Piano

GIACOMO BATTARINO

Piano Professor at the “G.Verdi” Conservatory of Music in Milan, Italy.
Acclaimed for his "explosive personality" (Il Giornale) and his "striking maturity" (Corriere della Sera), he performed in all major Italian cities (Rome, Milan, Bologna, Turin, Genoa, Bari..) and abroad (Austria, France, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Switzerland, Slovenia, Germany, Serbia and Montenegro, and USA). Soloist with orchestras: J. Ch. Bach of Genoa, Italy, P. Constantinescu Symphony Orchestra of Ploiesti, Rumania, and the Americans Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, Firelands Symphony Orchestra and Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra. Conductors: A. Gambula, I. Ionescu-Galati, G. Young, J. Santos-Perez. Prizewinner Rina Sala Gallo, Monza, Los Angeles Liszt Competition, E. Porrino, Cagliari and ten more piano competitions.
Recordings: DeVega, Philarmonia. Vocal coach at the Mozarteum Summerfestival in Salzburg and at the Shandong University, China. Formerly piano collaborator and then teacher at the Casalmaggiore International Festival since the first edition, 1997.

Piano

MEGUMI MASAKI

Award-winning pianist Megumi Masaki has established herself as an international artist renowned for her warmth and rapport with audiences and her superb musicianship. Her multi-faceted career as acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, champion of Contemporary music, teacher, conductor and multidisciplinary researcher has taken her across Canada, the USA, Europe and Asia.

Her collaborations include partnerships with Koh Gabriel Kameda, Oleg Pokhanovski, Thomas Wiebe, Shauna Rolston, Yuri Hooker, Hartmut Brauer and The Penderecki Quartet. She made her film debut in “Appassionata: The Extraordinary Life and Works of Eckhardt-Gramatté” for CBC's Opening Night in 2006. She is the Artistic Director of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Competition, the International Virtuosi Concert Series in Frankfurt Germany and the annual Waterford Summer Music Festival in Utah.

Megumi has received numerous awards from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada Government, Canada Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and British Council. She was awarded the Willi-Daume Prize NOK Deutschland for her multidisciplinary project “Music and the Olympic Games” for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Her research in Peak Performance and the training of Elite Athletes has resulted in her method “Training Pianists as Athletes: A Basic Training Method for Optimal Performance”.

Megumi studied with Leonard Isaacs, Ronald Turini, Rudolf Kehrer and Kendall Taylor. She is presently Associate Professor of Piano at Brandon University.

Piano

SEDMARA RUTSTEIN

Tenured Professor, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Competitions winner. Former Faculty, Leningrad, USSR, State Conservatory.
Solo recitals, performances with the chamber groups and orchestras in USA, Europe, and Asia.
Master classes throughout USA, China, Hong Kong, Europe and Russia. 12 solo record albums made with a number of the US and Russian record companies. Critical acclaims include The New York Times, Washington Post, Fanfare and Ovation Magazines, among many others.
Extensive repertoire includes works of all major European, American, and Russian composers.
Ms. Rutstein's numerous national and international competitions prize winning students are successfully pursuing their careers as performers and Piano Faculty members at various Universities and Conservatories.

Piano

MIKHAIL VOSKRESENSKY

Mikhail Voskresensky commands an international reputation as a pianist in the great Romantic tradition. He graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under prof. Lev Oborin (piano) and prof. Leonid Roizman (organ).

Prize-winner of Schumann International Competition in Berlin, International Competition in Rio de Janeiro, George Enescu International Competition in Bucarest and Van Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth.

In 1957 the young pianist took part in the Prague Spring Festival where he performed European premiere of Shostakovich Second Piano concerto with the presence of Shostakovich himself.

Voskresensky's concert geography is very large. He performed with more than 150 conductors in almost all countries of Europe, Japan, Korea, China, Australia, USA, Mexico and Peru. He had wonderful critics in international festivals in Tours, Colmar and Aix-en-Provence: “Voskresensky is not only an outstanding virtuoso, he lives in music and plunges into its depths…” Semaines Musicales, Tours. During his New York debut his performance of Liszt Sonata and 5-th Scriabin sonata was highly estimated. His colleagues in chamber music were Borodin quartet, Shostakovich quartet, Tokyo quartet in New York, violinists M.Yashvili (all violin sonatas of Beethoven in 2004-05 season), R.Nodel and P.Berman, cellists E.Altman and A.Kniazev. Voskresensky's large repertoire includes all Beethoven sonatas, all works of Chopin, 64 piano concertos with orchestra, played with John Pritchard, Franz Konwitschny, Kurt Mazur, Stanislav Scrowachewsky, Eugeny Svetlanov, Charles Dutoit etc. He recorded more than 50 CD's. Among them 16 concertos by Mozart: K415,K459,K488 – 1-st CD; K414,K467,K491- 2-nd CD; K37, K453,K466 3-d CD; K271, K451 – 4-th CD; K449,K595 – 5-th CD and K175,K413,K456. Liszt's sonata b minor, all nocturnes, preludes, sonatas by Chopin, all sonatas and etudes by Scriabin, Schumann's carnivals op.9 and op.26, Beethoven concerto N3 c minor, Brahms second concerto B flat major etc…

