FACULTY
PAUL SCHENLY
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Winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, pianist Paul Schenly has been a soloist with major United States orchestras, including the Atlanta Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and New York Philharmonic. He made two United States tours with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and toured with the same orchestra in Europe. He has appeared in many summer festivals, including repeated performances at the Hollywood Bowl, the Ravinia Festival, Blossom Music Center and the Mostly Mozart Festival.
Mr. Schenly appeared in the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center, the Royal Concertgebouw, Royal Albert Hall and in acclaimed recitals at Carnegie Hall. He has performed with many of the world's leading conductors including Cristoph Eschenbach, James Levine, Erich Leinsdorf, Christoph von Dohnányi, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Edo de Waart, Mstislav Rostropovich, Robert Shaw and Aaron Copland, Michael Tilson Thomas and Kiril Kondrashin.
Born in Munich, Mr. Schenly lived in South America before coming to the U.S. at age five. He earned a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Victor Babin. He later served on the faculty and was the chairman of the piano department at the Cleveland Institute for over 25 years.
Mr. Schenly has served on the juries of several national and international competitions and his students have won many national and international prizes. He has served on the jury of the Beethoven Competition in Bonn and Mozart Competition in Salzburg. He is also on the advisory board of the American Pianists Foundation and on the nominating committee for the Gilmore Piano Foundation. He has recorded for Sine Qua Non and RCA.
Mr. Schenly is Artistic Director of the Cleveland International Piano Competition and is the Founder/Director of Pianofest in the Hamptons. He is also Artist in Residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
His website address, including video of his performances and information about Pianofest in the Hamptons is at paulschenly.com.
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Richard Goode has been hailed for music-making of tremendous emotional power, depth and expressiveness, and has been acknowledged worldwide as one of today’s leading interpreters of Classical and Romantic music. In regular performances with the major orchestras, recitals in the world’s music capitals, masterclasses in person or online, and through his extensive and acclaimed Nonesuch recordings, he has won a large and devoted following.
An exclusive Nonesuch recording artist, Goode has made more than two dozen recordings over the years, ranging from solo and chamber works to lieder and concertos. His 10-CD set of the complete Beethoven sonatas cycle, the first-ever by an American-born pianist, was nominated for a Grammy and has been ranked among the most distinguished recordings of this repertoire. Other recording highlights include Mozart piano concerti with Orpheus, with whom he launched the 2021 season at New York's 92nd St Y.
A native of New York, Richard Goode studied at the Mannes College of Music and the Curtis Institute. His numerous prizes over the years include the Young Concert Artists Award, First Prize in the Clara Haskil Competition, the Avery Fisher Prize, and a Grammy award for the Brahms Sonatas recorded with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman.
Mr. Goode served, together with Mitsuko Uchida, as co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Marlboro, Vermont from 1999 through 2013. Participating initially at the age of 14, at what the New Yorker magazine recently described as "the classical world's most coveted retreat," he made a notable contribution to this unique community over the 28 summers he spent there. In Fall 2021, Mr. Goode joined the Peabody Conservatory as Distinguished Artist Faculty. For the 2025-26 season, Mr. Goode joins The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as its newest Artistic Partner.
He is married to the violinist Marcia Weinfeld, and, when the Goodes are not on tour, they and their collection of some 5,000 volumes live in New York City.
RICHARD GOODE
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Lauded as “exquisite” by The Philadelphia Inquirer and “a pianist of sterling artistry” by Gramophone, Michelle Cann has become one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation. She made her debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2021 and has recently performed concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, and Cincinnati.
Highlights of Cann’s 2023-24 season include appearances with the Charlotte, Hawaii, Indianapolis, Québec, Sarasota, and Winnipeg symphony orchestras, and recitals in New York City, Portland, Berkeley, Beverly Hills, and Denver. She also has teaching and performance residencies at the University of Indiana South Bend and Meany Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington.
Recognized as a leading interpreter of the piano music of Florence Price, Cann performed the New York City premiere of Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished Orchestra in July 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in February 2021. Her recording of the concerto with the New York Youth Symphony won a Grammy Award in 2023 for Best Orchestral Performance. Her acclaimed debut solo album Revival, featuring music by Price and Margaret Bonds, was released in May 2023 on the Curtis Studio label. She has also recorded two Price piano quintets with the Catalyst Quartet.
Cann was the recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization. She also received the Cleveland Institute of Music’s 2022 Alumni Achievement Award and the 2022 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award.
