Jury

Baruch Meir, Israel/USA (chairman of the jury)

Pianist Baruch Meir is one of only 65 artists worldwide named as a Bösendorfer Concert Artist since the founding of the company in 1828.

”…Baruch Meir is an exceptional artist. He did a beautiful performance of my piano work entitled A Little Suite for Christmas, which was distinguished by deep musical insights and consummate technical skill. It was certainly one of the very finest performances this work of mine has ever received.”                               

– George Crumb, composer; 1968 Pulitzer Prize in Music; 2001 Grammy award; 2004 Musical America Composer of the Year.

Meir has performed extensively in Austria, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, and the United States. Meir has presented recitals at the Bösendorfer Saal, Vienna; Bauman Auditorium, Oregon; Murphy Hall, Popper Theater and Nixon Library in Los Angeles; Dixon Hall, New Orleans; Wise Auditorium, Jerusalem; Bates Recital Hall, Austin; and at the Toujours Mozart Festival in Salzburg, Austria.

An Associate Professor of Piano at the Arizona State University School of Music, Dance and Theatre, in the Herberger Institute, Meir maintains a busy teaching schedule in addition to his international concert career. He toured China’s Shanghai Conservatory (2005, 2007, 2014, 2018), the Sichuan Conservatory, and Wenzhou University, where he was awarded a guest professorship. He also taught at Seoul National University, Yonsei, Kookmin, Hanyang, Sunhwa, Kyoungbook and Seoul Arts High School in South Korea. Meir has given master classes at the Music Academy in Vienna, the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, the Manhattan School of Music and various conservatories and universities in the United States.

A native of Israel, Meir is a summa cum laude graduate of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University, where he earned his master’s degree in piano performance. He holds the Artist Diploma from the Royal College of Music in London and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from ASU. His teachers include Rachel Gordon, Valter Aufheuser, Pnina Salzman, Michael Bugoslavsky, Irina Zaritskaya and Robert Hamilton. Meir’s distinctions include the American-Israel Cultural Foundation Awards, the British Council Fellowship, first place at the Klatzkin Competition for Contemporary Piano Music and the ASU Concerto Competition.

At Arizona State University, Meir maintains a class of outstanding pianists from all over the world. His students have been awarded prizes in various competitions, including top prizes at the MTNA National Young Artist Competition, Schmindbauer International Competition, Yamaha USASU International Junior and Senior Competition for Young Pianists, Young Concert Artist International Competition, Washington International Piano Artists Competition, as well as winners at the ASU Concert of Soloists Concerto Competition. Meir also frequently adjudicates in various competitions, including the Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial in Serbia, Los Angeles Young Musicians International Competition, the Russian Music Competition in Vancouver, Psanter Letamid National Piano Competition in Israel, and others. Each summer Meir teaches in music festivals abroad. He has taught at Music Fest Perugia and Schlern Music festivals in Italy, and at the White Nights International Festival in Russia. In 2022 he taught at the Chigiana Global Academy Intensive Piano Course in Siena and at the InterHarmony Festival in Aqcui Terme, Italy.

Meir is the founder, president, and artistic director of the Bösendorfer and Yamaha USASU International Piano Competition.

Inna Faliks, Ukraine/USA

“Adventurous and passionate” (The New Yorker) Ukrainian-born pianist Inna Faliks has established herself as one of the most communicative, and poetic artists of her generation. She has made a name for herself through commanding performances of standard piano repertoire, as well genre-bending, interdisciplinary projects, and inquisitive work with contemporary composers.

