International Piano Academy Lake Como
Encyclopedia
The International Piano Academy Lake Como is a music school
. Seven pianists, chosen annually from a worldwide field of 400 applicants including many international prizewinners, have the opportunity of studying with a faculty whose core membership past and present includes such stellar artists as Dmitri Bashkirov, Boris Berman
, Malcolm Bilson
, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
, Leon Fleisher
, Fou Ts'ong
, Claude Frank
, Peter Frankl
, Graham Johnson, Stephen Kovacevich
, Murray Perahia
, Menahem Pressler
, Charles Rosen
, Andreas Staier
, Alexis Weissenberg
as well as the late Alicia de Larrocha
, Karl Ulrich Schnabel
, and Rosalyn Tureck
.
These distinguished artists come for approximately a week at a time and give daily private tuition and master classes to the fortunate seven students. The International Piano Academy Lake Como was founded in April 2002 in order to continue and strengthen the teaching tradition of the International Piano Foundation "Theo Lieven". Due to the extraordinary faculty invited to teach and the exceptional talents admitted to the school, the Lieven Foundation has imposed itself as one of the major piano academies in the world in its ten years of activity.
Despite the name, the atmosphere is more familial than that of an academy, and communal rather than competitive. The Academy is housed in a beautiful 17th century palazzo overlooking Lake Como
. Away from the pressures of the outside world, students are able to learn and work in a relaxed, stimulating and contemplative environment. Here they receive inspiration, opportunities and guidance in every aspect of concert and artistic life, including chamber music, accompaniment, physiology (the treatment/prevention of occupational injuries) and piano technique.
Thanks to generous funding by Kawai Pianos and the Schnabel Music Foundation, among others, tuition, lodging, expenses, and practice facilities are entirely free of charge.
, the Bishop of Como, acquired the building from the heirs of the family Cossoni.
In 1983 the Town of Dongo purchased the building, and with the financial help of the Comunità Montana Alto Lario Occidentale, the citizens of Dongo embarked on a complete restoration of the Palazzo.
Today the building, which still retains its former name, houses the Civic Institute of Music "Alto Lario" and, since December 2003, the International Piano Academy Lake Como.
Music school
The term music school refers to an educational institution specialized in the study, training and research of music.Different terms refer to this concept such as school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department or conservatory.Music instruction can be provided...
. Seven pianists, chosen annually from a worldwide field of 400 applicants including many international prizewinners, have the opportunity of studying with a faculty whose core membership past and present includes such stellar artists as Dmitri Bashkirov, Boris Berman
Boris Berman
Boris Berman is a Russian pianist and pedagogue .He was a student of Lev Oborin at the Moscow Conservatory. He made his debut in Moscow in 1965. He joined an early music ensemble, at the time the only one in Russia, as a harpsichordist. At the same time he worked with contemporary composers such...
, Malcolm Bilson
Malcolm Bilson
Malcolm Bilson is an American pianist specializing in performance on the fortepiano, which is the 18th century version of the piano. Bilson is the Frederick J...
, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder performers of the post-war period and "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century"...
, Leon Fleisher
Leon Fleisher
Leon Fleisher is an American pianist and conductor.-Early life and studies:Fleisher was born in San Francisco, where he started studying the piano at age four...
, Fou Ts'ong
Fou Ts'ong
Fou Ts'ong is a Chinese pianist.Born in Shanghai to a family of intellectuals , Fou first studied piano with Mario Paci, the Italian founder of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra...
, Claude Frank
Claude Frank
Claude Frank is a German-born, American Jewish pianist whose career has included appearances with highly reputed orchestras, at major festivals, and in major recital halls around the world...
, Peter Frankl
Peter Frankl
Peter Frankl is a Hungarian-born British pianist. He mainly performs music from the Classical period , the Romantic period and the early Modern period...
, Graham Johnson, Stephen Kovacevich
Stephen Kovacevich
Stephen Kovacevich , who has also been known as Stephen Bishop and Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich is an American classical pianist and conductor.-Biography:...
, Murray Perahia
Murray Perahia
Murray Perahia KBE is an American concert pianist and conductor.-Early life:Murray Perahia was born in the Bronx borough of New York City to a family of Sephardi Jewish origin. According to the biography on his Mozart piano sonatas CD, his first language was Judaeo-Spanish or, Ladino. The family...
