STEPHEN BEUS

"His Griffes Sonata is an object of wonder: this is how Michelangeli would have played it..." - BBC Music Magazine
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“Strikingly original... an interpretive voice all his own” (Fanfare Magazine). In the space of four months, American pianist Stephen Beus won first prize in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, first place in the Vendome Prize International Competition (Lisbon) and he was awarded the Max I. Allen Fellowship of the American Pianists Association (Indianapolis).

As a result of winning the Juilliard School Concerto Competition Mr. Beus made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Juilliard Orchestra and James DePreist, playing Prokofiev Concerto No. 3. He has also performed as guest soloist with the Gulbenkian Symphony (Lisbon), Oxford Philomusica, the Tivoli Symphony (Copenhagen), the Tbilisi National Opera Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta (Seattle), the Royal Philharmonic of Morocco (Casablanca), the Vaasa Symphony Orchestra (Finland) as well as with the Hamburg, Indianapolis, Nashville, Santa Fe, Utah, Fort Worth, Tucson, Yakima, Bellevue, Salt Lake, Eastern Sierra, Corvallis, Jacksonville, Texarkana and Walla Walla Symphonies.

Equally active as a soloist, Mr. Beus has performed at Wigmore Hall, the Salle Gaveau and Salle Cortot (Paris), Merkin Hall, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the Central Conservatory (Beijing), Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), the Queluz Palace (Lisbon) and has performed for the Dame Myra Hess and Fazioli Salon series (Chicago), the International Keyboard Institute and Festival (New York City), and has given recitals across the United States as well as in Kazakhstan, Russia, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Georgia, China, France, Italy, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Morocco.

Born and raised on a farm in eastern Washington, Mr. Beus began lessons at age 5 and made his orchestral debut four years later. He went on to win numerous national and international competitions throughout his youth, capturing the attention of both audiences and critics. Commenting on Mr. Beus’ competition success, Fanfare magazine writes: “In some ways Beus doesn’t fit the mold of the typical competition winner. His playing is strikingly original and, despite his youth, he has an interpretive voice all his own… Above all, his playing is so natural as to seem effortless and the sound he produces has extraordinary richness and depth, not quite like anyone else’s.”

Mr. Beus holds degrees from Whitman College, The Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University, and his teachers have included Leonard Richter, Robert McDonald, Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl, and Paulette Richards. He has recorded on the Endeavor Classics, Harmonia Mundi, and Centaur Records labels. Stephen Beus is a Steinway Artist and currently teaches at Brigham Young University.  

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KEMAL GEKIC
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Flamboyant, daring, provocative, exciting, seductive, and sensitive are some of the words used to describe one of today’s most formidable pianists, Kemal Gekic, whose playing has been acclaimed worldwide by public and critics alike. His daring approach to tone and form, marked him as a maverick in the musical world, a distinction he welcomes: the very strength of his artistry challenges, provokes, intrigues.

Performing worldwide from a vast repertoire, Kemal Gekic presents fascinating, uncompromising and ever-changing interpretations, always generating  frenzied audience enthusiasm.

As a recording artist, Kemal Gekic has won accolades in Europe, America, and Japan for insightful, original views of the music. His outstanding Rossini-Liszt transcriptions (Naxos) won “The Rosette” of The Penguin Guide for Music, while his recording of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes (JVC) is generally considered to be the best recording of a set-in history.

Born is Split, Croatia, Kemal Gekic got his early training from Prof. Lorenza Baturina. He graduated the class of Prof. Jokuthon  Mihailovic at the Art Academy of Novi Sad and was immediately given a faculty appointment by the piano department which he eventually directed until 1999.

In 1999 Kemal Gekic made his historical debut at the Miami International Piano Festival and was appointed soon after as  Artist in Residence at the Florida International University in Miami, Florida.

Kemal Gekic is one of the most distinguished artists of the Miami International Piano Festival and since 2015 he is in the faculty of the Miami International Piano Festival Academy.

He is also a visiting professor at the Musashino Academy of Music in Tokyo and a guest lecturer at numerous universities and academies throughout the world. He has served as a juror on numerous piano competitions. Programs on his life and his performances were broadcast by RAI Italy, TV Portugal, TV Yugoslavia, NHK Japan, POLTEL Poland, RTV Lower Saxony West Germany, RTV USSR, InterVision, CBC and PBS.

