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WIPF is proud to present internationally acclaimed pianists as part of its concert series. The cost of tickets is included in the participants' tuition. The concerts are open to the community, and tickets to individual concerts can be purchased at the door or reserved by emailing us at washingtonpianofest@gmail.com.

Ticket Prices:
Adults: $20; Seniors and students: $10; CUA's students with a valid student ID: free admission

Aaron Diehl (Ward Recital Hall, CUA, Sunday, July 29)
Young Pianists Showcase Concert (Ward Recital Hall, CUA, Tuesday, August 31)
Ivo Kaltchev and Chongxiao Liu. Solo and Piano Duo Recital (Ward Recital Hall, CUA, Tuesday, August 31)
Young Pianists Showcase Concert (Ward Recital Hall, CUA, Wednesday, August 1)
José Feghali (Ward Recital Hall, CUA, Wednesday, August 1)
Concerts of the 2012 WIPF Participants (Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, August 2 and 3) FREE ADMISSION
Alexander Kobrin (Ward Recital Hall, CUA, Saturday, August 4)
Closing Concert of the 2012 WIPF Participants (Ward Recital Hall, CUA, Saturday, August 4) FREE ADMISSION

Aaron Diehl
Sunday, July 29, at 6:00 pm
Ward Recital Hall, CUA

PROGRAM TBA

This concert is made possible in part by the support of the American Pianists Association and will be presented by the APA's President Joel Harrison.

Aaron Diehl is the 2011 Cole Porter Fellow in Jazz of the American Pianists Association. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as "The most promising discovery that [Wynton] Marsalis has made since Eric Reed," Aaron Diehl's distinctive interpretations of the music of Scott Joplin, "Jelly Roll" Morton, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, and other masters pay homage to the tradition while establishing his own original voice.

Mr. Diehl has performed with the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Hank Jones, Wycliffe Gordon, Wessell Anderson, Benny Golson, Loren Schoenberg, and has been featured on Marian McPartland's NPR radio show "Piano Jazz." His international touring includes major European jazz festivals as well as performances in South America and Asia. "Mozart Jazz," his first CD as a leader, was released in 2006 on the Pony Canyon label (Japan). Recent performances include the Caramoor Festival and the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Diehl is a 2007 graduate of the Juilliard School where his teachers included Kenny Barron, Eric Reed, and Oxana Yablonskaya. His honors include Lincoln Center's prestigious Martin E. Segal award in 2004, winner of the 2003 Jazz Arts Group Hank Marr Jazz Competition, and Outstanding Soloist at Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2002 Essentially Ellington Competition. Immediately following graduation from high school he toured with the Wynton Marsalis Septet.Mr. Diehl currently resides in Manhattan where he serves as music director of St. Joseph of the Holy Family Church in Harlem.

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Young Pianist Showcase Concert
Tuesday, July 31, 6:45-7:15 pm
Ward Recital Hall, CUA

Details to follow shortly

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PROGRAM TBA

Prizewinner of international piano competitions and a Bösendorfer Concert Artist, pianist Ivo Kaltchev is enjoying a successful performing career as recitalist, soloist with orchestras, chamber musician and recording artist. "Formidable technique" (Piano Journal, England), "possesses the genius of rubato"(Diapason, France), "superb musicianship" (Phar, Israel), "distinctive and original" (Soviet Culture, Russia), "impressive" (Frankfurter Neue Presse, Germany), "most beautifully and idiomatically played" (International Record Review, England), "glittering," " big technique" (The Washington Post, USA), "his tonal qualities are astounding…first class" (American Record Guide, USA), "fine" (Fanfare, USA), "a master of the whole range of pianistic attacks and coloristic effects" (The Star Ledger, USA) - these are some of the words which music critics have used to describe Mr. Kaltchev's unique artistry.

