Charleston Music Fest - Artist Biographies

Click on the artist's name to see their biography.

Lee-Chin Siow	Natalia Khoma	Volodymyr Vynnitsky	Jill Muti
Kathryn Dey	Almita Vamos	Katharine Gowers	Leonardo Altino
Peter Takács	Suren Bagratuni	Monique Duphil	Enrique Graf
Toby Appel

Gold Medal winner of the 1994 Henryk Szeryng International Violin Competition and First Prize winner of the 1994 Louise D. McMahon International Music competition for Strings, Lee - Chin is one of the most talked about young violinists today. She was hailed as "a violinist having superb control with tasteful flair . . ." by Donald Rosenberg, Music Critic of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. She brought a silvery timbre and unpressured approach to Vaughan William's haunting scenario. A rising star with powerful artistic temperament and electrifying technique, she is busy as a soloist as well as a reflective and virtuosic recitalist.

A seasoned performer, Lee - Chin has performed in over 20 countries on four continents. A frequent guest of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, recent engagements include a London debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as soloist of the Singapore Symphony in their debut Japan tour during the 2003 Osaka Performing Arts Festival, solo appearances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony, and tours with the Syracuse Symphony, the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, the United Philharmonic Orchestra of Vienna and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1994, the Prime Minister of Singapore presented Lee - Chin with the country' highest Youth Award for Excellence in the Arts. In 1996, she won the "Young Artist Award" given by Singapore' National Art Council.ther career highlights include a highly successful New York recital debut on the Young Artists Winner Series in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, solo appearances at the closing ceremony concert of the International Music Festival of Lucerne, Switzerland and for the Twentieth Anniversary Celebration of ASEAN in Washington, DC. Lee - Chin's live performances have been broadcast on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS Sunday Morning), National Public Radio and on the Voice of America. In 1992, she was featured in a documentary film Home coming Artists by the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation.

Committed to teaching, she has served on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory, given masterclasses all over the world including the University of Singapore, the Lisbon Academy of Music, the Chicago Institute of Music and the University of Montana, among many others. Currently, Lee-Chin is the director of Strings and Professor of violin at the College of Charleston, South Carolina. Her private students have won the South Carolina Music Teachers State competitions (SCMTNA) and soloed with the Charleston Symphony.

A native of Singapore, Lee - Chin began her violin studies at the age of seven under her musician father, Siow Hee Shun. An alumni of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Mannes College of Music, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, her teachers have included Felix Galimir, Aaron Rosand, Almita Vamos, and Roland Vamos.

Lee - Chin performs on the violin made by J.B. Guadagnini of Milan, c.1750 made possible through the Violin Loan Program of the National Arts Council in Singapore. Click here to return to top of page.

Since winning the All-Ukrainian competition in 1981, cellist Natalia Khoma has won top prizes at the Budapest Pablo Casals Competition (1985), Marneukirchen (Germany, 1987) and the Tchaikovsky (Moscow, 1990) International Competitions, as well as First prize at the 1990 Belgrade International Cello Competition.

A native of Lviv, Ukraine, Ms. Khoma studied at the Lviv Central Music School and the Lviv Conservatory and from 1982 until 1990 at the Moscow Conservatory with Professor Natalia Shakhovskaya. In the United States, Ms. Khoma was awarded the Artist Diploma of the Boston University under the direction of Professor, Leslie Parnas.

The first and only Ukrainian cellist to have won at the Tchaikovsky Competition, she has since distinguished herself as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras thorough the former USSR, as well as USA, Canada, South America, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Eastern Europe and the Middle and Far East.

Natalia Khoma has performed as a soloist with such leading ensembles as the Berlin Radio Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Radio Orchestra, Chamber Ensemble of New York City Symphony Orchestra, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and has had solo recitals and performed in Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow), Merkin Hall and Weill Recital Hall (New York), Jordan Hall and Tsai Performance Center (Boston), Krannert Center (Illinois),Wharton Center ( Michigan), Schauspielhaus (Berlin), Palais des Beux Arts (Brussels), Grand Halls of the Franz Liszt Music Academy (Hungary) and Oslo Music Academy (Norway) among many others.

Recital and chamber music appearances have included guest invitations in the International Festivals in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Brazil, Ukraine, USA and Canada, her annual appearance as the Artist-in-Residence in the ‘Music at the Institute’ Series in New York.

