CCOM.
In March 2023, You Xi led the first-ever concert aimed at introducing chamber music to the local community, which was also the first community concert for Shokai Academy’s urban renewal project. That May, she performed at the Beijing Concert hall together with renowned violinist Zhang Ti in the chamber music concert “Fire of Life, Light of Hope”, featuring piano and violin sonatas. In the same year, her project Specialized Talent Training in Chamber Music was selected for funding by the Beijing Cultural Development Foundation, with You Xi serving as project director. In 2024, she founded the Kunming Qinyuan International Piano Festival and became its Artistic Director. In September of the same year, she was invited to serve as Artistic Advisor for the Xiamen Song and Dance Theatre Symphony Orchestra’s concert A Tribute on the Keys. In October 2024, she and her student Chen Zhilin were invited by the Consulate General of Finland in Shanghai to perform for Finnish President Alexander Stubb during his state visit. In 2025, she was appointed Artistic Ambassador of the Beijing Hefeng Arts Foundation.

You Xi has earned numerous honors including the New Century Talents Award by the Ministry of Education China, and the Henry Fok Foundation’s Excellence in Teaching Award by the Ministry of Culture. She has also been recognized as a strategically important expert in art and culture by the Beijing Municipal Government, and one of the 10 best young musicians by CCTV-15. In 2008, she founded the CCOM International Chamber Music Festival and has been the artistic director ever since.

Vincenzo Pavone

Professor of Piano at the “A. Toscanini” Conservatory of Music of Ribera 

Vincenzo Pavone has an intense concert activity both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. He is a highly appreciated teacher and gives advanced specialization courses at international festivals and prestigious universities. He began studying the piano at the age of 15, graduating with the highest marks and honors from the “V. Bellini” Musical Institute of Catania, under the guidance of Professor Antonella Scuderi. He continued his studies with Maestro Lorenzo Di Bella and Gianluca Luisi in Recanati (MC) at the Accademia Pianistica delle Marche. His training was further enriched by meetings with numerous teachers of international renown such as Aquiles Delle Vigne, B. Canino, R. Risaliti, L. Howard, R. Cappello, A. Ammara, R. Plano, D. Franceschetti, N. Carusi, L. Trabucco, F. Scala, V. Egorova, V. Pyasetsky, etc. He has performed in important venues in Italy and abroad, including the Wiener Saal in Salzburg, the Edinburgh Society of Musicians in the United Kingdom, Steinway Hall in New York, the James Black Hall and the W.E. Singleton Center of Performing Arts in Richmond (USA), the Chopin Associatie Vlaanderen Cultuurcentrum Beringen in Belgium, the Orangery Concert Castle of Unternzenn near Würzburg, the “Euromediterraneo” Festival in Rome, in Sicily for the prestigious “Taormina Arte Festival”, in Frankfurt for the Dreieicher Musiktage, the Brahms Institut an der Musikhochschule Lübeck, Prague at the Dvořák Museum for the 14th edition of the International Eduard Nápravník Music Festival at Býšť, London at St. Cuthbert’s Church, Smith Music Hall at Marshall University, West Virginia (USA). In 2017 he toured in Frankfurt, Dreieich, and Darmstadt. In 2018 he won the “Orchestra Competitions” of the Global Summer Institute of Music in Richmond. He performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 at the Italian Grand Piano Gala in Lugansk, Ukraine. He has also been awarded prizes in numerous national and international piano competitions: First Prize at the “National Piano Competition of Barcellona P.G.” and Special Prize for the interpretation of J. Brahms, First Prize at the National Piano Competition “Città di Bucchianico” (CH), Second Prize at the 8th National Piano Competition “Benedetto Albanese” in Caccamo (PA), First Prize at the International Piano Competition “G. Campochiaro” of Pedara (CT), First Prize at the National Piano Competition “Agimus” (Rome), etc. He also obtained a degree with the highest marks and honors in Modern Literature and a Master’s Degree in Modern Philology at the University of Catania. He is Artistic Director of the cultural association “Mecenate” in Sicily.
Since 2024, he has been a tenured professor of Piano Practice and Sight-Reading at the “A. Toscanini” Conservatory of Music of Ribera (Agrigento).

Jerfi Aji

Professor of Music
Istanbul Technical University

Hailed by Fanfare magazine as “…a reminder of the great classical music tradition in Turkey,” Jerfi Aji maintains a versatile career as a soloist, sought-after chamber musician, and advocate for contemporary music. He is also a faculty member at Istanbul Technical University’s Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM), where he teaches piano and music theory.

Aji’s debut album, Alexander Scriabin: Poems, Colours, Flames, was released in 2022 under the Italian Vermeer label, following his win of the Recording Prize at the Sicily International Piano Competition in January 2019.

Born in 1976 in Istanbul, Aji holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) in piano performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. In addition, he earned a bachelor’s degree in textile engineering from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and master’s degrees in industrial engineering from Bosphorus University and piano performance from ITU-MIAM.

Aji studied piano with esteemed teachers including Marian Hahn, Ayşegül Sarıca, Thomas Hecht, Zeynep Aksoy Eğilmez, Hülya Ardıç, and Ali Darmar. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras and has given solo recitals and chamber music concerts both in Turkey and internationally.

His chamber music collaborations include performances with notable artists such as James Buswell, Amit Peled, Carol Ou, Ellen Jewett, Michael Berkovsky, Yotam Baruch, Hüseyin Sermet, and Cihat Aşkın. Aji is a member of Trio Kuvars Viyolet and the Istanbul Modern Music Ensemble, continuing to contribute to Turkey’s rich musical heritage while championing contemporary works.