The list of international artists who made their American debuts in Newport under his patronage is legendary—pianists Bella Davidovich, Andrei Gavrilov, Jean-Philippe Collard, François-René Duchable, Dimitris Sgouros, Maria-João Pires, Valery Afanassiev, Jean-Louis Steuerman, Michel Dalberto, Igor Zhukov, Mikhail Pletnev, Ekaterina Novitskaya, Andrea Lucchesini, Pietro De Maria, Peter Rösel, Pascal Devoyon, Hugh Tinney, Alain Jacquon, Mûza Rubackyté, Constantin Lifschitz, Nikolai Lugansky, Klára Würtz and Gergely Bogányi; violinists Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Peter Oundjian, Raphael Oleg, Augustin Dumay, Ilya Kaler, Stephan Milenkovic and Marat Bisengaliev; violist Gerard Caussé; cellist Alexander Rudin; flutists Patrick Gallois and Göran Marcusson; clarinettists Emma Johnson and Carl-Johan Stjernström; bassoonist Kim Walker; baritones Peter and Paul Edelmann and Detlef Roth; contrabassist Alberto Bocini and more than one hundred other stellar artists and groups. He brought back to America, after absences of many years, such luminaries as pianists Maria Tipo, Dubravka Tomšic, Sergio Fiorentino, Dame Moura Lympany, Fou Ts’ong, Magda Tagliaferro, Halina Czerny-Stefanska and Vlado Perlemuter. Finnish baritone Jorma Hynninen was heard in Newport on his very first American tour. Bolshoi Opera stars Makvala Kasrashvili and Zurab Sotkilava first appeared in America at the Newport Music Festival over a quarter century ago.

Dr. Malkovich is a pianist of note himself, having studied with Dorothy Crost Bourgin of the Chicago Musical College, William Beller, Chairman of the Piano Department of Columbia University, and Adele Marcus of the Juilliard School. He is the former Executive Director of the Palm Beach Festival and served as President of the Chopin Foundation of the U.S. He is a popular lecturer and TV and radio personality, appearing frequently on Boston’s WGBH, New York’s WQXR and the nationally syndicated “A Note to You.” His critique of the 1985 Chopin Competition in Warsaw appeared in Musical America, and for two years Malkovich hosted a regional weekly radio program, “Sunday Morning at the Newport Music Festival.” He was Artistic Director of Regis College’s “President’s Series” and Bryant College’s “President’s Concert Series,” featuring many Newport Music Festival artists, and wrote a record review column for the nationally distributed Newport Life magazine. His lectures for Salve Regina University’s “Circle of Scholars” and his presentation “300 Years of Western Music” at the Naval War College garnered rave reviews.

Malkovich’s personal record collection of more than 20,000 discs contains many rarities, especially of pianists, gathered from his travels around the world. He is listed in Who's Who in America, Celebrities in International Music, and Leading Personalities of the World. He has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Salve Regina University in 1993 and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Rhode Island in 1994. In 1997, he was invited as the sole American adjudicator to the First Tbilisi International Piano Competition in the Republic of Georgia. In 1998, Business Volunteers for the Arts/RI presented him with the Individual Achievement Award. In 1999, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where the only other honoree was Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2000, he was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame, one of only 390 illustrious Rhode Islanders in the history of the State, from Roger Williams to the present. In 2001, he returned to Tbilisi, Georgia, to judge the Second Tbilisi International Piano Competition; in 2003 he adjudicated the First Uralsk International Violin Competition in Kazakhstan. In January 2004, Dr. Malkovich returned to Kazakhstan to judge the Second Uralsk International Violin Competition.

The Newport Music Festival’s prominence is acknowledged in Cadogan Publications’ “America’s Elite 1000—The Ultimate List.” The 1000 names are the editors choices of the finest shops, services and luxury goods in America. There are 50 different categories from Art Museums to Wealth Management. In the “Events” category there are only 19 such listings: The Metropolitan Opera, the Kentucky Derby, Miss America, The Academy Awards, U.S. Open Tennis and the Newport Music Festival. In describing the Festival the editors write, “Director Mark Malkovich runs the whole affair with the easy charm of a modern-day Gatsby.”

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