With performances which have been hailed around the world as “technically dazzling”, “intense, brilliant, and with perfect structure”, “full warm cello tone….and, what a drive!” and, “the precision of her executions, Slavic Zen”, Natalia Khoma made her first public appearance on TV at age ten and performed her first concerto with the orchestra at age thirteen. Ms. Khoma was a Professor at the Lviv Conservatory (Ukraine), Roosevelt University College of Music in Chicago, Michigan State University and was a visiting Professor of University of Connecticut School of Music.

In November 1992; she was invited to be head of the Jury at the First International Lysenko Competition in Ukraine.
Ms. Khoma has recorded for NHK-TV (Japan) and made CD recordings for Cambria, Blue Griffin, IMP, Naxos and Ongaku labels, as well as for Ukrainian, Russian German, Spanish, Yugoslavian, Israeli, and Hungarian Radio and Television, WNYC-FM in New York and WGBH-FM in Boston.

In addition to her performing activities, Natalia Khoma is a Professor of cello at College of Charleston in Charleston, SC. She serves as organizer of the Children and Music Foundation, which provides music training, instruments and financial aid to young, gifted Ukrainian music students in need. Click here to return to top of page.

Toby Appel has appeared in recital and concerto performances throughout North and South America, Europe, and the Far East. He has been a member of such renowned ensembles as TASHI, and the Lenox and Audubon Quartets. Mr. Appel has been a guest artist with the Vermeer, Alexander, Manhattan and Composers Quartets as well as a frequent guest with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and jazz artists Chick Corea and Gary Burton. Festival performances include those with Mostly Mozart (NY), Santa Fe (NM), Seattle (WA), Bravo! Vail Valley (CO), Chamber Music Northwest (OR), DaCamera of Houston (TX), and Marlboro (VT), as well as festivals in England, France, Germany, Korea, Italy, Finland, and Greece. In 1975, Mr. Appel was featured in a CBS television special performing works commissioned by him for three violas, all played by Toby Appel. In 1980, Mr. Appel wasthe winner of the Young Concert Artists International.

A most versatile artist, Mr. Appel has narrated performances including: A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, by Benjamin Britten, Ferdinand, by Alan Ridout and Munro Leaf, Ode to Napoleon, by Arnold Schoenberg, Histoire du Soldat, by Igor Stravinsky, Masque of the Red Death, by Andre Caplet and Edgar Allan Poe, and Facade, by William Walton and Edith Sitwell. Mr. Appel is a frequent commentator for National Public Radio's Performance Today.

Toby Appel entered the Curtis Institute at age 13 under the guidance of Max Aronoff. Mr. Appel is currently teaching on the viola and chamber music faculties of the Juilliard School in New York City, is Artist Lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and is a visiting professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He has also held professorships at the State University of New York, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and the University of New Mexico. He has toured for the United States State Department and performed at the United Nations and at the White House. His chamber music and recital recordings can be heard on the Columbia, Delos, Desto, Koch International, Opus 1 and Musical Heritage Society labels.

Toby Appel lives in New York City with his wife, Carolyn and their 13 year old son, Jordan. Click here to return to top of page.

A laureate of the Margueritte Long-Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition in Paris (1983) pianist Volodymyr Vynnitsky has performed with the leading orchestras of Ukraine, as well as with the Poznan Symphony Orchestra (Poland), the Paris Radio and Television Orchestra, the Scottsdale Symphony Orchestra, the Livonia Symphony Orchestra (Michigan), and many others.

He has appeared in many prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Steinway Hall, the Phillips Gallery in Washington D.C., the Great (Bolshoi) Hall at the Moscow Conservatory, the Theatre Champs d'Elysees, and St. John's Smith Square in London.

Volodymyr Vynnytsky has also earned the reputation of a brilliant chamber music performer, appearing with such noted ensembles as the Kyiv Chamber Orchestra "Perpetuum Mobile", the Leontovych String Quartet, the St. Petersburg String Quartet, and Zapolsky String Quartet from Denmark. He has also performed at numerous music festivals, including Connecticut's Music Mountain, the Mohonk Festival of the Arts, the Windham Chamber Music Festival, Lake San Marcos Chamber Music Society in California, and the Music and Art Center of Greene County, where he has served as artistic advisor and resident pianist since 1996. He performed at the Shostakovich Festival at the Moores Opera House in Houston, Texas in 2000, and was invited to be a special host in the Rachmaninoff International Festival Concert held at Herbert Zipper Concert Hall, Los Angeles 2002. He has also been featured on WQXR-FM in New York and NPR.