Mikhail Voskresensky is a distinguished professor at the Moscow Conservatory, the chair of the professorship of piano faculty. His pupils have won 111 international prizes including 49 gold medals. Between them S.Igolinsky,A.Tebenihin, T.Erzhanov, Y.Kasman,A.Ghindin, S.Koudriakov, S.Kuznezov etc… In 2001-04 prof. Voskresensky taught in Toho Gakuen University in Tokyo where his pupils had won 12 different prizes including Akiko Yamamoto's triumph at Schumann International competition in Zwickau in 2004.

As a competition jurist M.Voskresensky was in Sydney, London, Leeds, Geneva, Hamamatsu, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles and many others. He was a jury member of the last Tchaikovsky Competition and constantly is the chairman of Scriabin International Competition in Moscow

Not so long ago he played the first concerto by Shostakovich in Beijing and the first concerto by Tchaikovsky in Shanghai under the button of Charles Dutoit. In the fall of 2007 during the celebration of the 100 anniversary of his teacher Lev Oborin, Voskresensky played in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory the Forth Concerto by Beethoven under the button of Vladimir Ashkenazi and The Second concerto by Brahms with Leonid Nikolaev.

Now he is concentrated in the project to finish the performance and recording all concertos by Mozart.

Violin

TARAS GABORA
(Second and third weeks)

Taras Gabora enjoys a world-wide reputation as a violinist and teacher of great distinction. As an active soloist and chamber musician throughout his career, Taras Gabora performed in major cities in Canada, USA, Italy, France, England, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Japan and China. He was founding member several chamber music ensembles such as “Trio Tre Musici” (Milan), Chamber Music Chicago, Le Groupe Baroque de Montréal, Vienna Academy String Quartet and the Gabora String Quartet. His teaching career included posts at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, McGill University (Montreal), Conservatoire de Montreal, St. Louis Conservatory of Music, University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Academy of Music. He is founder and former music director of “Casalmaggiore International Music Festival, Summer Music in Italy”

He has frequently represented USA and Canada on juries of national and international competitions including the Tchaikovsky International Competition (Moscow), Paganini International Violin Competition (Genova), 1989, 1996, 2001, the Sarasate International Competition (Bilbao, Spain), the Ifrah Neaman International Violin Competition (Mainz), the Yenkelevich International Violin Competion in Omsk, Russia, the Whitaker International Competition (St. Louis, USA) and others.

Taras Gabora has had numerous prize winning students in national and international competitions including the Paganini Competition, the Montreal International Competition, the Scheveningen (Netherlands) International Competition, and have performed at the Tchaikovsky Competition, the Jacques Thibaud Competition (Paris) and others. Several of his students are members of internationally known string quartets such as the Shanghai. Molinare and Alcan Quartets, many are professional orchestral players in many parts of the world including the First Concertmaster Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and many hold national and international teaching posts such as the Manhattan School of Music, New York, the Arizona State University, Conservatoire de Montréal, University of Manitoba.

Taras Gabora was born in Canada and now resides in Vancouver, Canada. He is a graduate of the Vienna Academy of Music where he studied with Ernst Morawec. Other teachers were Juri Jankelevich (Salzburg, Moscow), Szymon Goldberg (Amsterdam) and Henryk Szeryng (Chicago). Prizes and awards include the “Austrian State Prize” and the “Immagini Vive Della Musica da Camera” international prize (Milan).

Violin

LUCIA HALL
(Prof. Dora Shwartzberg's class in the second and third weeks)

The canadian violinist Lucy Hall studied at the Conservatoire de Musique à Montreal and at the Montreal Concordia University with Prof. T.Gabora and Prof. E. Turovsky, as well as at the “Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Wien” with Prof. D Schwarzberg.
She also profited from Master classes with Igor Ozim, Michael Kugel, Yuri Bashmet, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Valentin Berlinsky (Borodin Quartet) and was offered a position as scholarship student in the Yehudi Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad by Sir Yehudi Menuhin.
Lucy Hall is prize-winner of several national and international competitions such as the “Romano Romanini” (Italy), the “Brahms Wettbewerb” (Austria) and the” Mozart International Festival for Young Artists” (USA). She was granted scholarships from the “Canada Council” and the “Ministère des Affaires Culturelles du Québec” and was awarded upon graduation a Special-Merit Prize by the Austrian Ministry of Culture and Education. She has performed as soloist and chamber musician in Europe, North America and Russia in venues such as the “Bolshoi Saal” , the “Kölner Philharmonie” , “Place des Arts”, and Vienna “Konzerthaus” and participates in numerous Festivals including “ Martha Argerich and Friends”, the “Haydn Festspiele Eisenstadt”, the “Montreux Festival”, the “Oleg Kagan Festival”, the “Klangbogen Wien” and the “Progetto Martha Argerich” Festival in Lugano.

