Day 3: Meet the 2008 Judges

VICTOR ROSENBAUM

"During the PianoArts 2008 Competition, Victor Rosenbaum will serve as the Jury Head. Mr. Rosenbaum was previously a judge with PianoArts in 2003.

His distinguished career as a concert pianist was summed as "one of those artists who make up for all the drudgery the habitual concertgoer endures in the hopes of finding the real, right thing," (Boston Globe). His concert tours include performances in Europe, Asia, Israel, and Russia. Among his many recitals in the United States are those in Chicago, Minneapolis and in New York City. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Rosenbaum has performed with artists such as cellist Leonard Rose and violinists Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt and Robert Mann, and with the Bretano and Cleveland String Qartets. Among the many festivals in which he has participated are Tanglewood, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Kfar Blum and Tel Hai (in Israel), Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall (Blue Hill), the Heifetz Institute and New York City's International Keyboard Institute and Festival.

A renowned teacher, Mr. Rosenbaum is on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music; the New England Conservatory, where he was chair of the piano department; and the Longy School of Music, where he served as Director and President from 1985 to 2001. He was also a visiting professor a The Julliard School and the Eastman School of Music. Well-known for his master classes, workshops and lectures, Mr. Rosenbaum has presented at prestigious institutions throughout the United States and at London's Royal Academ of Music, Royal College of Music, and Guildhall School; the Menuhin School at Stoke d'Abernon in England; Tokyo's Toho School and the Jerusalem Music Center. Among Mr. Rosenbaum's teachers were Rosina Lhevinne and Leonard Shure.

Classical Disc Digest describred Mr. Rosenbaum's recordings of compositions by Franz Schubert on Bridge Records as "a powerful and poignant record of human experience." he also recorded the last three sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, which American Record Guide critic Alan Becker greeted as one of the top ten classical recordings of 2005. Susan Kagan of Fanfare wrote of that disc - "Victor Rosenbaum's rewarding interpretation can sit proudly among the best." Soon to be released are compact discs of the music of Schubert and Mozart on the Fleur de Son label."

NELITA TRUE

"PianoArts 2008 judge, Nelita True, made her debut at age seventeen with the Chicago Symphony in Orchestra Hall and her New York debut with the Juilliard Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, her career has taken her to the major cities of Western and Eastern Europe, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Iceland, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia, Canada, and to Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as to forty-nine states in America. She was a visiting professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, performing and conducting master classes and has been in the People's Republic of China twelve times for recitals and master classes. She has played recitals on French national television and on Australian national radio. Her most recent recital in Boston was cited as one of the "Ten Best Classical Performances of the Year."

Ms. True has been a jury member for the China International Piano Competition (Beijing), the Queen Sonja International Piano Competition (Oslo), the National piano Competition in Brazil, the Horowitz Competition (Kiev), the Concours de Musique in Canada, the PTNA (Tokyo), the Lev Vlassenko Competition in Australia, and the Gina Bachauer, New Orleans, Hilton Head, and William Kapell International Piano Competitions in the U.S.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Michigan with Helen Titus, Ms. True went on to Juilliard to study with Sascha Gorodnitzki, and then earned the DMA with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory, In Paris, she studied with Nadia Boulanger on a Fulbright grant. Formerly Distinguished Professor at the University of Maryland, Ms. True is currently Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music. Many of her students have won top prizes at national and international competitions, including an unprecedented five First Prizes in national MTNA competitions. Ms. True was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching at Eastman, the 2002 Achievement Award from MTNA, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from National Keyboard Pedagogy Conference (USA).

SH Productions of Kansas City produced a series of four videotapes, "Nelita True at Eastman," featuring her performances, lectures, and teaching. These videos are currently being seen on five continents. She has been the subject of feature articles in Clavier, Piano Today, The European Piano Teachers' Journal, and was the subject of the cover story of Keyboard Companion. An interview with Ms. True appears in the latest edition of James Bastien's "How to Teach Piano Successfully," along with interviews with the legendary Rosina Lhevinne and Adele Marcus. Ms. True has been invited to record over 100 works for Advance, Mark, Educo, and Academy Records."

DIANE WALSH

"PianoArts 2008 judge, Diane Walsh, performs solo recitals, chamber music and concertos worldwide. Her recent engagements include the Bartok Concerto No. 3 with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Strauss Burleske with the Syracuse and Delaware symphony orchestras, the Berg Kammerkonzert with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City and Mozart Concerto No. 24 with David Zinman at the Skaneateles Festival. She has appeared with the radio symphonies of Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Berlin, the San Francisco Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony and the St. Louis Symphony, toured with the Orpheus and the St. Luke’s orchestras and soloed with orchestras in Brazil, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Russia.

In September 2007, she joined the cast of 33 Variations, a new play by Moisés Kaufman, in its debut production at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. for a month-long run. The play deals with Beethoven's last years and his writing of the Diabelli Variations, which Ms. Walsh performed on stage throughout the play. Coinciding with the play, her new CD of the variations, also entitled 33 Variations, was released by Jonathan Digital Recordings. The play, with Ms. Walsh as the pianist, had a second run at the La Jolla Playhouse in April 2008.

She has given recitals at the 92 Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum, Merkin Concert Hall and the Miller Theatre in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw’s Kleine Zaal in Amsterdam, Philharmonic Hall in Leningrad, Dvorak Hall in Prague, the Mozarteum in Salzburg and in other major cities in the United States, Canada, Venezuela, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. In demand as a chamber musician, she has performed at many festivals including Marlboro, Santa Fe, Bard, Appalachian Summer, Music From Salem, Eastern Shore, the International Musician’s Seminar in Cornwall, and Strings in the Mountains. Last summer she performed with the Fine Arts Quartet at the Summer Evenings of Music festival in Milwaukee. She is a member of the quintet La Fenice, comprised of piano quartet plus oboe, and the Cooper-Drucker-Walsh trio.From 1999 to 2004 she was Artistic Director of the Skaneateles Festival, held annually during August in upstate New York. During her tenure she presented world-renowned performers; designed and performed in innovative chamber music and chamber orchestra programs; increased the number of open rehearsals, children’s concerts, and master classes; and co-created and performed in theatrical events such as “An Evening with Bill Irwin” and “The Love Letters of Robert and Clara,” set to music by the Schumanns.

Her many awards include the top prizes at the Munich ARD International Piano Competition and the Salzburg International Mozart Competition. She won the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and was a prizewinner in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and also won that competition’s chamber music award. She also won prizes in the J. S. Bach International Competition in Washington D.C., the William Kapell International Competition in Maryland and the Busoni International Competition in Italy. She has made thirteen recordings for Bridge, Nonesuch, Koch, Newport, Sony, Stereophile, CRI and other labels; her first recording for Jonathan Digital Recordings, of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, was released in August 2007. She has begun recording the Schubert piano sonatas for this label, and the first volume will be released in the summer of 2008. Diane Walsh is a Steinway Artist."