The Miami International Piano Festival opens its 2023 – 2024 season with a spectacular “Concerto Evening” under the leadership of American Conductor HOBART EARLE Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra and THREE celebrated artists.  An event that promises to be magical.

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The Miami International Piano Festival Orchestra
‍HOBART EARLE Conductor    

Featured Pianists: REED TETZLOFF, ARIEL LANYI and DMITRY ABLOGIN ‍

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ARIEL LANYI
Israel

In March 2023, Ariel was honored to receive the Prix Serdang, a Swiss prize  awarded by the distinguished Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. The prize  is endowed with CHF 50,000 and is not a competition, but a recognition of a  young pianist’s achievements and an investment in their future. 

Prior to this Ariel won 3rd prize at the 2021 Leeds International Piano  Competition, performing Brahms Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Liverpool  Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze in the Finals. He was a prize  winner in the inaugural Young Classical Artists Trust (London) and Concert Artists  Guild (New York) International Auditions, also in 2021.  

Highlights this season include returns to the Wigmore Hall, Vancouver Recital  Society, Miami International Piano Festival and Nottingham International Piano  Series, as well his debuts with the Frankfurt Alter Oper as part of their debut  concert series and at Merkin Hall in New York.  

On the concerto platform Ariel has appeared with various orchestras, including the  Israel Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Viva and  City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the latter of which he will return to this  season for a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 503.  

Future notable engagements include his debut with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra  at the Grafenegg Festival, and a tour to China.  

An avid chamber musician, Ariel has collaborated with leading members of the  Berliner Philharmoniker and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, as well as with  eminent musicians such as Maria João Pires, Marina Piccinini, Charles Neidich,  and Torleif Thedéen. Recent highlights have included projects at the Wigmore  Hall, Homburg MeisterKonzert series in Germany, the Menton Festival in France,  Perth Concert Hall (broadcast by BBC Radio 3), and across the UK including the  Brighton and Bath Festivals. Ariel also recorded with the Mozarteumorchester  Salzburg under the auspices of the Orpheum Stifftung as part of their Next  Generation Mozart Soloist series, and gave recitals at the Kissinger Sommer,  Fundaçion Juan March in Madrid, and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.  

Ariel regularly appears in concerts broadcasts on Israeli radio & television and on  Radio France, and has recorded live concerts for the Vancouver Recital Society and  Banco de la República Colombia.  

In 2021 Linn Records released his recording of music by Schubert to critical  acclaim, with future releases also planned in the coming seasons. 

Born in Jerusalem in 1997, Ariel studied with Lea Agmon and Yuval Cohen.  Based in London, he recently completed his studies at the Royal Academy of  Music with Hamish Milne and Ian Fountain. He has received extensive tuition  from eminent artists such as Robert Levin, Murray Perahia, Imogen Cooper, Leif  Ove Andsnes, Steven Osborne, and the late Leon Fleisher and Ivan Moravec.  Awards include 1st Prize at the 2018 Grand Prix Animato Competition in Paris and  1st Prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition, as well as a finalist award  at the Rubinstein Competition. 

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REED TETZLOFF
USA
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Reed Tetzloff, described by Richard Goode as “a musician of great authority,” has been hailed for his “richly communicative” performances (The Cincinnati Enquirer).  He came to international attention at the XV Tchaikovsky Competition, where he was called “the lyric hero of the competition.” (Сноб Magazine). He has excited audiences worldwide, ever since making his Lincoln Center concerto debut at Alice Tully Hall in 2012.

He has performed in major European venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Düsseldorf’s Kunstpalast, the Allerheiligen Hofkirche at the Munich Residenz, Prague’s Rudolfinum, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Place Flagey in Brussels, and De Singel in Antwerp, in addition to his frequent appearances across the United States. His 2023-2024 season includes a debut tour of South Korea.

He has been in residence at festivals such as the Grand Teton Music Festival, the International Keyboard Institute and Festival, the Miami International Piano Festival, and the Festival de Musique de Wissembourg. Orchestral engagements include the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra.

Tetzloff has received career grants from Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi and from the Center for Musical Excellence, which sponsored his debut album, Sounds of Transcendence, on the Romeo Records label. Reviewing the album, Patrick Rucker in Gramophone Magazine extolled his “kaleidoscopic colors” and “fervent rapture” in music of Franck, Scriabin, and Charles Griffes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Reed Tetzloff recorded two albums for the Master Performers label; the first, featuring piano works of Robert Schumann, was released in 2021 and noted for its “originality and uncommon perceptiveness.” (Voix des Arts). Tetzloff’s latest release on Master Performers, Concord—produced by the Grammy-award-winning Steven Epstein—garnered wide acclaim, including a five-star review in Fanfare Magazine which praised his “warmth and wide range of colors” in sonatas by Ives and Beethoven.

Born in Minneapolis, MN, Reed Tetzloff studied at Mannes College in New York with Pavlina Dokovska, having previously studied in his hometown with Dr. Paul Wirth. Within his first year and a half of undergraduate study at Mannes, he had won the school’s two largest awards: the Concerto Competition and the Nadia Reisenberg Competition. He also won prizes from various international competitions, including the Tbilisi International Piano Competition and the Cincinnati World Piano Competition.