Ms. Faliks’s distinguished career has brought thousands of recitals and concerts throughout the US, Asia, and Europe. Recent seasons have included performances at the Ravinia Festival, National Gallery of Art, and the Wallis Annenberg Center, tours of China, with appearances in all of its major halls including the Beijing Center for Performing Arts, Shanghai Oriental Arts Theater and Tianjin Grand Theater; debuts at the Festival Internacional de Piano in Mexico, the Fazioli Series in Italy, Israel’s Tel Aviv Museum, Portland Piano Festival, Camerata Pacifica and a collaboration with the contemporary dance company, Bodytraffic at the Broad Stage. She has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Concert Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Salle Cortot in Paris, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall and at many important festivals such as Verbier, Mondo Musica Cremona, Gilmore, Newport, Music in the Mountains, Brevard, Taos, the International Keyboard Festival in New York, Bargemusic Here and Now, and Chautauqua. Since her acclaimed teenage debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Harvey Felder she has been regularly engaged as a concerto soloist: Rachmaninoff 2nd concerto with Dmitry Sitkovetsky and the Greensboro Symphony, Gershwin with Daniel Meyer and the Erie Symphony, Clara Schumann with Erin Freeman at the Wintergreen Festival, Beethoven 3rd with the Williamsburg Symphony, Prokofiev 1 and 3 with Victor Yampolsky and the Peninsula Festival Orchestra, Tchaikovsky 1 with Robert Moody and the Memphis Symphony, and numerous concerti under the batons of such renowned conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Keith Lockhart, Edward Polochick, and Neal Stuhlberg, as well as important emerging conductors like Thomas Heuser and Yaniv Attar.

Inquisitive and versatile, Inna Faliks has had a strong commitment to contemporary music giving premieres of works composed for and dedicated her by Timo Andres, Billy Childs, Richard Danielpour, Paola Prestini, Ljova, Clarice Assad, Peter Golub. In “Reimagine Beethoven and Ravel” nine contemporary composes responded to Beethoven Bagatelles and Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit.  “13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg” included new variations by contemporary composers based on Bach’s Goldberg Variations. She gave the North American premiere of Ilya Levinson’s Shtetle Suite and the world premiere of Ljova’s Sirota for piano and historical recording, which was composed for her. Ljova’s “Voices” was commissioned for her by the Milken Center of American Jewish Music Experience in 2020. She performed and recorded unknown piano works of the Russian poet Boris Pasternak. She went on to create a one-woman show which led to “Polonaise-Fantasie, Story of a Pianist”, an autobiographical monologue for pianist and actress, recently presented as a solo show in New York’s Symphony Space, Shenandoah Conservatory, Music Worcester, and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Italy. A committed chamber musician, she has had notable collaborations with Gilbert Kalish, Ron Leonard, Fred Sherry, Ilya Kaler, Colin Carr, Wendy Warner, Clive Greensmith, and Antonio Lysy, among many others.

Inna Faliks has been featured on radio and television throughout the world. She co-starred with Downton Abbey’sLesley Nicol in “Admission – One Shilling,” a play for pianist and actor based on the life of the great British pianist, Dame Myra Hess. Her most recent CD releases, Reimagine: Beethoven and Ravel on Navona Records and The Schumann Project Volume 1, on MSR Classics, received rave reviews, and were named to several “best of 2021” lists. With her all-Beethoven CD release on MSR, WTTW called Faliks “High priestess of the piano, concert pianist of the highest order, as dramatic and subtle as a great stage actor.”  Sound of Verse, was released in 2009, featuring music of Boris Pasternak, Rachmaninoff and Ravel. “Polonaise-Fantasie, Story of a Pianist” on Delos captures her autobiographical monologue-recital with short piano works from Bach to Carter. A musical memoir, Weight in the Fingertips, will be published in 2023 by Globe Pequot.

Faliks is founder and curator of Music/Words, an award-winning poetry-music series: performances in collaboration with distinguished poets. Her long-standing relationship with Chicago’s WFMT radio has led to multiple broadcasts of Music/Words, which she produced alongside some of the nation’s most recognized poets in performances throughout the United States.

A past winner of many prestigious competitions, Inna Faliks is currently Professor of Piano and Head of Piano at UCLA. She is in demand as Artist Teacher and is frequently invited to judge competitions and give masterclasses at major conservatories and universities. As a writer, she has been published by LA Times and Washington Post. During Covid, she started a weekly online recital series, Corona Fridays, featuring children’s concerts, new music, and poetry.