Dr. Kaltchev has performed in musical centers throughout the world, including Carnegie Weill Concert Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Kennedy Center, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory Malii and Rachmaninov Halls, St. Petersburg State Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall, Salle Moliere (Lyon, France), Teatro Verdi (Salerno, Italy), Tel Aviv Museum Recanati Auditorium (Israel), Mendelssohn Hochschule für Musik Hall (Leipzig, Germany), Princeton University's Richardson Auditorium, the Library of Congress, and the Bulgaria Great Hall.

He has performed and taught at music festivals throughout the world including the Washington International Piano Festival (Washington DC), the European Academy for Music and Arts (Montepulciano, Italy), the Chinese-American International Piano Institute (Changdu, China), the Perugia International Music Festival (Italy), Nancyphonies International Music Festival (France), Mozart International Music Festival (Frankfurt, Germany), the Toledo International Music Festival (Spain), the Sofia Music Weeks International Festival (Bulgaria), the Lincoln Center French Music Festival, the Prague Spring International Music Festival (Czech Republic), the Varna Summer International Festival (Bulgaria), the Rutgers SummerFest (USA), Vivace International Music Festival (USA), and Florida University Young Pianist Festival (USA). Some of the highlights of recent seasons include both a solo recital and a concerto performance with the New York Festival Orchestra (now EOS Orchestra) in Alice Tully Hall, performances of the complete solo piano works of Debussy and the complete songs of Henri Duparc as well as concerts in the U.S., China, Russia, Germany, Spain, Finland, Bulgaria, Italy, France, Czech Republic and the Virgin Islands. A respected chamber musician, Mr. Kaltchev has collaborated with the New York Metropolitan Opera soloists Sharon Christman, Fabiana Bravo and Patrick Carfizzi; pianist Ilana Vered; Essex Quartet; French actress Marie Christine Barrault as well as members of the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. His engagements for the 2010-11 concert season include recitals and master classes in the United States, Thailand, Singapore, Portugal, Switzerland, Mexico, and China.
Mr. Kaltchev's critically acclaimed commercial recordings on the Bulgarian "Gega New" label include an all-Charles Griffes CD (hailed by the French magazine Diapason as "the most accomplished interpretation known until now") and a CD with the world premieres of solo piano works by the French composer Florent Schmitt. Mr. Kaltchev has been a featured artist for the New York City's WNYC and WQXR Radio Stations, Radio Free Europe (Germany), Radio Moscow, Klara Radio Station (Brussels, Belgium), Bulgarian National TV and Radio, and many others.

Mr. Kaltchev holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University (USA), the Master of Music degree from Yale University (USA), the Bachelor of Music degree from the Sofia State Academy of Music (Bulgaria) and a Diploma from the Franz Liszt Hoscschule fur Musik (Weimar, Germany). His principal teachers include pianists Ilana Vered, Boris Berman, Milena Mollova as well as chamber musicians from the Guarneri and Tokyo String Quartets.

Dr. Kaltchev is a recipient of pedagogy awards for teaching excellence from the Piano Teachers Society of America and the Princeton Steinway Society. He has presented lectures, workshops and master classes at the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, the European Piano Teachers Association Conference, the American College Music Society Conference, the Improving University Teaching International Conference, the Yale University as well as in the United States, Europe, China, Korea and the Virgin Islands. Dr. Kaltchev is an active adjudicator and has judged the following international piano competitions: Maria Clara Cullell International Latin American Piano Competition (Costa Rica), Louisiana International Piano Competition (USA), Vladigerov International Piano Competition (Bulgaria), Jacinto Guerrero Piano Competition (Spain), Florida International Piano Competition (USA), Andorra International Piano Competition, International Young Artist Piano Competition (USA), Liszt-Garrison International Piano Competition (USA) and Los Angeles International Liszt Piano Competition (USA). Mr. Kaltchev's students are prizewinners of more than 20 piano competitions and have performed with numerous orchestras including I Solisti di Perugia (Italy). Dr. Kaltchev is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Bulgarian Music Society Concert Series at the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington DC.
Currently, Dr. Kaltchev is Associate Professor of Piano and Chair of the Piano Division at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He is also a Visiting Professor at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China and Co-Director of the Washington International Piano Festival in Washington DC. During the Fall 2010 semester, Dr. Kaltchev taught at the Yale University School of Music as a Visiting Professor.