A celebrated chamber musician, Cann has collaborated with leading artists including the Catalyst, Dover, and Juilliard string quartets, violinists Timothy and Nikki Chooi, and cellist Thomas Mesa. She has appeared as co-host and collaborative pianist with NPR’s From The Top, collaborating with actor/conductor Damon Gupton, violinist Leila Josefowicz, and violinist and MacArthur Fellow Vijay Gupta. Cann’s numerous media appearances include PBS Great Performances’ Now Hear This hosted by Scott Yoo and Living the Classical Life with host Zsolt Bognár.
Embracing a dual role as performer and pedagogue, Cann is frequently invited to teach master classes, give lecture-demonstrations, and lead teaching residencies. Recent residencies include the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and the National Conference of the Music Teachers National Association. She has recorded lessons for tonebase, the popular piano lesson platform. She has also served on the juries of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the Kauffman Music Center International Youth Piano Competition, and the piano competition of the Music Academy of the West.
A staunch believer in community-building through music, Cann has served as the director of two children’s choruses in the El Sistema-inspired program Play On Philly and was part of the inaugural class of ArtistYear fellows at the Curtis Institute of Music. Through ArtistYear, she worked with community partners City Year, Teach for America, and AmeriCorps to provide arts education and access to underserved communities in Philadelphia.
Cann holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Paul Schenly and Dr. Daniel Shapiro, and an Artist’s Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Robert McDonald. She joined the Curtis piano faculty in 2020 as the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies. She joined the piano faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in 2023.
MICHELLE CANN
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Ursula Oppens, a legend among American pianists, is widely admired particularly for her original and perceptive readings of new music, but also for her knowing interpretations of the standard repertoire. No other artist alive today has commissioned and premiered more new works for the piano that have entered the permanent repertoire.
A prolific and critically acclaimed recording artist with five Grammy nominations, Ms. Oppens most recently released a new recording of Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated, nominated for a Grammy in 2016, and Piano Songs, a collaboration with Meredith Monk. To be released in 2021 with Cedille Records, Ms. Oppens has recorded a CD of solo, chamber, and orchestral works by Laura Kaminsky. Earlier Grammy nominations were for Winging It: Piano Music of John Corigliano; Oppens Plays Carter; a recording of the complete piano works of Elliott Carter for Cedille Records (also was named a “Best of the Year” selection by The New York Times long-time music critic Allan Kozinn); Piano Music of Our Time featuring compositions by John Adams, Elliott Carter, Julius Hemphill, and Conlon Nancarrow for the Music and Arts label, and her cult classic The People United Will Never Be Defeated by Frederic Rzewski on Vanguard. Ms. Oppens recently added to her extensive discography by releasing a two-piano CD for Cedille Records devoted to Visions de l’Amen of Oliver Messiaen and Debussy’s En blanc et noir performed with pianist Jerome Lowenthal.
On February 2, 2019, Ms. Oppens performed a recital at Merkin Concert Hall for a celebration of her 75th birthday, inaugurating the Kaufman Music Center’s newest series, Only at Merkin with Terrance McKnight. Her program showcased all works written for her by Elliott Carter and John Corigliano, and gave the world premiere of a piano quintet by Laura Kaminsky—commissioned by the pianist for the occasion with production support from the Newburgh Institute for The Arts & Ideas—alongside the Cassatt String Quartet and Tobias Picker’s Ursula for solo piano, a birthday present for his dear friend and collaborator.
Of Ms. Oppens’ Merkin Hall concert, David Wright of New York Classical Review wrote on February 3, 2019:
Merkin Concert Hall was packed Saturday night…for a celebration of the pianist’s 75th birthday on its exact date. Here one was especially aware of the quality of Oppens’ tone—full and projected even in the softed pianissimo, and capable of producing tremendous impact in forte chords without sounding pinched or banged. Her pedaling was unusually subtle for new-music interpretation, managing resonances and overlapping tones like an expert Chopin player.
Over the years, Ms. Oppens has premiered works by such leading composers as John Adams, Luciano Berio, William Bolcom, Anthony Braxton, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Anthony Davis, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, Laura Kaminsky, Tania Leon, György Ligeti, Witold Lutoslawski, Harold Meltzer, Meredith Monk, Conlon Nancarrow, Tobias Picker, Bernard Rands, Frederic Rzewski, Allen Shawn, Alvin Singleton, Joan Tower, Lois V Vierk, Amy Williams, Christian Wolff, Amnon Wolman, and Charles Wuorinen.