Inna Faliks is a Yamaha Artist.  www.innafaliks.com

Robert Hamilton, USA

Internationally respected pianist and recording artist Robert Hamilton has been enthusiastically reviewed by two chief music critics for The New York Times.

Harold C. Schonberg (who also authored The Great Pianists) wrote: “He is a very fine artist. All of Hamilton’s playing has color and sensitivity...one of the best of the million or so around.” And Donal J. Henahan reported: “It was an enthralling listening experience. We must hear this major piano talent again, and soon!”

Robert Hamilton studied at Indiana University with the first winner of the coveted Levintritt award, Sidney Foster, graduating summa cum laude. A move to New York City brought studies with Dora Zaslavsky of the Manhattan School, coaching from legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz, and a host of monetary awards from the Rockefeller Fund and U.S. State Department, launching a strong career and the winning of five major international competitions.

Hamilton has made countless tours of four continents, appearing in most music capitals. His orchestral engagements have included the Chicago, National, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Grant Park, Chautauqua and S.O.D.R.E symphony orchestras. Hamilton has been heard over the national and international networks NPR, ABC, BBC London, Voice of America, Armed Forces Network, DRS Zurich and Radio Warsaw. He has also recorded for Phillips, Orion, Summit and Soundset Records. Reviewing a recent release in 2011, the All Music Guide wrote: “Magnificent virtuosity in combination with effortless control and hair-raising bravura make his performances absolutely irresistible. Each piece moves inevitably and ineluctably to the next, and the aesthetic whole is much more than the sum of its brilliant parts. A flat- out fabulous record.” Regarding his recent Mozart CD, The American Record Guide reviewer stated: “I never expected to hear anyone play Mozart so sensitively in this day and age. Almost unbelievable beauty the perfect recording of Mozart’s piano music.” And in China, his CD Miroirs was selected one of “The Top Ten Classical Albums of 2018” by Classics Overseas: “Pianist Robert Hamilton is a rare master of Ravel’s music.  His Miroirs has such inner beauty and subtle changes of tone colors that it is unquestionably equal to any ‘historically best’ interpretations.”  

Professor Hamilton’s students have also won many prizes and awards, appearing with the Indianapolis Symphony, Wichita Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Hudson Valley Symphony, London Westminster Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonie d’Avignon, Kammerorchester Dusseldorf, Pazardjik National Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Gakuen Philharmonic and Korea Symphony.

Featured in the book The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA, Hamilton served as Artistic Director for the London Piano Festival during the 1990s. Since the year 2000, he has joined forces with Vladimir Feltsman and a distinguished group of prominent international pianists each July for PianoSummer in New York. Hamilton’s co-authored book Artistry: Pursuing the Mysteries of Music Performance was released in the U.S. in June 2021, and is scheduled for publication in China by the Shanghai Music Publishing House in 2023. 

Aviram Reichert, Israel/Republic of Korea

Acclaimed for his deeply intelligent interpretations, phenomenal technique and ravishing tone – won the Bronze Medal at the 10th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1997, after having won several major competitions in the Japan, Korea, France and Germany. His accomplishments brought him numerous concert engagements in the Far East, the United States, South Africa, Europe and Israel where he has been earning immense applause for 25 years.

Following a performance of Brahms first piano concerto and Manuel de Falla’s evocative Nights in the Gardens of Spain with the Grand Rapids Symphony under the baton of David Lockington, Reichert was described as “a big player with all the tension of a coiled spring suddenly unsprung….he has heft and he has poetry.” Having over 30 concerti in his repertoire Reichert performs frequently with leading orchestras in the USA, Israel, Japan Korea and South Africa. He is frequently visiting Durango’s Music in the Mountains festival, where he is a resident pianist for 20 years, performing concerti and chamber music annually.