Born in Lviv, Ukraine, Volodymyr Vynnytsky studied at the Lviv Music School for Gifted Children and later at the Moscow Conservatory. After earning his doctorate in 1983 from the Moscow Conservatory, he taught at the Kyiv Conservatory and concertized extensively throughout Ukraine, the other republics of the former Soviet Union, and Europe. Mr. Vynnytsky was a visiting member of the piano faculty in SUNY at Purchase, N.Y. and at the University of Connecticut. In 2003 he was appointed Music Director of the Music and Art Center of Greene County, New York. Click here to return to top of page.

Jill Muti holds degrees from Interlochen Arts Academy, Depauw University and Duke University. She has performed at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy and with numerous organizations both regionally and abroad in recital and chamber music concerts. She is a member of the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle in North Carolina. Click here to return to top of page.

 

 

 

 

Enrique Graf was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1953. He started studying piano at the age of four with his mother and later at the Falleri-Balzo Conservatory. After winning all of the national competitions there, he came to the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University to study with Leon Fleisher on a full scholarship from the Organization of American States and the Peabody.

In 1977 he and Katherine Jacobson won First Prize in the National Ensemble Two Piano Competition, the following year Mr. Graf was the First Prize winner in the William Kapell International Piano Competition and in 1981 he won the East and West International Competition in New York City.
Graf has given recitals all over the world and has been featured as soloist with such orchestras as the Baltimore, Indianapolis, New Jersey, Richmond, Florida, West Virginia, Charleston, New York City and Jupiter Symphonies; the Moscow Philharmonic, the Janacek Philharmonic, the National Chamber Orchestra, the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, the American Chamber Orchestra, the Puerto Rico Symphony, and the National Orchestras of Chile, Uruguay, Panama and Colombia. He has appeared at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Krannert Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, the Cultural Center of Manila, Teatro Opera in Buenos Aires, the Chautauqua Festival, Young Keyboard Artists International Festival in Ann Arbor and the University of Maryland International Piano Festival.

As a chamber musician he has performed with Cuarteto Latinoamericano, The Baltimore Wind Ensemble, the American Chamber Players, the Prague Wind Quintet, the Apollo String Quartet, and the Ives String Quartet.

His latest recording, an all Poulenc CD was a pick of the month by the Sunday London Times and was awarded five stars in Classic CD.His debut recording Enrique Graf plays Bach was called "An end to the discussion of whether of not Bach should be played on the piano" by Paul Hume of the Washington Post. Other recordings of the Liszt Sonata, the Grieg and two Beethoven Concertos have received such praise as "ideal performances" (Fanfare).

After fourteen years of teaching at the Peabody Preparatory, where he became chairman of the piano department, he received the Directors' Recognition Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1989. He is Artist in Residence at the College of Charleston, and in 1996 the College awarded him the Distinguished Research Award. While continuing to build an outstanding piano program in Charleston, he is also on the graduate faculty of Carnegie Mellon University. His students have won many national and international competitions. Mr. Graf has been on the juries of international competitions in the United States and Europe and has given master-classes on four continents.

Graf is founder and Artistic Director of the International Piano Series in Charleston and the Young Artist Series in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. He was awarded a Fellowship from the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar, the Music Fellowship from the South Carolina Arts Commission, Career Grants from the Charles Del Mar and Astral Foundations and the Immigrant Achievement Award from the American Immigration Law Foundation.

The New York Times described one of his appearances as "a triumph, in all respects" and The Washington Post has called him on different occasions "memorable, elegant, masterful, refined". Click here to return to top of page.

Almita Vamos a grisaduate of the Juilliard School, where she studied with Mischa Mischakoff and Louis Persinger. She was a member of the Lydian Trio and the Antioch Quartet, and has recorded under Coronet and Rizzoli labels. She has concertized throughout the United States, Taiwan, Korea, Greece, Australia, and Iceland. She won the Concert Artist Guild award and many other prizes. She continues to perform as soloist and chamber musician in this country and abroad.