As an orchestral guest soloist, Ms. Oppens has performed with virtually all of the world’s major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and the orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Milwaukee. Abroad, she has appeared with such ensembles as the Berlin Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the
Deutsche Symphonie, the Scottish BBC, and the London Philharmonic Orchestras. Ms. Oppens is also an avid chamber musician and has performed with the Arditti, Cassatt, JACK, Juilliard, and Pacifica quartets, among other chamber ensembles.
Ursula Oppens is a Distinguished Professor of Music at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City; she also joined the faculty of Mannes College, The New School, in fall 2017. In 2019, Ms. Oppens was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New England Conservatory. From 1994 through the end of the 2007-08 academic year she served as John Evans Distinguished Professor of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. In addition, Ms. Oppens has served as a juror for many international competitions, such as the Bachauer, Busoni, Concert Artists Guild, Young Concert Artists, Young Pianists Foundation (Amsterdam), and Cincinnati Piano World Competition. Ms. Oppens lives in New York City.
URSULA OPPENS
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Born in 1932, Jerome Lowenthal continues to fascinate audiences, who find in his playing a combination of youthful intensity and eloquence born of life-experience. He is a virtuoso of the fingers and emotions.
Mr. Lowenthal studied in his native Philadelphia with Olga Samaroff-Stokowski, in New York with William Kapell and Edward Steuermann, and in Paris with Alfred Cortot, meanwhile traveling annually to Los Angeles for coachings with Artur Rubinstein. After winning prizes in three international competitions (Bolzano, Darmstadt, and Brussels), he moved to Jerusalem where he played, taught, and lectured for three years.
Returning to America, he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic playing Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto in 1963. Since then, he has performed virtually everywhere, from the Aleutians to Zagreb. He has appeared as soloist with celebrated conductors including Barenboim, Ozawa, Tilson Thomas, Temirkanov, and Slatkin, and with such giants of the past as Bernstein, Ormandy, Monteux, and Stokowski. Mr. Lowenthal has played sonatas with Itzhak Perlman; piano duos with Ronit Amir (his late wife), Carmel Lowenthal (his daughter), and Ursula Oppens; and quintets with the Lark, Avalon, and Brentano Quartets. He recently recorded Two-Piano Music of Messiaen and Debussy with Oppens and the complete Ann Es De P Lerinage of Liszt in a 3 CD set released in November 2010. Other recordings include concertos by Tchaikovsky and Liszt, solo works by Sinding and Bartók, and chamber music by Arensky and Taneyev.
Teaching is an important part of Mr. Lowenthal’s musical life, including faculty positions at The Juilliard School since 1991 and an extraordinary 50 years of teaching at the Music Academy of the West. Mr. Lowenthal has worked with an extraordinary number of gifted pianists, whom he encourages to understand the music they play in a wide aesthetic and cultural perspective — and to project it with the freedom which that perspective allows.
JEROME LOWENTHAL
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The 2019 Innovation Award Winner from the Music Academy of The West, Konstantin Soukhovetski, is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator with a thriving international career. Newly appointed Director of Education and Community Engagement at Grand Piano Series in Naples, FL, Konstantin is also a Director of Pedagogy and Narrative Musicianship at Bronx School For Music, adjunct faculty at his alma mater, The Juilliard School, and Artist-in-Residency at Pianofest In The Hamptons. Recently, Konstantin guest-lectured at Curtis Institute of Music, Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, Singapore’s Academy of Music, and Jelgavas Mūsikas Vidusskolas (Latvia). Konstantin often serves on the jury of international piano competitions, currently on the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition selection jury.
This season, Konstantin’s performances have taken him on the Absolute Classics tour of the UK, the Batura Festival in St. Sebastian and Canary Islands (Spain), PianoFête Festival in Vashon, WA, Odyssiad Festival in Fort Collins, CO, International Composers Symposium in Del Mar, CA, and ProtoStar’s Innovative Series in La Jolla, CA, to name a few. Konstantin’s recent orchestra appearances include Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra and Pegasus: The Orchestra at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.
As a composer, Konstantin’s The Pride Suite for piano is seeing its world premiers this season, and GCTYO Philharmonic Orchestra will premiere his first symphony.
As a librettist, Konstantin collaborates with composer Polina Nazaykinskaya. Their first opera, Her New Home, premiered in 2023 at Garth Newel Music Center, and their second commission for Mississippi Opera will premiere in the 2025/26 season.
Konstantin is a recipient of over 16 awards from leading international piano competitions and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship For New Americans. Born in Moscow to a family of artists, he studied at the Moscow Central Special Music School, where he double-majored in piano and composition.