In recital, Reichert has performed throughout the United States, Israel, South Africa, the Far East and in Europe, where an appearance at the Herkules-Saal in Munich elicited an enthusiastic “ovation” and high critical praise. Festival performances include the Ruhr and Epinal Music Festivals, Tokyo Summer Festival, Seoul spring festival, Bear Valley, CA, Durango and Steamboat Springs, CO, Ravinia Festival, the Fontana and the Gilmore Keyboard Festivals. A fine chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists such as Anne Akiko Meyers, Maya Beiser, Guy Braunstein, Yuri Gandelsman, Vadim Gluzman, Dylana Jenson, Bill Purcell and Philippe Quint.

Reichert can be heard on a Harmonia Mundi CD featuring highlights of his prize-winning solo performances at the Van Cliburn Competition, a Jerusalem Music Center label (JMC) featuring Schubert Sonatas, a Mozart concerti CD with the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra, conducted and performed from the keyboard, he has also recorded Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for Piano and Brass quintet with the Spectrum Brass, Brahms Cello sonatas with Young Hoon Song and Brahms Clarinet sonatas and songs with Ron Selka.

In addition to his busy concert career, Reichert is a sought-after teacher, who is frequently invited to conduct master-classes in Japan, China, Korea, South Africa, France, Israel and the United States. He is a regular guest at the prestigious Tel Hai Masterclasses in Israel and currently a Professor of Piano (former Chair) at Seoul National University, College of Music, where his students won numerous local and international awards. A Steinway artist, he studied at the Rubin Academy of Music, Tel Aviv with Professor Arie Vardi.

Roberta Rust, USA

Roberta Rust’s recordings, MOZART MATURES: 1780s PIANO WORKS and A CITY OF SILVER & A CITY OF FIRE: PREMIERE PERFORMANCES OF CONCERT FANTASIES BY LOUIS W. BALLARD, were released in 2022 on Parma’s Navona Records to glowing reviews. Her artistry has also been enthusiastically hailed for recordings of music by Debussy, Haydn, Villa-Lobos, Prokofiev and contemporary composers on the Navona, Centaur and Protone labels. Rust has concertized to critical acclaim around the globe, with performances at such venues as Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, New York's Merkin Concert Hall, Rio de Janeiro's Sala Cecilia Meireles, Washington's Corcoran Gallery, Havana’s Basilica and Seoul's KNUA Hall. She has appeared with the Lark, Ying, Serafin, Amernet and Fine Arts String Quartets and at Miami's Mainly Mozart Festival, the Philippines Opusfest, the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, Festival Miami, Long Island's Beethoven Festival, and France's La Gesse. Her concerto appearances have included engagements with the Houston Symphony, New World Symphony, Philippine Philharmonic, New Philharmonic, Redlands Symphony, Boca Raton Symphonia, Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Frederick Symphony, Lynn Philharmonia, and orchestras in Latin America. She served as Artistic Ambassador for the United States, was awarded a major National Endowment for the Arts grant, and also received recognition and prizes from the Organization of American States, National Society of Arts & Letters, and International Concours de Fortepiano (Paris).

Dr. Rust serves as Artist Faculty-Piano/Professor and head of the piano department at the Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida, where she received the "Deanne and Gerald Gitner and Family Excellence in Teaching Award." In summer 2022 she joined the faculty of the Adamant Music School in Vermont and served on the faculty of the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in Tampa, Florida for a tenth year. She has given master classes at Northwestern University, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, and throughout Asia and the Americas. Rust has been presented in performances and master classes at the Manila International Piano Masterclasses Festival, the University of Florida International Piano Festival and the Fondation Bell'Arte International Certificate for Piano Artists program. She has adjudicated competitions at the New World Symphony, the Chautauqua and Brevard Festivals, and the Colburn School's Music Academy.

Roberta Rust has made her home in South Florida since 1988 - she is a Sioux descendant and was born in Houston, Texas. She studied at the Peabody Conservatory, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin, and earned performer's certificates in piano and German Lieder from the Mozarteum in Salzburg. A student of Ivan Davis, Artur Balsam, John Perry, and Phillip Evans, she received a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a doctorate from the University of Miami. Master class studies were with Gary Graffman, Leon Fleisher, Carlo Zecchi, and Erik Werba. For more information please visit www.robertarust.com.