Washington International Piano Festival: Lectures

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An exciting addition to the festival's program this year is a two-day International Piano Pedagogy Symposium, which will take place as part of the WIPF at Ward Recital Hall on campus of the Catholic University of America.

International Piano Pedagogy Symposium
July 25-26, 2010 at Ward Recital Hall on CUA's campus

Sunday, July 25, 2:00 pm -8 pm
-Lecture by James Litzelman "Wellness in Piano Playing"
-Panel discussion "Teaching Piano in the 21st century" led by Maurice Hinson, Thomas Hecht, and the MTNA National President Ann Gipson
-Presentation by Jordan Kitt's Music
-Yamaha's presentation and demonstration of a distance lesson on Disklavier
-Alfred Publishing stands and door prizes
-Short concert
-WIPF Opening Reception

Monday, July 26, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
-Maurice Hinson "American Music Workshop"

The cost of the Symposium's pass is included in the participants' tuition, and all of the WIPF participants are encouraged to attend. The event is also open to piano teachers and community. The Symposium's pass ($50) can be purchased at the door (please RSVP by July 21 at washingtonpianofest@gmail.com) or online on our website. You can also send a check made out to Washington International Piano Festival to:

Washington International Piano Festival
P.O. Box 473
Rockville, Maryland 20848-0473, USA

WIPF Lectures

Maurice Hinson "American Music Workshop", July 26 at 9:30 am
Joseph Banowetz "Art of Fingering", July 30 at 10:00 am

Both lectures will take place at Ward Recital Hall on the CUA's campus. The cost of tickets is included in the participants' tuition. The lectures are open to the community, and tickets 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

Maurice Hinson

One of America's most respected authorities on piano literature, Dr. Maurice Hinson received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Music Teachers National Association at its Washington, D.C. convention in the spring of 1994, the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Florida in 1990 and the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Michigan in the fall of 1995. Hailed as a specialist in American piano music, some of his most recent articles appear in the New Grove Dictionary of American Music in the United States.

Dr. Hinson received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Florida and his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Michigan. He also studied at The Juilliard School and the Conservatoire National in Nancy, France.

As Senior Professor of Piano in the School of Church Music at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Dr. Hinson's curriculum includes teaching piano, piano literature and piano chamber music. He has performed, lectured and given masterclasses worldwide. His books and editions have become classic standards in the studios of serious piano teachers and students the world over.

Joseph Banowetz

Joseph Banowetz has been described by Fanfare Record Review (U.S.) as "a giant among keyboard artists of our time," by Russia's News (Moscow) as "a magnificent virtuoso, who amazed the public by his deep understanding of the composer's spirit," and by Ruch Muzyczny (Warsaw) as "a virtuoso in the noblest sense of the word." A graduate with a First Prize from the Vienna Akademie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, his teachers have included Carl Friedberg (a pupil of Clara Schumann) and György Sándor (a pupil of Béla Bartók). Banowetz has been heard as recitalist and orchestral soloist on five continents, with performances in recent seasons with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) Philharmonic, the Moscow State Symphony, the Prague and Bratislava Radio Orchestras, the Budapest Symphony, the New Zealand Symphony (on a twelve-concert national tour), the Beijing Central Philharmonic, Barcelona Concert Society Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Shanghai Symphony.Banowetz was awarded the Liszt Medal by the Hungarian Liszt Society in Budapest, in recognition of his outstanding performances of Liszt and the Romantic literature. Banowetz has recorded over thirty compact discs for the Naxos, Marco Polo, Warner Brothers, Toccata Classics, and Altarus labels, these including the Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1, Liszt Concertos and Totentanz, d'Albert Concertos, and world-premiere recordings of all eight of the Anton Rubinstein piano and orchestra works, the Balakirev Fantasy on Russian Folk Songs, and the Taneyev Piano Concerto. His recorded solo repertory includes music of Bach, Busoni, Balakirev, Chopin, Debussy, Godowsky, Huang, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Rubinstein, Schumann, Stevenson, and Taneyev. One of the Rubinstein orchestra and piano series was named by Fanfare Record Review (U.S.) as an outstanding international release for 1993, and a similar citation was given in 1987 by the German Music Critics Association for his world-premiere of works by Balakirev.

Banowetz is also internationally recognized as an author and editor. His book, The Pianist's Guide to Pedaling (University of Indiana Press, U.S.) has to date been printed in seven languages. Many of his piano editions have been translated into Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. He has served on major piano juries such as the Arthur Rubinstein Master Piano Competition (Israel), the Scottish International Piano Competition (Glasgow), the Belarussian International Piano Competition (Minsk), the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition (U.S.), the 2001 World Piano Competition (U.S.), the Antonin Dvorák International Piano Competition (Czech Republic), the Hilton Head International Piano Competition (U.S.), and the Louisiana International Piano Competition (U.S.). Banowetz has been invited to teach and lecture at many schools, including the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the Juilliard School in New York City, London's Royal College and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, theArtmúsic Escola de Música I Dansa of Barcelona, the Chopin Academy of Warsaw, Hong Kong's Academy for the Performing Arts, and China's national Conservatories of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. To date, Banowetz has concertized in 35 countries worldwide, with most recent performances at festivals in the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, and Singapore.

Students of Joseph Banowetz have been awarded important national and international competition prizes, including first prizes at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition (U.S.), Shreveport Symphony International Piano Competition (U.S.), Missouri Southern International Piano Competition (U.S.), Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, and McMahan International Piano Competition (U.S.). Other awards have been received at such competitions as the Minsk (Belarus) International Piano Competition, the Varna (Bulgaria) International Orchestral Soloist Competition, and the Louisiana International Piano Competition (U.S.). Several of his students have been heard on internationally distributed commercial compact disc recordings. His former student, Petronel Malan, received a Grammy nomination from the Recording Academy (U.S.) for one of her recordings on the Hänssler label.

James Litzelman

James Litzelman is currently director of the graduate program in piano pedagogy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC and an independent music teacher in Arlington, VA. He is active as a soloist, collaborative artist, and lecturer, having performed and lectured in the United States, Europe, China, Russia and Mexico. In demand for master classes, adjudicating and workshops, he presents lectures nationally and internationally to various music organizations and has judged competitions throughout the eastern and southern United States. Litzelman has lectured at an international music forum in Zacatecas, Mexico, has presented collaborative concerts and master classes in Shenyang, China, and has performed solo and collaborative recitals at the Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and Sviatoslav Richter Museum in Moscow, Russia.

Litzelman is an active member of many professional organizations, including the Music Teachers National Association, the College Music Society, and the American Liszt Society and has served as chairman of the "Future of Piano Pedagogy" committee for the World Piano Pedagogy Conference. He is also active as a writer, having had articles published in various musical publications such as Keyboard Companion, and the American Music Teacher. Additionally, Litzelman serves on the national editorial committee of the American Music Teacher magazine and is a reviewer of new books and music for that periodical.

Litzelman maintains an active independent studio at his home in Arlington, Virginia, where his students have distinguished themselves in local, national and international competitions and music festivals. He is a member of the Virginia Music Teachers Association, the Northern Virginia Music Teachers Association-currently serving as president-elect of that organization-the Washington Music Teachers Association and the Maryland State Music Teachers Association. Litzelman has been on the faculty at The Catholic University of America since 1993.