Kazimierz Brzozowski
Kazimierz Brzozowski is the founder and director of the International Music Festival in Nałęczów. He has garnered international acclaim for his captivating performances, in particular the music of Chopin. He has won top prizes at the Polish Piano Festival, in the Chopin Society Competition in Warsaw and has received awards from Ann Arbor Music Society, Kosciuszko Foundation in New York and the University of Michigan. He has given recitals and performed with orchestras in Poland, U.S.A. and Japan. He has been featured on the Polish Radio and National Television and made CD recordings with Music of Bach, Mozart, Chopin , Liszt, Bartok and Szymanowski. He holds a Master’s degree from the Fr. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw where he studied with prof. R. Smendzianka, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan. Currently he teaches piano at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Tomoko Mack
Tomoko Mack is a performing duo pianist. She has won, together with her sister Yuki, First Prize and Kodama Prize at the Fourth International Piano Duo Competition in Tokyo; the Ellis Two-Piano Competition and the Dranoff International Two-Piano Competition and was featured artist in the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Michigan, the Symposium for Two-Pianos in Florida and the Quebec International Two Piano Festival. She has concertized all over United States, in Japan, Poland, Italy and Sweden and produced four highly acclaimed compact discs that include a diverse repertoire of one-piano and two-piano works: Rhapsody, American Mosaic, Fantasy and Danse Montage.
Saitoh Masahiro
Arenowned and brilliant pianist, is one of the most outstanding Japanese artists of his generation. After graduating from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts & Music, he studied under H. Czerny-Stefanska in Krakow, Poland. In 1977, he was awarded first prize at the Japan Music Competition and received awards in 1980 and 1985. He was invited as a soloist to the International Music Festival in Kiev, Ukraine in 1995.
He has performed with major orchestras in Japan, the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Korea and the chamber orchestra, Pro-Arte Munchen. His chamber music credits include performing with Josef Suk, Peter Schumidl, Wenzel Fuchs, Ernst Ottensamer, Jouko Harjanne, Erich Binder, Xue Wei, Michaela Fukacova, Halina Czerny-Stefanska & Elzbieta Stefanska, the Via-Nova Quartet, Janacek Quartet, New Budapest String Quartet, Salzburger Oktett, the German Strings Trio, the members of the Orchestle National de l’ORTF and the members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which are all highly acclaimed.
Joel Hastings
Canadian-born Joel Hastings was the winner of the 2006 8th International Web Concert Hall Competition and the 1993 International Bach Competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. After delivering a stunning performance at the 10th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, one reporter designated Hastings the “audience favorite” while another declared, “the kinetic fingers of this young Canadian reminded me strongly of his late countryman, Glenn Gould.” In a Newsweek review he “pulled the audience to their feet after a wild performance of Franz Liszt’s Totentanz.” Reviewers have described his playing as passionate, mesmerizing, hypnotic, and transcendental.
A Steinway Artist, Hastings has performed solo recitals across Canada and the United States, while his orchestral engagements have included the Toronto Philharmonic; the Detroit, Ann Arbor, Oakville, Okanagan, Windsor, Kamloops, Niagara, Racine, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and the University of Michigan Symphonies and Symphony Band; the Kitchener-Waterloo and Michigan Chamber Orchestras; the Huntsville Festival Orchestra and the Ann Arbor Concert Band. Recently, he performed at the American Liszt Society National Festival and at the Niagara International Chamber Music Festival. This coming season, he will play concerts in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina and at the Florida State Music Teachers Annual Conference in Daytona Beach. Acclaimed American composer Carter Pann has written a new piano cycle dedicated to him that he will be premiering this year.
Leonid Tamulevich
Leonid Tamulevich is Associate Professor of Piano Performance at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. He is a graduate of Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Yakov Zak. He has appeared with solo recitals and performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras in Europe, America, Australia and Far East. He is a frequent guest artist and faculty member at major music festivals. He is frequently invited to give master classes at music schools and colleges all over the world, especially in France, United States, S. Korea and China. He has been a judge at many national and international competitions. He has been on the faculty of the International Music Festival in Naleczów since 2001.
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