Mrs. Vamos's students have won top prizes in many national and international competitions including Gold Prizes in the Tchaikowsky Youth Competition, Carl Flesch, Menuhin, Bach (Leipzig), and Silver Prizes in Tchaikowsky, Szigeti, Kreisler, Neilsen, and Bronze Prizes in Paganini and Montreal Competitions. This past year her students have won Grand Prizes in WAMSO, Blount, and First and Second Prizes in the Fischoff Competition and three of her former students have attained positions in the New York Philharmonic. Her students are members of the Boston, St. Louis, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Washington, Minnesota, Chautauqua, Hong Kong, Oslo Philharmonic, and many other symphony orchestras around the world.
Almita Vamos has won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching five times, the ASTA Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award and has been featured on "Sunday Morning" CBS.

Mrs. Vamos has taught at many summer festivals including Meadowmount, Bowdoin, Chautauqua, Schlern International Music Festival, Niagara International Music Festival, Amati Festival, and is co-founder of the Weathersfield Music Festival. She was professor at Western Illinois University, University of Minnesota, Oberlin Conservatory, and is presently a distinguished professor at Northwestern University. Click here to return to top of page.

 

Originally from Madison , Wisconsin , violist Kathryn Dey has a diverse background in performing and teaching. Active as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player, she has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe . Festival appearances include Sarasota Music Festival, the Festival at Sandpoint , Idaho and the Schloss Festspiel in Heidelberg , Germany . Ms. Dey is currently principal viola of the Greenville (SC) Symphony Orchestra and violist of the GSO string quartet. Recent concerts include an appearance as soloist with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, a concert as guest artist with the Magellan String Quartet and a performance on the 2006 Summermusic Series of Gilbertsville, NY. In May of 2006 Ms. Dey was awarded a grant from the Surdna Foundation to study and perform works for unaccompanied viola by american composer Lillian Fuchs.

Ms. Dey is on the string faculty of the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, a residential arts high school located in Greenville , South Carolina . She is the viola instructor and chamber music coach at the Governor's School and created Concertato String Orchestra, a conductorless chamber orchestra that received top prize at the 2006 ASTA High School Orchestra Competition in Kansas City . Students from her private viola studio are consistently accepted into top conservatories and music schools such as The Juilliard School, The Colburn School, and the Eastman School of Music and have been award winners in numerous state and national competitions. Ms. Dey is also on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music Viola Workshop.

Ms. Dey earned degrees in viola performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Eastman School of Music, where she served as teaching assistant to John Graham. Ms. Dey performs on a modern viola made by Tetsuo Matsuda of Chicago. Click here to return to top of page.

 

Katharine Gowers studied with David Takeno at the Yehudi Menuhin School and at the Guildhall School of Music, where she won the Gold Medal prize, with Roland and Almita Vamos at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, and with Joey Corpus in New York. In 1997 she was the winner of the international Parkhouse Award in partnership with the pianist Charles Owen.

Katharine’s concerto appearances have included performances with the Royal Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, and with the BBC Big Band and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. She has also toured with Nigel Kennedy and the English Chamber Orchestra playing Bach's Double Violin Concerto.

Katharine has performed extensively throughout Britain and abroad in recital and as a chamber musician, collaborating with such artists as Alfred Brendel, with whom she played in a piano quartet on a worldwide chamber music tour, Imogen Cooper, Steven Kovacevich, Steven Isserlis, Paul Lewis and Adrian Brendel. Katharine has appeared at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Aldeburgh Proms, and at the Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Salzburg, Bath, Lucerne, Delft, Vancouver, City of London, Spoleto and Oxford festivals, and in 2003 and 2005 was a featured artist at the Presteigne Festival. She regularly attends the Open Chamber Music seminar at IMS Prussia Cove.

Katharine has frequently been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and across many other European networks, and has recorded for EMI Classics and Somm. Her recent CD with Charles Owen of short pieces for violin and piano (Somm) was chosen as the recital selection of the month in the June 2007 issue of the Strad magazine.

A keen interest in the similarities between music and drama has led Katharine to participate in workshops run by the theatre company Complicite, working with Pascal Lecoq and Krikor Belekian of LEM (le Laboratoire d’Etude du Mouvement), and with one of Europe's foremost theatre teachers, Monika Pagneux. Katharine is currently involved in an experimental opera project, sponsored by the Royal Opera House’s OperaGenesis, combining onstage soprano, aerialist and violinist, directed by Roswitha Gerlitz and with music by Harvey Brough. Click here to return to top of page.