In chamber music she has performed with musicians such as Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Ivry Gitlis, Nobuko Imai, Lilya Zilberstein, José Gallardo, Polina Leschenko, Milan Turkovitch, Dora Schwarzberg, Alexander Mogilewsky, Mark Drobinsky and Alexander Rabinovitch-Barakovsky.
She was a founding member of the well known chamber orchestra” I Musici de Montréal”, a member of the “Kläring Quartett” , concertmistress and leader of several chamber orchestras ( “Ensemble 20 th Century”,”Wiener Symphonietta”,”Frauen Kammerorchester “,“die Reihe” ) and she held positions in the Radio Symphony Orchestra Wien as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1998 Lucy Hall was offered a position as assistant to Prof. D. Schwarzberg at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien . She has given Master classes in Russia, Croatia, France, Switzerland and Austria (for Jeunesse). Many of the students she has coached have won important competitions and several have secured leading orchestral positions.

In 2003 she performed in the Première of Alexander Rabinovitch-Barakovsky's composition “Die Zeit, for piano, violin, cello and celesta”, from which a CD recording for” MegaDisc” was produced. As well as recordings for TV and Radio, Lucy Hall has participated in several CD productions for the “Chandos”; “Gramola” and “EMI Classics” labels.

Violin

DORA SCHWARZBERG
(First week)

She was born in the backstage of a Jewish Theatre where her musician parents worked. It is perhaps this fact which formed her artistic Credo, expressed in the words of her father: "the violin must speak and cry!". Personal and artistic communication with musicians such as Prof. Yankelevich, V. Berlinsky, A. Schtern, Isaac Stern, Dorothy Delay, Menuhin made such an impact on DS that the wellknown American musician FG exclaimed"Dora Schwarzberg is a typical representative of the Odessa-Moscow-Jerusalem-NY violin school!". For Dora music is not only a profession but a lifestyle. It is a means of communication with people, as varied and individual as the artists with whom she collaborated. They include Martha Argerich, Misha Maisky, Berezovsky, Gililov, Imai, Rudin, Geringas, Drobinsky, Rabinovitch, Bashmet to name but a few. After emigration to Israel Dora joined a trio group with pianist V. Derevianko and cellist M. Drobinsky, which they called “VIDOM. They toured for 15 years, and this intensive musical and human friendship made a great impact on her future life.

Performance and pedagogical activities have naturally complemented each other, and she holds Professorship at Vienna, where she continues to explore music and life with her students. The great majority of her students are prizewinners of international competitions, and hold leading positions with major orchestras and chamber ensembles all over the world. She also gives master classes internationally. The repertoire of this violinist envelops music from baroque sonatas to Argentinian Tangos where the defining link in this extensive chain of works is her love for each of them and a desire to radiate this love to her audiences.

Prof. Schwarzberg will be conducting her lessons in the first week of the Casalmaggiore Festival mainly in the form of open masterclasses. Those who register for the class of Prof. Dora Schwarzberg will be working with her assistant, Lucia Hall, for the second and third weeks.

Violin

ANNE SHIH

Professor of Violin, Musikhochschule in Rheinland-Pfalz, Uni-Mainz, Germany. Formerly, Professor of Violin, Oberlin Conservatory and the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. Co-founder of the Wisconsin Virtuosi Artist Series in the USA. Artistic Director of Music in Norfolk in the UK. Student and assistant of Josef Gingold, Indiana University. Teaches and performs at numerous international Festivals, including the International Beethovenfest in Bonn, Casalmaggiore International Festival, Euro and Auer Festivals. Masterclasses throughout Europe, Asia and North America. Performances and master classes on violin, viola and piano throughout Europe, North America and the Far East. International jurist. Performs on a 1711 Guarnerius Joseph filius Andreae violin, also known as the ex -Wurlitzer.

Viola

ROGER CHASE

Born in London, Roger Chase studied at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Shore and in Canada with Steven Staryk, also working for a short time with the legendary Lionel Tertis. He made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1979, and in 1987 appeared as a soloist at a Promenade Concert at The Royal Albert Hall in London. He has since played as a soloist or chamber musician in major cities throughout the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Middle East, India, most of Eastern and all of Western Europe and Scandinavia.