Chinese pianist Liu Chongxiao is a full-time Piano Professor at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music in China. He graduated with honors from the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing receiving BM and MM degrees in Piano Performance.
Prof. Liu is enjoying a busy performing career as a solo pianist, chamber musician and recording artist. He has performed in the United States, Germany, France, Bulgaria, and China. He has recorded for Hong Kong Radio 4 and has been a concerto soloist with China Philharmonic Orchestra as well as Beijing Film Orchestra. His students are prizewinners of numerous piano competitions in China.

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PROGRAM TBA

Gold Medalist and winner of the Chamber Music prize at the Seventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, José Feghali has been Artist-in-Residence at TCU’s School of Music since 1990. He has appeared in over 1000 performances worldwide, including appearances with such orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Gewandhaus of Leipzig, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, London Symphony, Birmingham Symphony, National Symphony of Spain, Warsaw Philharmonic, and the Shanghai and Beijing symphonies. In the USA, he has appeared in all the major cities and in virtually every state of the nation, including performances with the orchestras of Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Atlanta, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and the National Symphony, and has worked with many eminent conductors including Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach, Yuri Temirkanov and Leonard Slatkin. Recital appearances include performances at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Orchestra Hall, Kennedy Center , Ambassador Auditorium, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Bass Hall and the Meyerson Symphony Center . Solo and concerto performances have taken him to Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey, China, Singapore, Hong-Kong and several countries in Latin America .

Equally active as a recitalist, José has appeared on such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Ambassador Auditorium and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. He has also performed in the major concert halls of the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Latin America. An avid chamber musician, he has participated in many chamber festivals in the US and abroad, as well as in collaboration with James Galway, Truls Mørk, Antonio Meneses, Alisa Weilerstein, Edgar Meyer, David Shifrin, Olivier Charlier, Régis Pasquier, Tokyo String quartet and John Vickers. He has been a judge at several international piano competitions, gives regular masterclasses and is a member of the faculty at both the PianoTexas and Mimir Chamber Music Festivals.

His recordings are available on the Naxos , Koss and VAI labels. José has worked as producer, recording and mastering engineer in over 50 commercial and non-commercial recording projects, and was the remastering engineer for the Van Cliburn Competition’s Retrospective series of CDs on the VAI label. New CDs, including solo and chamber recitals, will be released next season.

José is Coordinator of Internet Technologies for TCU’s School of Music , where he was awarded the Mike Ferrari Award for his work with Internet2 and video conferencing and streaming technology. He was invited to give presentations at the annual Performing Arts conferences of both Internet2 and the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association (TERENA) on the application of Microsoft Research’s ConferenceXP software in music and arts education. While investigating the program’s capabilities for possible use in long-distance music events, he discovered and corrected a flaw in the software’s code that had until then made it incapable of utilizing high fidelity sound in real-time conferencing applications.

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Alexander Kobrin is the winner of numerous international piano competitions - notably the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He also won top prizes at the Neigauz, Busoni, Hamamatsu, Glasgow, Caltanissetta, and the Warsaw Chopin International Competitions, as well as receiving numerous special awards for his brilliant technique and musicality, and for emotionally engaging with the audience through music.

Since receiving the prestigious Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal at the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2005, Kobrin solidified his reputation with an outstanding first tour of the United States, including recitals at Bass Hall for the Cliburn Series and for the Washington Performing Arts Society, followed by further debuts at La Roque d'Antheron, Ravinia Festival, Beethoven Easter Festival, Hannover Prize winners Series, Turner Sims and at the renowned Klavier-Festival Ruhr, with critics praising his "interpretative musicianship [and] considerable insight", "elegance, grace and spirit".