 

Leonardo Altino, a native of Brazil, began his cello studies at the age of six and gave his first performance at age eight. By age fifteen, he had appeared as a soloist with every major orchestra in Brazil and worked with renowned conductors such as Eleazar de Carvalho and Isaac Karabitchevsky. Praised by the Strad Magazine for his “exceptional musical intelligence and an exceptionally cultivated sound,” Mr. Altino was the First Prize winner at the International Cello Competition in Viña Del Mar, Chile, and he has since appeared as soloist and in solo recitals in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Korea, Taiwan, and the US. He has performed with many orchestras in the U.S. and abroad such as the Boston Symphony, Concord Symphony, Hudson Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Montgomery Symphony, Sinfonica de Bogota, Sinfonica de Santiago, and Sinfonica de São Paulo, among many others. Mr. Altino was awarded the first prize at the Jovens Concertistas Brasileiros, a prestigious competition in Brazil, and he received the Harvard University Music Award. In addition to his activities as soloist, Mr. Altino frequently performs in chamber music recitals, collaborating with artists such as Roger Chase, Stephen Mackey, Antonio Meneses and the Miró String Quartet. He is a member of the Ceruti String Quartet, the faculty resident ensemble at the University of Memphis.

Mr. Altino holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his principal teachers include Aldo Parisot, Laurence Lesser, and Suren Bagratuni. He also studied in Germany with Marcio Carneiro at the Detmold Musikhöchschulle and received the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra Fellowship to serve as artist-in-residence for two years.

As a dedicated teacher, Mr. Altino has taught in several festivals such as the Festival de Inverno Campos do Jordão in Brazil, the International Music Festival in Bogota, Colombia, and at the Masterworks Festival in Indiana where he and his wife, violinist Soh-Hyun Park Altino, serve as directors for the String Intensive Study Program. He has also taught at the Preparatory Division of the New England Conservatory of Music and has given master classes in many universities and music festivals in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. Altino presently teaches at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis.
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Winner of the Silver Medal at the 1986 International Tchaikovsky Competition while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, Suren Bagratuni has gone to a distinguished international career as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. In addition to performing throughout the former Soviet Union, he has toured world wide earning enthusiastic praise in both traditional and contemporary repertoire.

Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Mr. Bagratuni began his musical education there at the age of seven. After winning several national and international competitions he continued his studies at the Moscow Conservatory and later in the United States, at the New England Conservatory of Music.
His teachers include such legendary names as Daniel Shafran, Natalia Shakhovskaya and Laurence Lesser.

Suren Bagratuni began performing at age ten, and by age fourteen appeared as a concerto soloist. He has performed with all the major orchestras in the former Soviet Union, including the Moscow Philharmonic (under the direction of Valery Gergiev), and has also appeared with the Boston Pops, L’Orchestre Jeune Philharmonie in Paris, the Weimar Staatskapelle, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Rostok, Erfurt and Halle, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Symphony Orchestras of Chile, Guatemala, Dominican Republic to name a few.

His solo appearances have included recitals in Moscow, St.Petersburg, Paris, Geneva, Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Munchen, Seoul, Taipei, Cairo, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Carnegie Hall’s Weill recital hall, Worcester’s Mechanics Hall, Jordan hall in Boston. A performance there of the Shostakovich d minor Sonata prompted the Boston Globe to call it “one of the best performances of the year”. At Weill recital Hall in New York, he performed a suite for cello and piano by Ned Rorem (with the composer as pianist).

Chamber music appearances have included guest invitations with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Newport Music Festival, the “Russian Winter” festival in Moscow, the El Paso Pro Musica International festival, Bargemusic, international festivals in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and Taiwan.

Suren Bagratuni won critical acclaim for his CD releases on the Ongaku label, featuring works for solo cello and Sonatas by Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
Mr. Bagratuni also appears on Marco Polo, Russian Disc, BGR, Cambria and CMH labels. He has recorded for “Melodiya”, and has been featured on CBC Radio Canada, WNYC in New York, NPR, and NHK TV Japan.

In addition to his solo activities, Mr. Bagratuni is a member of the Nobilis; Artistic director of the Cello Plus Chamber Music series; Professor of cello at the Michigan State University and conducts master classes Worldwide. Click here to return to top of page.

