Chopin Foundation of the United States,
Northwest Council.
Maximum number of applicants: 230.
Registration closes when this number is reached.
Please apply early.
REGISTRATION PERIOD:
REGISTRATION PERIOD: DEC 1, 2023 TO JAN 21, 2024* (OR EARLIER!)
*IMPORTANT: Registration period ENDS after 230 pianists are accepted. Register early! Additional applicants will be placed on waitlist.
The Northwest Council of the Chopin Foundation of the United States, an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization will continue the tradition of encouraging talented young American pianists to study and perform classical music, especially highlighting the music of Chopin. We will primarily focus on the Seattle competition and furthering young local talent. The NW Chopin Foundation holds a yearly competition featuring the finest youth talent in Washington state. Each succeeding year, the Festival has grown to becoming one of the region's largest and well-known piano competitions. The very first meeting of The Northwest Chapter of the Chopin Foundation was held September 20, 2001 at the Women's University Club in Seattle, Washington. President Dr. Steven Lagerberg opened a meeting with eight other Chopin enthusiasts in attendance. Steven presented his vision for the Chopin Foundation which was, very simply, to showcase Chopin and his beautiful music.
CHOPIN FOUNDATION OF THE UNITED STATES, NORTHWEST COUNCIL
Dr. Steven Lagerberg, Founder
Dr. Adam Aleksander, President
Dr. Hanna Cyba, Vice President
Judy Baker, Artistic Co-Director
Cathy Carpenter, Recording Secretary
Dr. Mary Chandler, Treasurer, Co-Artistic Director
Dr. Yelena Balabanova, Co-Artistic Director
Allan Park, Board Member
Yunbo Cassady, Board Member
Conney Vernall, Board Member
Dr. Nino Merabishvili, Board Member
Dr. Vladimir Balabanov, Board Member
Victor Ro, Board Member, Legal Advisor
Christopher Moorhead, Webmaster
Alison Bell, Past President
Helen Belvin, Past President
Cleveland Institute of Music
Distinguished Professor of Piano
Born and raised in Foggia, Italy, Antonio Pompa-Baldi won the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 1999 and embarked on a career that continues to extend across five continents. A top prize winner at the 1998 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition of Paris, Pompa-Baldi also won a silver medal at the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
Pompa-Baldi appears at the world’s major concert venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Milan’s Sala Verdi, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Shanghai’s Grand Theatre and Paris’ Salle Pleyel, to name a few.
He has collaborated with leading conductors including Hans Graf, James Conlon, Miguel Harth- Bedoya, Theodore Kuchar, Benjamin Zander, Louis Lane and Keith Lockhart. He has performed with ensembles and colleagues such as the Takács String Quartet, Alison Balsom, Sharon Robinson, and principals of The Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony and New York Philharmonic, among others.
With a concerto repertoire including more than 60 works, Pompa-Baldi recently performed cycles of all the Rachmaninoff piano concertos, the five Beethoven piano concertos and both Brahms piano concertos with various orchestras. He has played recitals in most major venues around the world. Among the stops on his tours, he performed in Vienna, Austria; Malaga, Spain; Nancy, France; New York; and throughout China (Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Dalian and Guangzhou).
Pompa-Baldi is a Steinway Artist since 2003. He is often invited to judge international piano competitions such as the Cleveland, Hilton Head, E-Competition (Minneapolis), BNDES Rio de Janeiro and Edward Grieg (Bergen), among many others. He serves as president of the jury and artistic advisor for the San Jose International Piano Competition since 2006.
Pompa-Baldi is on faculty at CIM as distinguished professor of piano. His students have been prize- winners in important competitions such as Marguerite Long, Hilton Head, Isang Yun and Gina
Cleveland Institute of Music
Professor of Piano
Italian pianist, Emanuela Friscioni, received a diploma in piano performance from the"Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory in Milan, with full marks, and went on to study with Annamaria Pennella. Other teachers have included Paul BaduraSkoda, Aldo Ciccolini and Bruno Canino. Ms. Friscioni has won many national and international first prizes, including those at the Tortona, Moneglia, Camaiore, Chieti, and Kawai Piano Competitions. She has performed throughout Italy, in Switzerland, France and other European countries. She made her U.S. debut in July 2000 with Cleveland Orchestra violinist Gino Raffaelli. Since then, she has enjoyed a career that has seen her perform solo recitals, orchestral engagements and chamber music appearances.
Among her collaborations, she played Schubert's Quintet Op.114"The Trout" with members of The Cleveland Orchestra and was again invited by Orchestra members in 2004 to play an allBrahms program. Ms. Friscioni's recent performances have included Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with the National Repertory Orchestra; Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Canton Symphony; chamber music and solo performances at the Music in the Mountains festival; and Franck's Symphonic Variations with the Lakeside Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed recitals in California, New Mexico, New York and Ohio.
Her piano duets with her husband, pianist Antonio PompaBaldi, have earned them many prizes and wonderful reviews. Ms. Friscioni is an accomplished professor of piano, first in Italy, where many of her pupils have won prizes and scholarships, and now in the U.S. As a teacher and artistic director, she founded and manages the Classical Piano Performance Academy at Cuyahoga Community College.
She was appointed to the CIM faculty in 2004.
San Francisco Conservatory
Professor of Piano
Sharon Mann's early training on the piano began in Chicago with teachers Rudolph Ganz and Isador Buchhalter and continued with Irwin Freundlich and Rosalyn Tureck. She holds the country's first doctorate in piano/chamber music from Northwestern University in addition to her degrees from The Juilliard School and Stanford University. A respected soloist and ensemble player, Dr. Mann is widely acclaimed for her penetrating interpretations of Bach’s keyboard music: Her recording of the Six Partitas has recently been re-released by Cappella Records, and she has performed with such artists as Alain Marion, Michael Grebanier, Elaine Skorodin-Fuhrmann, and the Cavani String Quartet.
An appointee of Governor Richard Celeste, Dr. Mann was, for six years, Artistic Director of Ohio’s Governor’s Series, lecturing on radio directly from the state mansion. She has also served as Artistic Director of California’s Junior Bach Festival and as producer of the Soviet Emigré Orchestra.
Dr. Mann has held faculty positions with the Itzhak Perlman Music Program, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the California Summer Music Festival, St. Olaf College, and Mills College. She has taught internationally in Germany, Greece, Italy, and China (where she returns annually), as well across the U.S. in Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Utah. She is currently working on a new edition of the complete Bach Keyboard Suites.
The Scent of the Lily
The Piano Capitol of the World
Chopin in the Time of Cholera and COVID
Recognition
What Motivated Chopin
An Educated Guess
A Personal Challenge
Emotional Music
The Long Suffering
Of Hands and Heart
Why Do We Have a Chopin Festival
A Fateful Journey
Chopin's Pianos
What's Not to Like About Chopin's Music
To Compete or Not Compete
Dr. Steven Lagerberg is retired as a practicing physician from Kaiser Permanente and is the founder of the NW Council of the Chopin Foundation. Steven is the author of: Chopin's Heart: The Quest to Identify the Mysterious Illness of the World's Most Beloved Composer and Essays on Chopin.
Copyright 2020-21. Steven Lagerberg. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Support The Chopin Foundation of the United States
The Northwest Council of the Chopin Foundation of the United States, an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization, will continue the tradition of encouraging talented young American pianists to study and perform classical music, especially highlighting the music of Chopin. Your donation is tax deductible and we would like to express our sincerest appreciation for your donation.
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