PIANO FESTIVAL

© International Piano Forum

Laureate of the world’s most prominent piano competitions, including the Leeds, Rubinstein in Tel Aviv, Long-Thibaud in Paris, Queen Elisabeth in Brussels, as well as the Audience Awardee of the 5^th International German Piano Award – Andrejs Osokins is one of the most sought-after Latvian pianists. Andrejs grew up in Riga, where he also had his first lessons with his father at the Latvian Music Academy, and since 2004 has been living in London, where he had graduated the Royal Academy of music. Since his participation in the IPF Masters Management he plays on important European concert halls such as Auditorium La Verdi in Milan, two Concerto performances in Berliner Philharmonie, collaboration with Kremerata Baltica orchestra in Alte Oper Frankfurt as a part of  Festival International German Piano Award, performance with Latvian National Orchestra under the button of Maestro Vladimir Fedoseyev, as well as performance of Rachmaninov 3rd Piano Concerto in Qatar Cultural village  with Maestro Pablo Mielgo. Andrejs’ repertoire spans Bach to Gershwin and features classics by Mozart and Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt, but also a copious amount of chamber music, from violin sonatas to piano quintets.

www.andrejsosokins.com

Versatility is one of the outstanding characteristics of the Japanese pianist Wataru Hisasue, who won the Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin this past January. The programme he has assembled for his performance at the Young Euro Classic Piano Festival is also versatile: it starts with a spirited Piano Sonata by Joseph Haydn, immediately contrasted by the Variations Op. 27 composed by Anton Webern following the rules of twelve-tone technique in 1936. These are followed by two very special pianistic highlights: Sergey Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7, written in the midst of World War II, offers a bravura synopsis of the Russian composer’s style. And Franz Liszt’s brilliant Rigoletto Paraphrase proves how much song is contained in a piano on its own!

© Edith Michel

After receiving her first piano lessons at the Arts Academy in Seoul and the National University in Seoul, the Korean pianist Yoonhee Yang moved on to the Music Academy “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin in 2007, where she studied with Michael Endres and Fabio Bidini. After graduating in 2011, the pianist moved to Hamburg, where she studied with Yevgeny Koriolov and passed her concert exam with honours in 2015. At the same time, she won several prizes at international competitions, for example the 2^nd Prize at the 12. International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 2016, 1^st Prize at the Verona International Competition (2014), the 1^st Prize at the Elise Meyer Competition in Hamburg (2012), the 2^nd Prize and the Special Chopin Prize at the Premio Pecar in Gorizia, Italy (2010 – a first prize was not awarded). Yoonhee Yang has been invited to numerous international music festivals as a soloist and chamber musician, for example in Santander, Montepulciano and Salzburg.

© Dan Hannen

The Italian Filippo Gorini advanced a major step on the career ladder last year, when he won the International Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn – the youngest of all the 150 contestants. Aged only 20, he convinced the jury mainly with his interpretation of Beethoven’s late piano works; in addition, Gorini also won two audience awards. Born near the Northern Italian town of Monza, young Filippo received his first piano lessons at the age of six. He has been studying with Maria Grazia Bellocchio at the Conservatory Gaetano Donizetti in Bergamo since 2009. Concert invitations have already taken the pianist to many Italian cities and to Moscow, Warsaw and London. In March 2016 he was on tour in Germany with the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, appearing in Munich, Nuremberg, Hanover, Hamburg and Bremen, among others.

www.filippogorini.it