International Keyboard Institute & Festival Announces 11th Season

Concerts, Lectures and Masterclasses are planned as part of the 2009 Eleventh Season of the International Keyboard Institute & Festival, which will take place at Mannes College from July 19-August 2.

Two concert series will take place this year: the Prestige Series, at 6:00 pm, featuring accomplished young artists from around the world, each just at the beginning of an international career, many of them recent winners of major international competitions, including Busoni, Kapell, Rubinstein; E-Competition; Liszt; and Hilton Head; and the Masters Series, at 8:30 pm featuring Guest Artists and Faculty.

This year the Guest Artist Faculty includes distinguished pianists Joaquín Achúcarro, Philippe Entremont and Olga Kern, all of whom will be giving masterclasses and performing a recital. Founder/Director Jerome Rose will perform the opening concert.

Guest artists making Festival concert debuts on the Masters Series are: Alon Goldstein and Piotr Paleczny. Returning to give a recital and masterclasses are Mykola Suk, Alexander Kobrin, Jeffrey Swann, HaeSun Paik, Steven Mayer, Jose Ramos Santana, and Yuan Sheng.

David Dubal returns to give a lecture “Anniversaries: Haydn, Mendelssohn, Albéniz”. Byron Janis joins David Dubal at the mid-point of the Festival for “An Afternoon with Byron Janis”, an event that will be Free to the public.

Highlights of the two-week festival include:

• Opening Concert: Founder/Director Jerome Rose performing works of Beethoven and Liszt

• Masters Series recitals by: Joaquín Achúcarro, Philippe Entremont, Olga Kern, Alexander Kobrin, Mykola Suk, Alon Goldstein, HaeSun Paik, Piotr Paleczny, Steven Mayer, Jose Ramos Santana, Yuan Sheng, and Jeffrey Swann

• Prestige Series recitals by: Mei-Ting Sun (E-Competition); Lucille Chung (Stravinsky); Vitaly Pisarenko (Liszt); Yoni Levyatov (Boesendorfer); Gabriele Leporatti (NDR Hannover); Ran Dank (Hilton Head); Sofya Gulyak (Kapell); Mariya Kim (Busoni); Ying Feng (Kapell); Matei Varga (Enescu); Ching-Yun Hu(Rubinstein)

• Lecture by David Dubal on the Anniversaries of Haydn, Mendelssohn and Albéniz with live performance excerpts, film and recordings; and an afternoon discussion with Byron Janis and David Dubal including live performance and recording excerpts.

• Dorothy MacKenzie Prize Finals Concert

Faculty Artists who will teach and perform include Alexander Braginsky, Nina Lelchuk, Frank Levy, Irina Morozova, Michael Oelbaum, Victor Rosenbaum, and Eduard Zilberkant; with adjunct Faculty members Magdalena Baczewska, Asaf Blasberg, and Quynh Nguyen.

Since 1999 the Festival has attracted students from around the world who have the opportunity to attend the Festival to study with Faculty Artists, participate in masterclasses, and attend concerts and lectures given by some of the world’s best-known pianists and scholars. The Festival has grown from a base of 30 participants to well over 100 each season. Participants who attend the Festival for two weeks are eligible to compete for up to $10,000 in the Dorothy MacKenzie Artist Recognition Scholarship Awards.

Last summer the Festival received international news coverage in publications such as International Piano (UK), PianoNews (Germany), Clavier Companion (US), Chopin Magazine (Japan), Piano (Korea), and Piano Artistry (China). This year, these publications will return to cover IKIF 2009.

Close to 100 video clips of past Festival events are posted on YouTube, and IKIF now has a Facebook page. Both the YouTube clips and Facebook page can be accessed directly or through links on our website at www.ikif.org.

For Online Ticket Purchase, a Schedule of Concerts, Lectures, and featured Masterclasses, please see our website at: www.ikif.org.

For inquiries and ticket purchase by phone, email, and regular mail, please contact us as follows: email: info@ikif.org; phone: 212-580-0210 ext. 4858; mail: IKIF at Mannes College, 150 West 85th Street, New York, NY 10024.

All Festival events are held at Mannes College.

All Concerts $20

Masterclasses $15

Daily Pass $50 (Classes plus 2 concerts)

Festival Pass (2 weeks – 28 events): $250

Week I - Festival Pass: $125 (12 concert events; 1 lecture)

Week II - Festival Pass: $125 (13 concert events; MacKenzie semis and finals)

Closest Subway is 86th Street stop of No. 1. Closest bus is Broadway #104.

For press information please contact Julie Kedersha, Festival Director at 212-665-2446 or at info@ikif.org

MARCH 2009