 

Hailed by the New York Times as “a marvelous pianist,” Peter Takács has performed widely, receiving critical and audience acclaim for his penetrating and communicative musical interpretations.

Mr. Takács was born in Bucuresti, Romania and started his musical studies before his fourth birthday. After his debut recital at age seven, he was a frequent recitalist in his native city until his parents' request for emigration to the West, at which point all his studies and performances were banned. He continued studying clandestinely with his piano teacher until his family was finally allowed to emigrate to France, where, at age fourteen, he was admitted to the Conservatoire National de Paris.

Upon his arrival in the United States, his outstanding musical talents continued to be recognized with full scholarships to Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, and a three-year fellowship for doctoral studies at the Peabody Conservatory, where he completed his artistic training with renowned pianist Leon Fleisher.

Mr. Takács has received numerous prizes and awards for his performances, including First Prize in the William Kapell International Competition, the C.D. Jackson Award for Excellence in Chamber Music at the Tanglewood Music Center, and a Solo Recitalist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His performances have been hailed by audiences and the press for their penetrating intellectual insight as well as for emotional urgency and communicativeness.

Mr. Takács has performed as guest soloist with major orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, as well as at important summer festivals such as Tanglewood, Music Mountain, Chautauqua Institution, ARIA International, Schlern Music Festival in the Italian Alps, and Tel Hai International Master Classes in Israel. He has performed and recorded the cycle of thirty-two Beethoven Piano Sonatas, which are due for release on the CAMBRIA label in 2007.

Mr. Takács’ success as a teacher is attested to by his students’ accomplishments, who have won top prizes in competitions in the United States, Canada, Europe, and South Africa. They have been accepted at major graduate schools such as the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, and Peabody Conservatory, among many others. Mr. Takács has given master classes in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and has been a jury member at prestigious national and international competitions such as San Antonio International Keyboard Competition (twice), Canadian National Competition (three times), Cleveland International Piano Competition, and Hilton Head International Piano Competition (2008). Mr. Takács is Professor of Piano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he has been teaching since 1976. Click here to return to top of page.

 

At the age of ten, Monique Duphil was admitted at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris and graduated 6 years later, winning a First Prize in piano. She also studied chamber music intensively. Her teachers were Marguerite Long, Jean Doyen, Pierre Pasquier and Joseph Calvet. Later studies were with Harriet Serr and Vladimir Horbowski. A Paris debut with orchestra at 15, followed by prizes in four international competitions, launched Monique Duphil on a worlwide career.

In recognition to her spectacular debut in the United States with the Philadelphia orchestra, substituting on a few hours notice for cellist M.Rostropovich, Ms Duphil was reengaged by Eugene Ormandy to appear with him four times, performing two concertos on each occasion. She premiered in Switzerland the Ginastera concerto No.1 with Charles Dutoit, and Yoel Levi chose her to premiere Roger Sessions Piano Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra.

While based in Hong Kong, she performed many concerts in China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, but also in Western and Eastern Europe, as well as several tours of the former Soviet Union. She was praised by Hong Kong press as "possibly Asia's finest pianist".

The numerous orchestras Ms Duphil has performed with include the Philadelphia and Cleveland, Quebec, Warsaw, Bern, Munich, Paris, Caracas, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Seoul, Tokyo, Sapporo, Kanazawa, Taipei, Hong Kong, and all the New Zealand as well as all ABC (Australia) orchestras. Some of the conductors were E.Ormandy, I.Markevich, L.Fremaux, J.de Preist, M.Shostakovich, V.Smetacek, Wislocki, Akiyama, Sir A.Gibson, G.Hurst, P.Maag, Erwin Hoffman, V.Verbitsky, C.Dutoit, G.Schwarz, Yoel Levi, Ed.Mata, and T.Sanderling.

As a distinguished chamber musician, Monique Duphil has partnered many renowed artists like Henryk Szeryng, Ruggiero Ricci, Cho-Liang Lin, Pierre Fournier, JP Rampal, Michel Debost, Robert Aitken, Karl Leister, the Salzburg Mozarteum trio, and the Vienna, St Petersburg, Haydn, Chester and American string quartets.

Monique Duphil was on the faculty of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts before her appointment at the renowned Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the USA in 1992.

Monique Duphil has recorded for Polydor, Telefunken (Japan), Marco Polo, Naxos and Eclectra (Canada) labels. Click here to return to top of page.