He now divides his time between performing around the world and teaching - and is "glad to have this balance between performing and teaching … trying to continue on the path of the emotional approach [to music]". Alexander Kobrin has been a real inspiration to many students. He served on the faculty of the Gnessin's Academy of Music from 2003 to 2010; since 2006 he has been on the faculty of the IKIF at Mannes College of Music, and is now the "L.Rexford Whiddon Distinguished Chair in Piano" at Schwob School of Music of Columbus State University.

Alexander also regularly undertakes recording projects working with various well-known labels (Quartz, King Records, Fondamenta, Harmonia Mundi). In addition to the Van Cliburn Competition disc for Harmonia Mundi (2005), three volumes of Essential Chopin and a Rachmaninov disk he released a Brahms CD (op.79, op.116 & op.119) in the summer of 2010; a new disk of Haydn and Schumann is due to come out this spring, and another large-scale project is planned for 2012.

His biggest passion in life is for performance - and every year he adds new impressive collaborations to his ever-growing CV, touring extensively in Europe, Asia and the US. He has collaborated with many major orchestras such as New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Verdi, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Moscow Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Berliner Simphony, Chicago Sinfonietta and many others.

His recent and upcoming engagements include a German tour with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra performing Chopin Piano Concerto No.1 in Munich, Frankfurt and Dortmund; Swedish Radio Symphony with Juraj Valcuha; Ulster Orchestra with Kenneth Montgomery; Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin with Ludovic Morlot; Warsaw Philharmonic with Eiji Oue; KBS Symphony Orchestra with Claus Peter Flor; BBC Symphony Orchestra with Krzysztof Urbanski; Phoenix Symphony with Michael Christie; the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras. In the US his engagements include the Fort Worth Symphony, Florida West Coast Symphony, Fox Valley Symphony, Fairbanks Symphony, Flagstaff Symphony and Columbus Symphony Orchestras, his "awe-inspiringly assured" technique consistently admired by presenters.

His appearances worldwide have featured recitals and performances in many major halls, including the Louvre Auditorium and Saller Cortot in Paris, Wigmore Hall and Albert Hall in London, Munich Herkulesaal and Berliner Filarmonia Hall in Germany, Kennedy Centre in Washington, Avery Fisher Hall in New York, the Great Hall at the Moscow Conservatoire, Sheung Wan Civic Centre in Hong Kong, as well as the Esplanade Concert Hall, Sala Verdi in Milan, and many others. He has also performed at Salle Gaveau, Paris, where both Mezzo and ARTE broadcast his recital. Alexander has also made appearances and given masterclasses at the Festival Musique dans le Grésivaudan and the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in Mannes as well as at the International Piano Series and the Busoni Festival, and has given a recital tour of Italy including cities such as Milan, Verona, Palermo Varese and etc.

Alexander Kobrin's debut with the New York Philharmonic at both the Avery Fisher Hall and for the inaugural concert of the Bethel Woods Arts Centre was hugely successful, with critics writing about his "lyricism, which he couched in a thoughtfully shaped, singing line. … When he addressed the barnstorming passages on their own terms, he did so with a steely edge and ample - if thoroughly controlled - force".
Other noteworthy critical acclaim includes reviews in Gramophone Magazine - describing his playing as "memorably personal and stylish" and "hypnotic", while many others critics note his "feathery touch and sparkling passagework" and how he can "set all the different kinds of tone colours and structures against each other to create contrast, and to illuminate tensions between light and shade, brightness and melancholy in a multitude of layers". The experience of hearing Alexander Kobrin live has been very well summed up by Nick Rogers, after hearing Alexander perform a Rachmaninov concerto: "Kobrin's dazzling dexterity certainly seemed supernatural to see, but his talent and performance [with the orchestra] was decidedly human".