, Menahem Pressler
Menahem Pressler
Menahem Pressler is a German-born American pianist, founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio.-Professional career:...
, Charles Rosen
Charles Rosen
Charles Rosen is an American pianist and author on music.-Life and career:In his youth he studied piano with Moriz Rosenthal. Rosenthal, born in 1862, had been a student of Franz Liszt...
, Andreas Staier
Andreas Staier
Andreas Staier is a German pianist and harpsichordist.-Life:Staier studied piano and harpsichord in the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover, with Kurt Bauer and Erika Haase for piano and from Lajos Rovatkay for harpsichord, and also in Amsterdam. From 1983 until 1986 he was the harpsichord soloist for...
, Alexis Weissenberg
Alexis Weissenberg
-Early life and career:Born into a Jewish family in Sofia, Weissenberg began taking piano lessons at the age of three from Pancho Vladigerov. He gave his first public performance at the age of eight. After escaping to what was then Palestine in 1945, where he studied under Leo Kestenberg, he went...
as well as the late Alicia de Larrocha
Alicia de Larrocha
Alicia de Larrocha y de la Calle was a Spanish pianist from Catalonia. One of the great piano legends of the 20th century, Reuters called her "the greatest Spanish pianist in history", Time "one of the world's most outstanding pianists" and The Guardian "the leading Spanish pianist of her...
, Karl Ulrich Schnabel
Karl Ulrich Schnabel
Karl Ulrich Schnabel was an Austrian pianist, and the son of pianist Artur Schnabel and operatic contralto and lieder singer Therese Behr.-Biography:...
, and Rosalyn Tureck
Rosalyn Tureck
Rosalyn Tureck was an American pianist and harpsichordist who was particularly associated with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach...
.
These distinguished artists come for approximately a week at a time and give daily private tuition and master classes to the fortunate seven students. The International Piano Academy Lake Como was founded in April 2002 in order to continue and strengthen the teaching tradition of the International Piano Foundation "Theo Lieven". Due to the extraordinary faculty invited to teach and the exceptional talents admitted to the school, the Lieven Foundation has imposed itself as one of the major piano academies in the world in its ten years of activity.
Despite the name, the atmosphere is more familial than that of an academy, and communal rather than competitive. The Academy is housed in a beautiful 17th century palazzo overlooking Lake Como
Lake Como
Lake Como is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of 146 km², making it the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore...
. Away from the pressures of the outside world, students are able to learn and work in a relaxed, stimulating and contemplative environment. Here they receive inspiration, opportunities and guidance in every aspect of concert and artistic life, including chamber music, accompaniment, physiology (the treatment/prevention of occupational injuries) and piano technique.
Thanks to generous funding by Kawai Pianos and the Schnabel Music Foundation, among others, tuition, lodging, expenses, and practice facilities are entirely free of charge.
Location and facility
The majestic Palazzo del Vescovo (Palace of the Bishop) was erected by the family of the Marquis Cossoni in the 17th century. In 1854 Carlo RomanòCarlo Romano
Carlo Romano was an Italian film actor and screenwriter. He appeared in 94 films between 1934 and 1975. He also wrote for 14 films between 1955 and 1975...
, the Bishop of Como, acquired the building from the heirs of the family Cossoni.
In 1983 the Town of Dongo purchased the building, and with the financial help of the Comunità Montana Alto Lario Occidentale, the citizens of Dongo embarked on a complete restoration of the Palazzo.
Today the building, which still retains its former name, houses the Civic Institute of Music "Alto Lario" and, since December 2003, the International Piano Academy Lake Como.
Notable graduates
- Piotr AnderszewskiPiotr AnderszewskiPiotr Anderszewski is a Polish-Hungarian pianist.- Biography :Anderszewski was born in Warsaw, Poland. He attended conservatories in Lyon and Strasbourg, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, and the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles.- Career...
- Nicholas AngelichNicholas AngelichNicholas Angelich is an American pianist.Born in the United States, he began to study the piano with his mother at the age of five. He gave his first concert at the age of seven, with a chamber orchestra in the United States, when he performed Mozart's piano concerto in C major, K.467...
