Prof. Jani Parsons (Canada)
Praised for her “combination of tenderness and vivacious energy” (San Francisco Chronical) and “sheer virtuosity” (LA Splash), Canadian pianist Jani Parsons has established herself as a musician of warmth, brilliance, versatility, and vivid expression. An active soloist and chamber musician, Jani is the founding pianist and executive director of Latitude 49, a mixed chamber ensemble recently in residence at Princeton University, and the pianist of the Lumina Duo alongside oboist Merideth Hite Estévez.
As an avid performer and supporter of living composers, Jani has worked directly with many composers including Steve Reich, Christopher Cerrone, John Zorn, Stacy Garrop, Marc Mellits, Roshanne Etezady, Augusta Read Thomas, Jared Miller and Shulamit Ran and has premiered upwards of eighty new solo and chamber works. A sought-after chamber musician, Jani has appeared with the Pittsburg New Music Ensemble, members of Bang On a Can All-Stars, Eighth Blackbird, and New Music Detroit as well as members of the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. Performances across North America include the Chan Centre for the Arts (Vancouver, British Columbia), the Banff Centre for the Arts, Detroit Symphony Center, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Ravinia Festival and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago) and at various educational institutions including the New England Conservatory, Indiana University, Southern Mississippi University, and Northwestern University among others.
Jani has an extensive catalogue of professional recordings, most recently including Latitude 49’s sophomore album, Wax and Wire released on the New Amsterdam Label in February 2020. She is featured on Lumina Duo’s album Beau Soir: French Music for Oboe and Piano on the MSR label and Latitude 49’s debut album Curious Minds hailed as an “Impressive debut” by Bandcamp Daily’s Peter Margasak. She has recorded on the Tzadik label and Çedille Records and has been featured on CBC radio, and WFMT in Chicago.
Jani studied with Lorraine Ambrose at the Vancouver Academy of Music (B.M. in Piano Performance), and at the University of Michigan under Arthur Greene, Christopher Harding and John Ellis (M.M. and DMA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy). She holds a performer’s diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music (A.R.C.T.) and a certificate of theory pedagogy from the University of Michigan. A passionate teacher, she has taught many award-winning students and presented pedagogical research across North America, most recently at the 2021 MTNA National Convention and the 2021 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. A series of excerpt books that she co-authored with Christopher Madden is set to be published in 2022 through the NCKP. Jani is a highly sought-after clinician and has given masterclasses across Canada and the United States and served on faculty at the Fresh Inc. Summer festival, the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp and the Piracicaba International Piano Festival in Brazil. Her academic career began at Baylor University where she was recognized as an OVPR Rising Star for her potential for research and early-career development, and she has recently relocated back to Canada to begin a position as Assistant Professor and head of the piano program at the University of Calgary’s School for Creative and Performing Arts.
Pianist and teacher, recognised as ‘’the Artist of Austria’'.
Artistic director of the International Gloria Artis Festival , president of the International Artistic Association Gloria Artis. Director of Piano School (klavierschule Padjas )
She graduated from the Academy of Music in Krakow class of prof. Irina Sijalowa - Vogel.
From over than 30 years she lives in Vienna, where she opened her own Piano School, KlavierschulePadjas'. Her students won many prestigious prizes in international competitions in Austria (Prima La musica) Poland,Italy and Russia.
She pursues very wide pedagogical activities, promotes artists and enables young pianists to play in Vienna.She is a Jury member in many international piano competitions in Austria Russia and Poland.
In September 2016 She received the prize ‘’ Meritorious for Polish culture’’ for her musical and educational contributions
She cooperates with many educaional institutions, She is often invited for Competition Juries , Festivals in Austria and abroad .
Prof. Jadwiga Padjas (President of Gloria Artis Music Association ) Austria
Prof. Bradley Bolen (Baylor University-School of Music ) Texas-USA
Dr. BRADLEY CORDELL BOLEN began teaching at Baylor in 2000, after receiving a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1985 and Master of Music and DMA degrees from The University of Texas at Austin in 1989 and 2000. His principal teachers have included David Stokan and Nancy Burton Garrett. He has coached with Anton Nel, Martin Canin, Menahem Pressler, and Claude Frank. As a University of Texas Fellow, he designed and marketed a series of highly successful lecture courses for general concert audiences. These courses included: "Ten Ways to Listen," "The Masterpiece and the Romantic Dream," "Beethoven to Picasso," and "Piano!Piano!" Dr. Bolen has won top prizes in many piano competitions, including the Eastfield Festival for Twentieth-Century Music, the Fort Worth Symphony Concerto Competition, and the Arlington Fine Arts League Competition. In 1993 Dr. Bolen was one of five pianists, chosen internationally, to receive a fellowship to the Hart School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut, where he studied under the guidance of renowned pianist Claude Frank.
Dr. Bolen is an active performer, both as a soloist and accompanist, and has concertized throughout the United States, Mexico, and in Europe, where he served as summer faculty for the Austrian-American Mozart Academy in Salzburg, Austria. In 2003 he gave the first live performance of renowned pianist Earl WildÆs Sonata 2000. As a result, Mr. Wild wrote, Bradley Bolen is one of the most astute musicians I have encountered in my long career. His pianistic abilities are of the highest level, and his perceptive powers as an interpreter are extraordinary.
Dr. Bolen is also an active adjudicator for events throughout the United States. In addition, he has arranged and recorded music for film, including Touchstone Pictures The War at Home.
Dr. Bolen has been a Steinway Artist since January 2011
Prof. Mariusz Drzewicki (Music Academy in Lodz ) Poland - Chairman
Graduated with honourable mention from the Music Academy in Lodz in the class of
prof. Tadeusz Chmielewski. Currently, he is associate professor and the head of the piano department at the Music Academy in Lodz. He perfected his skills at master classes with outstanding pianists such as Wiktor Mierżanow and Rudolf Buchbinder.
He has got several scholarships such as scholarship of the minister of culture and art, towarzystwo im. Ferenc Liszt in Wrocław, Yamaha music fundation of Europe and stiftung für Internationale Meisterkurse für Musik Zürich. In 1995 he took part in the 13th International Chopin piano competition in Warsaw.
Mariusz Drzewicki pursues lively concert activities from many years as a soloist and chamber musician in Poland and abroad (Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Latvia, Great Britain, Norway, Italy). He has performed at many festivals, including polish Piano Festival in Słupsk, Polnische Tage in Darmstadt, Days of Polish culture in Tobolsk, International Festival of them. Józef Hofmann in Nałęczów, the International Piano Festival in Bolzano and many others. He has performed many times at the birth house of Fryderyk Chopin in Żelazowa Wola.
He made recordings for Polish Radio and television as well as Dutch and Latvian television. His recording for Chopin's music appeared on the German market: CD (1999). in 2010, He made a DVD with Chopin's music. in 2012, he published a CD with piano compositions by Izaak Albeniz. Mariusz Drzewicki also provides pedagogical activities such as piano masterclasses and seminars in Poland and abroad [Lithuania, Italy, Spain] also judging in many piano competitions.