Reed Tetzloff is also an accomplished writer. Huntley Dent in Fanfare Magazine remarked of his essay on Robert Schumann, “He explores the music’s intricacies deeper than any other pianist I’ve heard commenting on the piece, rising almost to Charles Rosen’s exalted intellectual level.” Tetzloff is currently at work on a collection of essays.

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KEMAL GEKIC
Croatia

Kemal Gekic, the Croatian pianist who made his U.S. debut 1999 at the Miami International Piano Festival and was subsequently selected by Florida International University as their artist-in-residence, is known for his performances, repertoire, and role as an important mentor to future generations.

Regarded as one of the most significant piano virtuosos of our times, Mr. Gekic’s performances continue to garner critical acclaim, and for very good reasons: not only does he possess a daunting technique, but more important he imbues every piece he plays with intelligence, complete poetic vision, and artistic imagination, creating some of the most thrilling interpretations of classical repertoire heard today. He believes in diverse, eclectic music programs and feels that the musician of today and the future needs to be a well-rounded and informed professional. Performing worldwide from a vast repertoire, Kemal Gekic presents fascinating, uncompromising, and ever-changing interpretations, always generating frenzied audience enthusiasm.

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HOBART EARLE (Venezuela/USA)

“The ambiguity he exposed in this only outwardly affirmative work, the way he built up the lines of thematic development, marks him out as a truly important conductor.” - Stuttgarter Zeitung, Germany

Born in Venezuela of American parents, Hobart Earle has earned a reputation on several continents as a dynamic and exciting conductor. He was recognized as one of 30 “Professionals of the Year” by Musical America Worldwide (2014), and in conjunction with leading newspapers, the Russian Cosmonaut Association named a star in the ‘Perseus’ constellation as ‘Hobart Earle’ (2003).

Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, Hobart Earle has elevated the orchestra to a position of international prominence, unprecedented in the history of the organization, performing in such concert halls as the Musikverein (Vienna), the Philharmonie (Cologne), Barbican Hall (London), the National Auditorium (Madrid), Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Carnegie Hall (New York) and the Kennedy Center (Washington), Davies Hall in San Francisco and the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Hobart Earle’s festival credits include appearances at such music festivals as the Bregenz Spring Festival (Austria), the Festival of Perth (Australia), the Lugano Spring Festival (Switzerland), the Chichester Festivities (England), the Nuits Musicales du Suquet in Cannes (France), the Budapest Spring Festival, (Hungary), the Varna Summer Festival (Bulgaria) and the Cultural Capital of Europe in Thessaloniki, Greece.

He has led such orchestras as the Bilbao Symphony, Vienna Tonkuenstler, Noord-Nederlands Orkest in Holland, Odense Symfoniorkester in Denmark, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonica Siciliana and Orchestra della Toscana, Sinfonia Iuventus in Warsaw, Krakow and Silesian Philharmonic Orchestras, Athens State Symphony, Buffalo and Florida Philharmonics, North Carolina and Miami Symphony Orchestras, Taipei Symphony and such major Russian institutions as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Russian National Orchestra. In the opera pit, he has led productions with the Greek National Opera and the Mythos Opera Festival, and in the recording studio, has recorded with the Russian State Symphony and Odessa Philharmonic for Naxos and Toccata Records. His performance of Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony in Vienna’s Musikverein was recorded by the Austrian Radio live in concert and awarded “Best Classical Album 2002” at the ‘JPFolks Music Awards’ in Hollywood, California. His recording of music by Myroslav Skoryk was chosen by Naxos CEO Klaus Heymann in the “Chairman’s Choice 2014 – Klaus Heymann’s Favorite Naxos Releases” .

In recognition of his work with the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, Hobart Earle was awarded the titles “Distinguished Artist of Ukraine” and “People’s Artist of Ukraine”, the first American in the history of Ukraine so honored.

Hobart Earle has performed with such pianists as Dmitri Alexeev, Piotr Anderszewski, Boris Berezovsky, Yefim Bronfman, Rudolf Buchbinder, Arnaldo Cohen, Jean-Philippe Collard, Peter Donohoe, Lucas Krupinski, Valery Kuleshov, Francesco Libetta, Pietro de Maria, Mikhail Pletnev, Ivo Pogorelich and Nikolai Petrov – violinists such as Dmitry Berlinsky, Pavel Berman, Boris Brovstyn, Vadim Gluzman, Sergei Krylov, Liana Issakadze, Silvia Marcovici, Victor Pikaizen, Valeriy Sokolov, Ingolf Turban and Victor Tretyakov – violist Yuri Bashmet – violoncellists David Geringas, Steven Isserlis, Daniel Mueller-Schott, Alexander Knaziev, Alexei Stadler, Matt Haimovitz and such singers as Elena Obraztsova, Paata Burchuladze, Vladimir Chernov, Maria Guleghina, Liudmyla Monastryska, Tatyana Melnychenko, Valentyn Dytiuk and Alexander Tsymbalyuk.

He was a student of Ferdinand Leitner in Salzburg and Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood. Hobart Earle studied conducting at the Academy of Music in Vienna; received a performer’s diploma in clarinet from Trinity College of Music, London; and is magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, where he studied composition with Milton Babbitt, Edward Cone, Paul Lansky and Claudio Spies.

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