Chase has been a member of many ensembles, including the Nash Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Esterhazy Baryton Trio, Quartet of London, Hausmusik of London and the London Chamber Orchestra. He has been invited to play as guest principal viola with every major British orchestra and others in North America and Europe, including with the Berlin Philharmonic. He has recorded for the EMI, CRD, Hyperion, Cala, Virgin, Floating Earth, and Dutton Epoch labels, and has demonstrated his diverse interests by playing with a folk group on an amplified viola, as a soloist on an “authentic” instrument, and as an exponent of the avant-garde.

Chase has taught at the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School and the Royal Northern College of Music. He has been a professor at Oberlin College, and at Roosevelt University in Chicago. His playing has inspired many composers to write for him, from solo pieces to concertos and chamber works. With pianist Michiko Otaki he has played works inspired by and dedicated to Lionel Tertis in many venues including at the National Gallery in Washington, Princeton University, and in Cleveland, Boston, Toronto, and elsewhere.

Recent recordings include the complete works for viola by Benjamin Dale, hitherto unrecorded concertos by Stanley Bate, W H Bell (“Rosa Mystica”), and Chase's own orchestration of the Vaughan Williams Romance on the Dutton Epoch label, and a CD of works written especially for Lionel Tertis entitled “The Tertis Tradition”, all on the Dutton Epoch label. Shortly to be released are three CDs: Virtuoso Viola Repertoire on Naxos, Sonatas by Delius and John Ireland on Dutton Epoch, and three sonatas by Brahms on Centaur.

Cello

EMIL ROVNER

Emil Rovner was born in 1975 in Gorki (now Nizhny Novgorod), Russia. While only ten years old, he debuted as Soloist with the Gorki Philharmonic Orchestra. He studied Cello with Anatoly Lukianenko in Gorky, Ivan Monighetti in Madrid (Escuela Reina Sofia) and Basel (Musikakademie) and with Boris Pergamenschikow in Berlin (HfM Hanns Eisler). He also studied Conducting with M. Samorukova and Singing with U. Messthaler (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis).

Emil Rovner received numerous prizes at international cello competitions, including the First Prize at the J. Brahms Competition in Austria, the First Prize at the Jost Competition in Lausanne (Patronat Lord Menuhin) as well as the First Prize and the Gewandhaus Prize at the J. S. Bach Competition in Leipzig. Upon recommendation by Vladimir Ashkenazy, he debuted as soloist with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under Gary Bertini. Recently he appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Münchner Kammerorchester, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Camerata Bern, The Chech Chamber Philharmonic, the Moscow Symphony and the Kammerakademie Potsdam a.o. He performed in concert halls such as the Grand Hall of the Berlin Philharmony, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Beethovenhaus Bonn, the Queen Elizabeth Hall London, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, and the Tonhalle Zürich. He was invited to participate as Cellist, Singer and Conductor at Festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the Berliner Festwochen, the Bachfest Leipzig, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival as well as Gidon Kremer's "les muséiques" and the "Viva Cello" in Basel. He maintains close artistic contacts with contemporary composers such as Holliger, Silvestrov, Firsova, Ali-Sade, Norgard, Mansurian and Knaifel. The Russian-Canadian Composer Evgeny Shcherbakov wrote a “ Concerto for Cello and Voice in one Person ” and dedicated it to Emil Rovner.

Emil Rovner is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Festival "RESONANZEN" in St. Moritz and of the "Mieczyslaw Weinberg Festival" in Dresden. His Debut CD on Label DIVOX whith Works for Cello Solo by Mieczyslaw Weinberg as well as a CD with the Kammerakademie Potsdam are going to appear in Sommer 2010.

In 2007 Emil Rovner was appointed Professor and Head of the Cello Departement at the "Hochschule für Musik C.M. von Weber" in Dresden, Germany.

Voice

JEAN MacPHAIL

Born and trained in Canada, Miss MacPhail has also performed and studied abroad in the United States, England and Italy. Her Professors were Robert Weede, Vera Rosza, Luigi Ricci, Daniel Ferro and Irene Jessner. She has performed for the BBC, the CBC, the English National Opera, the Canadian Opera Company as well as the TSO, the NAC and the Calgary Philharmonic.
Her students have been winners of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, The Marlyn Horne Competition, the Operalia Competition, the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, and the George London Competition.  They have also performed  with the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Chicago Lyric Opera, La Scala, Covent Garden, the Opera de Montreal and the Canadian Opera Company. They have sung at the Merola Program and the Ravinia Festival.
Miss MacPhail is a Professor in Voice Studies at the University of Toronto and the Glenn Gould Program. She also has a private Voice Studio. Miss MacPhail was the founding President of the Ontario Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Jean was on the 2008 Casalmaggiore International Festival faculty and will return again this year.
A lecturer on Voice Studies and Opera, and a panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Broadcast on CBC, and a Judge on the Metropolitan Opera Competition, Miss MacPhail has also adjudicated and contributed to the initial program of the Glenn Gould School in Toronto.