GFA Piano 2 Masterclass

Ilya Itin

“Itin’s is a rare and exciting artistry indeed…poised, pure, and ravishing in its range of colour, Itin’s playing is a prime example of a superb technique put at the service of an inquiring and imaginative mind.” (Daily Telegraph, London)

Audiences throughout the world revere Ilya Itin’s unique artistry. Playing sold out houses in Japan and in the US, he is known for his extraordinary range, power, quality of sound and command of the piano. His Princeton recital was singled out by the Philadelphia Inquirer as a “top ten musical moment of the year”, and a New York Times critic described him as: “…a brilliantly insightful pianist who offered a superb recital.” Since capturing the Gold Medal, BBC Audience Award, and Contemporary Music Prize at the 1996 Leeds International Piano Competition, Ilya Itin has performed throughout the world bringing his powerful musical imagination and mastery to wide ranging repertoire. “I’d go to hear him play the phonebook,” remarked BBC TV critic Ian Burnside.

Ilya Itin has performed with many of the world’s great conductors, including Sir Simon Rattle, Neemi Jarvi, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Yakov Kreizberg, Vassily Sinaisky, Valery Polyansky, and Mikhail Pletnev performing as soloist with orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, the National Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the China National Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra of India; the Mexico City Philharmonic; and the Rochester Philharmonic.

Much lauded for his chamber music collaborations with colleagues and friends in the US, Europe and Asia, he recently performed Beethoven Archduke Trio in New York with the Jupiter Chamber Players followed by a recital of the complete Brahms Sonatas in Tokyo with violinist, Fuminori Maro Shinozaki.  He has made numerous recordings of chamber music, including Beethoven’s “Spring” Sonata, Brahms Viola Sonata, Martinu Double Violin Sonata, and Piazzola Spring/Autumn in Buenos Aires, with Igor Gruppmann, violin and Vesna Gruppmann, viola/violin. Mr. Itin has also recorded a full recital with legendary violinist Ida Haendel at the Miami International Piano Festival.

During the 2015-2016 he will be releasing his newest recording of the complete Debussy Preludes on vinyl and high definition audio. His Princeton recital in July 2015 will also be released as a state of the art high definition recording of the live performance. It features beloved works of Rachmaninov and Scriabin. Itin’s DVD of the “Russian Marathon” concerts at the Miami International Piano Festival was also recorded live, in one day and included, all 24 Preludes of Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev’s 7th and 8th Sonatas. Other recordings include Beethoven’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Jerusalem Camerata on the JDR label, and Prokofiev’s 6th Sonata with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition on VAI.

Mr. Itin is also a much sought after teacher giving regular master classes throughout Japan, in Princeton, Miami, and New York. His students include winners of top prizes in international competitions, and highest awards at the most competitive conservatories of the US and Japan.

Born in Yekaterinburg, Russia, his piano studies began at the Sverdlovsk School for the Gifted with Natalia Litvinova. He went on to graduate from the Moscow Conservatory with the highest honors in 1990 working with legendary teacher Lev Naumov. Mr. Itin won his first major piano competition while at the Conservatory, taking second place in the 1990 Russian National Rachmaninov Competition. Soon after, he won top honors in the William Kapell Competition, followed by First Prize, and the Special Chopin Prize at the Casadesus Competition (Cleveland Competition), and the Best Performance of a Work of Mozart, Best Prokofiev Performance, and Third Prize at the Gina Bachauer Competition.

Ilya Itin is on the teaching faculties of the Musashino Academy in Tokyo, the Academy of the Miami International Piano Festival and the Golandsky Institute at Princeton University. He has also taught in the piano departments of the Juilliard School prep and college divisions, Peabody Conservatory, and the Graduate Program at CUNY. Ilya Itin resides in Tokyo, Japan, and New York City where he maintains a private teaching studio.

Olivier Moulin

Hailed by the Washington Post as a « young artist displaying maturity and elegance », French pianist Olivier Moulin studied under Eric Heidsieck and Gery Moutier at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Lyon, where he was unanimously awarded first prize with honors. After advanced studies in the same institution, he continued his training in Austria at the Salzburg Mozarteum in the classes of Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Clemens Hagen, where he obtained a Master of Arts with highest honors. Throughout his studies, he has also benefited from the advices of masters such as Aldo Ciccolini, Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, Jacques Rouvier, Jean-François Heisser, Sergio Perticaroli…

Prizewinner of international piano competitions, he has been invited to participate in major international festivals : la Roque d’Anthéron, Montpellier and Radio-France, Lille Clef de Soleil, Pianos Folies in Le Touquet, Journées Lyriques in Chartres, Divonne, Sully-sur-Loire, La Vézère, Croisements Festival in China, Virtuosi Festival in Brazil, Festival Internacional de Piano En Blanco y Negro in Mexico, Istanbul’s Lisztomanias, Motley Tulip International Arts Festival in Belarus, Bellapais International Festival in Cyprus…

He has performed in prestigious venues in France (Grand Auditorium of Radio-France, Salle Gaveau, Salle Cortot, the Louvre Auditorium, Lyon and Avignon Operas, Cloître des Jacobins in Toulouse, Théâtre des Variétés in Monaco, Arsenal de Metz…), in Europe (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Hungary, Spain, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey…), Asia (Japan, China, South Korea, India, Indonesia…), and the Americas (USA, Brazil, Mexico). His concerts are regularly broadcasted by radio and television in France and abroad. Olivier made in 2014 U.S. debut at the French Embassy in Washington DC, where he played a recital devoted to Rameau, Debussy, Ravel.