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NIKOLAY KHOZYAINOV

“The Music World is taking note of Nikolay Khozyainov’s stunning virtuosity and  prodigious technique.” - The New York Times 


Nikolay Khozyainov is one of the most remarkable pianists of his generation.  His musicality and formidable technique have thrilled audiences around the  world. Still in his twenties, his featured recitals and concerto engagements have  already included sold out performances on all continents at the world’s foremost  stages such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Kennedy Center  in Washington, Wigmore Hall in London, The Louvre and Théâtre des Champs Élysées, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Tokyo’s Suntory  Hall, Sydney Opera House, Tonhalle in Zurich, Palazzo Quirinale in Rome,  Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and many others.  

Khozyainov has performed with the London Philharmonia Orchestra, Tokyo  Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic  Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Russian State Symphony  Orchestra, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony  Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland among many others.

In January 2018, the Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan visited Nikolay’s concert in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.

Born in Blagoveshchensk in 1992, a city in the Russian Far East, Khozyainov  began to play the piano at the age of five and his musical talent was discovered  immediately. He moved to the capital to continue his studies at the Central  Musical School, and at the age of seven he made his public debut with the  Handel Piano Concerto at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. He  continued his Graduate Studies at the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory,  which he graduated with the Gold Medal and “The Best Student of the Year” award. 

At the present time he lives in Germany, where he has received an Advance Degree at the Hannover Hochschule fur Music under the guidance of Professor Arie Vardi.

Khozyainov’s growing list of awards includes being the youngest finalist of the  XVI International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland in  October 2010. For the occasion, critics hailed Khozyainov as “an amazing artist of  an incredibly large scale. One can feel he is a continuation of the great Russian  tradition of piano playing. Khozyainov was the closest one in the competition to  Chopin’s sensitivity. His performance had a spiritual sound.”  

In 2012 he was awarded in the same year 1st prize at the Dublin International  Piano Competition and 2nd prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition.  He additionally received the following special prizes: “Best performance of both  Concertos voted by members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra”, “Best  performance of a work by Liszt”, “Best performance of a work by Schubert”,  “Best performance of a virtuoso study” and “Youngest finalist”.  

In 2020-2021 Nikolay Khozyainov recorded the Complete Works of Frederic  Chopin. 

He released 4 CDs on CD Accord, Naxos, JVC Victor with works of Chopin,  Liszt, Beethoven, Ravel, Schubert. 
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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 a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, where he studied composition with Milton Babbitt, Edward Cone, Paul Lansky and Claudio Spies.

The Miami International Piano Festival Orchestra
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Some of the best professional orchestra musicians in South Florida comprise the Miami International Piano Festival Orchestra, assembled by Production and Personnel Manager Jesse Gilday. The ensemble is headed by long-time concertmaster, All-Star Orchestra member, and University of Miami - Frost School of Music violin professor Scott Flavin. The impressive roster also includes faculty members of the Florida International University Wertheim School of Music and Performing Arts, Florida Atlantic University Department of Music, and New World School of the Arts. French-born violin soloist and founder of Miami chamber music series musimelange Anne Chicheportiche leads the second violins. New World Symphony bass trombonist Noah Roper fills out the low voices of the ensemble in between engagements with the Atlanta and London Symphony Orchestras, and New World Symphony alum James Churchill leads the celli.
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VIOLIN 1
Scott Flavin
Gustavo Correa
João Felipe da Fraga
Sandra Rubio
Benita Dzhurkova
Michael Ziyuan Wu

VIOLIN 2
Anne Chicheportiche
Humberto Bolivar
Tommy Nakashima
Imanuel Sandoval

VIOLA
Angela Kratchmer
Anna Ivanova
Robyn Savitzky
Alexandra D'Amico

CELLO
James Churchill
Tadao Hermida Ito
Sarah Huesman
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BASS
Diego Matallana

FLUTE
Vanessa Fourla
Nicole Granroth

OBOE
James Drayton
Daniel Graber

CLARINET
Julián Santacolomo
Kelsey Gallagher

BASSOON
Melanie Ferrabone
Gabrielle Hsu

HORN
CaitiBeth McKinney
Matthew Hontz

TRUMPET
Benjamin Shaposhnikov
Benedetto Salvia

BASS TROMBONE
Noah Roper

TIMPANI
Tom Bowden