- Yulianna AvdeevaYulianna AvdeevaYulianna Avdeeva is a Russian concert pianist.Beginning her studies at the age of five, she studied at the Gnessin Special School of Music in Moscow, and graduated from Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. After her graduation, she became assistant to her teacher, Konstantin Scherbakov. Since 2008...
- Gabriele BaldocciGabriele BaldocciGabriele Baldocci is an italian pianist.Baldocci is known worldwide since he is performing with the legendary argentinean pianist Martha Argerich...
- Jonathan BissJonathan BissJonathan Biss is an American classical pianist.Biss represents the third generation in a family of professional musicians, which includes his grandmother Raya Garbousova , as well as his parents, the Israeli-born violinist Miriam Fried and the violist Paul Biss...
- Naida ColeNaida ColeNaida Margaret Cole is a Canadian-American concert pianist who left a successful career as a recording artist and touring musician in 2007 to pursue medicine at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School, where she is currently enrolled.Cole's website and Facebook pages state that she is a...
- Severin von EckardsteinSeverin von EckardsteinSeverin Von Eckardstein is a German classical pianist. He was born in 1978 in Düsseldorf, Germany, and took his first piano lessons when he was six years old....
- Ingrid FliterIngrid FliterIngrid Fliter is an Argentinian pianist. She began her formal piano studies with Elizabeth Westerkamp. Her first public appearance in recital was at age 11, and she made her concerto debut at the Teatro Colón at age 16....
- Kirill GersteinKirill GersteinKirill Gerstein , is an American and Russian pianist. He was the First Prize winner at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. He was chosen to receive a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award, and was selected as Carnegie Hall's "Rising Star" for the 2005–2006 season...
- Markus Groh
- François-Frédéric Guy
- Stanislav IoudenitchStanislav IoudenitchStanislav Ioudenitch , is a pianist from the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan. He was a Gold Medalist at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001, tying for first place with Olga Kern...
- Denis KozhukhinDenis KozhukhinDenis Kozhukhin is a Russian pianist who was awarded the 2006 Leeds International Pianoforte Competition's 3rd prize. He was awarded too the 2010 Belgian Queen Elisabeth Music Competition's 1st prize ....
- Vladimir MischoukVladimir MischoukVladimir Mischouk is a Russian classical pianist, Honoured Artist of Russia.The pianist enterred in 1975 at the Music School of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in the class of Valentina Kunde, and then studied from 1986 until 1991 with Tatiana Kravchenko at the Conservatory itself...
- Cédric PesciaCédric PesciaCédric Pescia is an award-winning pianist. He is a dual citizen of France and Switzerland.-Biography:Pescia studied at the Conservatoire de Musique in Lausanne, the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, the Universität der Künste in Berlin, and the International Piano Academy Lake Como in...
- Roberto Plano
- Roberto ProssedaRoberto ProssedaRoberto Prosseda is an Italian classical pianist. His name is related to his Mendelssohn's CDs recorded for Decca , dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn's unknown piano works...
- Edna SternEdna SternEdna Stern is a Belgian-Israelian Pianist.-Biography:She began to play the piano at the age of six. She studied piano under Viktor Derevianko and Natasha Tadson at the Rubin Akademie in Tel Aviv. Afterwards she studied at the Chapelle Royale Reine Elisabeth in Bruxelles, and has taken part in...
- Yevgeny SudbinYevgeny SudbinYevgeny Sudbin is a Russian concert pianist. He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. After his family emigrated to Berlin when he was age 10, he won several German piano competitions, and studied at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. He was a pupil of Christopher Elton at...
- Sergio TiempoSergio TiempoSergio Daniel Tiempo is a Venezuelan-Argentine classical pianist. He has studied under some of the best known pianists....
- Alexei Volodin
- Vanessa WagnerVanessa WagnerVanessa Wagner is a French pianist.She studied in the class of Dominique Merlet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. At 17, she won the first prize, and went on to study with Jean-François Heisser...
- Daniel WnukowskiDaniel WnukowskiDaniel Wnukowski is a Polish Canadian pianist from Windsor, Ontario, Canada.- Early years and training:At age 3 and a half, he showed strong fascination for a grand piano made completely out of glass in a music store and begged his parents to begin taking piano lessons.He studied piano at the...