He has also collaborated with several orchestras : Orchestre National de Metz, Ensemble Orchestral de Montbéliard, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Wuhan (China), the Camerata de Coahuila (Mexico)… His passion for chamber music has allowed him to share the stage with many artists such as David Guerrier, the Fine Arts Quartet, soloists of the Philharmonic of Radio-France, Bertrand Chamayou, Jérôme Dorival… He was also invited to Geneva and Chartres by Eve Ruggieri to take part in conference/concerts focusing on the life of Frederic Chopin. His first solo CD, devoted to Franz Liszt, was released in october 2011 for the french label AmeSon/Outhere.

Olivier Moulin is Professor of piano at the Nancy Conservatory (France), and President of the Epinal International Piano Competition. He regularly gives masterclasses in Europe, USA, Mexico, Japan, China … and is invited to serve as a member of the jury of many international piano competitions such as : Istanbul, Porto Santa Cecilia, Scriabin in Grosseto, Sviatoslav Richter International Piano Competition…

Lorenzo Di Bella

“Lorenzo Di Bella is a remarkable talented pianist, a brilliant virtuous, an exciting and refined musician. I was his teacher for three years and always admired his great technical skills and also his strong artistic personality, above all, his desire to “speak” to the public” …these were the words of Lazar Berman some months before he died.

Prize winner of several international piano competitions he received in 2005 the 1st Prize and Gold Medal at “V. Horowitz” International Piano Competition in Kiev. In 2006 former Italian President C.A.Ciampi awarded him with the “Sinopoli Prize” in honour of the famous orchestra director Giuseppe Sinopoli, passed away in 2001. In the last years he has performed with great success at the Two World’s Festival in Spoleto, Teatro ‘La Fenice’ in Venice, ‘Teatro Olimpico’ in Vicenza, “Teatro delle Muse” in Ancona, Michelangeli Hall in Bolzano, Montreal (Maison Symphonique), at the Liszt Festival in Utrecht, ETH of Zurich, Chopin Festival in Marianske Lazne, Hamburg, Berlin, Praha, Krakow, Sarajevo, Beijing, Shanghai(Oriental Center), Denver (C.I.P.A.) at the “Società dei Concerti” in Milan, and in the Auditorium “Parco della Musica” in Rome where he played with the Santa Cecilia National Symphony Orchestra conducted by M°James Conlon.

Lorenzo Di Bella began his piano studies at the age of 5. A promising pupil, he graduated at the Conservatorio Rossini of Pesaro. The following five years he attended the courses of Franco Scala and Lazar Berman at the “Piano Academy – Incontri col Maestro” of Imola, graduating in 2002, and completed his studies at the “National Academy of St. Cecilia” in Rome with Sergio Perticaroli, where he graduated on June 2004 with the highest vote.

His intense musical activities led him to collaborate with many orchestras: Florence Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, Pescara Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra “Pomeriggi Musicali” of Milan , San Remo Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonie of Bacau, O’Porto National Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ucraine, Nancy Symphony Orchestra, SudWestDeutsche Philarmonie, Villingen-Schwenningen Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonisches Kammerorchester Berlin, Moravian Philarmonic Orchestra, West Bohemia Orchestra and New World Philarmonic. He has collaborated with important conductors: Kirill Karabits, Vassylis Christopoulos, Reinhard Seehafer, Jorge Iwer, Zbinĕk Müller, Vladimir Sirenko, Michael Maciaszczyk, Michel Brousseau, David Crescenzi, Francesco Lanzillotta, Luigi Piovano.

Lorenzo Di Bella has a very active teaching schedule as a main piano professor at the High Music School “G.Braga” in Teramo and also as artistic director of the “Accademia Pianistica delle Marche” in Recanati (Italy). He is founder and artistic director of the CIVITANOVA CLASSICA Piano Festival , the ‘Mugellini Music Festival’ and ‘La Palma d’Oro’ International Piano Competition in San Benedetto del Tronto( Italy).

Gülsin Onay

Gülsin Onay’s truly international career has spanned 80 countries across all continents, from Venezuela to Japan. She has given concerts in the major musical centres such as Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, National Gallery of Art and Miller Theater. Onay has performed as a soloist with such leading orchestras as Dresden Staatskapelle, Philharmonia Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony. Conductors with which she has performed include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Erich Bergel, Jorg Faerber, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Neeme Jarvi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jose Serebrier and Stanislaw Wislocki.

Cambridge-based Turkish State Artist, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, in high demand for her unique and sensuous Chopin, Saygun and Rachmaninoff interpretations. Onay was in 2007 honoured with the award of a State Medal by the Polish nation. She is also acknowledged worldwide as the finest interpreter of the music of A.Adnan Saygun, whose works feature prominently in her concerts and recordings, and whose 2nd Piano Concerto was dedicated to her