Pamela Mia Paul
Pamela Mia Paul is both a brilliant performer and a deeply dedicated teacher. On stage, she has performed with the world’s great orchestras. She has given concerts throughout the United States, and in Europe, the People’s Republic of China, South Korea and Turkey both as soloist and as chamber musician. In the studio, or in the setting of a masterclass, she is an internationally sought-after pedagogue whose students hold teaching positions throughout the United States and Asia, and who have participated in and won competitions including the Nina Widemann Competition and Naumburg International Piano Competition.
Ms. Paul has commissioned and premiered works for the piano; Robert Beaser’s Piano Concerto, which was written for her, had its world premiere in the United States with the St. Louis Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin, and in Europe with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic under the baton of American conductor Richard Dufallo. The Beaser Concerto had its New York premiere in 1992 at Carnegie Hall, with Dennis Russell Davies conducting the American Composers Orchestra. In 2012 Ms. Paul commissioned a concerto for piano and symphonic winds from Steven Bryant. The concerto was premiered with the UNT Wind Symphony conducted by Eugene Migliaro Corporon and recorded for release on the Klavier label in December 2012.
Miss Paul has received critical acclaim for her appearances with orchestras in the United States and Europe, where her interpretations of both standard repertoire and twentieth-century piano concertos have garnered consistent critical praise.
Miss Paul's European orchestral appearances include the Vienna ORF Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Berlin Stadskapelle, and Dutch Radio Symphony; her U.S. orchestral appearances include those with the New York Philharmonic, symphonies of Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Houston, American Composers Orchestra, Boston Pops, New York Pops, Minnesota Orchestra, and Caramoor Festival Orchestra. In both orchestral performances and recitals, Ms. Paul has appeared in the world’s major concert halls including Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, and the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam.
As a chamber musician, she has been an invited guest artist at the Salzburg and Bregenz festivals in Austria, Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, and Music Mountain in Connecticut. Quartets with which she has performed include the Cassatt, Penderecki, Borromeo, Chester, Orlando, Leontovich, Miro, DaPonte and St. Petersburg.
Summer programs at which Ms. Paul has taught include the Prague International Master Classes, The Institute for Strings, and the Vienna International Piano Academy. She has presented masterclasses in Europe, the People’s Republic of China, Turkey, South Korea, and throughout the United States. Pamela Mia Paul received the doctor of musical arts, master of music, and bachelor of music degrees from the Juilliard School. Dr. Paul was selected as one of five judges for the international screening jury of the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
She is currently regents professor of piano at the University of North Texas and is a Steinway artist.
Yuri Didenko
Internationally acclaimed Russian pianist Yuri Didenko has performed recitals and with orchestras in the best concert halls of Moscow, including Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and Moscow International House of Music, cities of the former Soviet Union and abroad: Belgium, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Japan, USA, Poland, Malta, Greece, Chile, China, countries of Western Africa, Turkey, Cyprus, South Korea.
The British magazine Pianoforte referred to his performances as "bold, open, powerful, and technically accomplished old-school virtuosity".
The Belgian newspaper La Semaine d'Anvers wrote of him as a "brilliant pianist" and mentioned his "large and bright sonority" as well as dynamism.
His concerts in USA were highly appraised by the press. "Didenko captured the hearts of the audience when he performed several selections by Sergei Rachmaninov";
– a critic wrote about one of his recitals.
"Immortal works by Schubert, Liszt, and Rachmaninov sounded with an incredible force of conviction, emotional power and brightness under the magic hands of Yuri Didenko, the chairman of the Jury of Dimitrios Vikelas International competition. When the music finds its ideal interpreter, he enchants his listeners, fillings their hearts with beauty, passion, and harmony. Yuri Didenko proved to be this ideal performer".
– a Greek newspaper "Epikaira" wrote about his performance.
Didenko's wide and diverse repertoire includes works of different styles - from Bach to Messiaen and avant-garde music of the twentieth century.
Mr. Didenko studied piano at the Central Music School affiliated with the Moscow Conservatory with Alexander Mndoyants and then at the Moscow Conservatory with Professor Merzhanov. Since 1994, he has been on the piano faculty of the Moscow Conservatory.
Mr. Didenko is a prizewinner of numerous competitions in Italy, USA, Belgium, his is the winner of the International Concert Artists Competition in Royal Tunbridge Wells (Great Britain). In 2003, Mr. Didenko received the Russian Federation Ministry of Culture Award "For Special Achievements in Culture".
Yuri Didenko recorded several compact disks with various romantic and XX century works.
He made numerous recordings on the Russian State Radio.
Mr. Didenko is in demand for master classes in Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Greece, Kazakhstan, UAE, Germany, Malta, Spain, Italy, USA, South Korea, and China. He has also served on piano juries of several international piano competitions (as a member and as a chairman of the jury) in Russia, Poland, USA, Greece, Malta, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, UAE, Turkey, Spain. From 1996 to 2002, Mr. Didenko was an active member and secretary of the Rachmaninov Society of Russia. He is also member of the Presidium of the Scriabin Foundation. In 2014 he was appointed a Vice-president of the International Rachmaninov society (Germany).
Nikita Fitenko
Internationally acclaimed pianist and Yamaha Artist Nikita Fitenko has performed recitals and with orchestras in the former Soviet Union, Europe, Asia, and South and North America. He has appeared as a soloist with such orchestras as St. Petersburg Capella Symphony, Russian Chamber Philharmonic, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra of Moscow, St. Petersburg State Conservatory Orchestra, State Hermitage Orchestra, Slovak National Philharmonic, Corvallis Symphony Orchestra, Lewisville Symphony, Rapides Symphony, and Northwestern Symphony Orchestra among others.
While performing a wide and diverse repertoire, Nikita Fitenko is an acknowledged master of Russian piano music. His CDs for Altarus Records of complete piano works by leading contemporary Russian composers Georgy Sviridov and Sergei Slonimsky have garnered rave reviews from the international music press. Fanfare Music Review wrote, "Fitenko plays magnificently!" Slonimsky himself described Fitenko's interpretation of his piano music as "outstanding." He also added, "It is very vivid, imaginative, virtuosic, fascinating, and pianistically brilliant." Mr. Fitenko's recording of Scriabin's Piano Concerto with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra of Moscow was released internationally on Classical Records label. His latest recordings of works by Bach, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, and Rachmaninov as well as 'All Tchaikovsky CD' for Classical Records were released in 2015 & 2017 (all recordings are available through Amazon & iTunes).
In addition to solo recitals, Nikita Fitenko performs extensively in piano duo with Katerina Zaitseva. Hailed by critics for their "superlative sound, superlative interpretation, and superlative pianism…", the duo has performed worldwide with most recent appearances at the Moscow State Conservatory Hall (Russia), Madeira Music Festival (Portugal), Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage (Washington, D.C.), Yamaha Hall (NYC), Piano Duo Series (Tokyo, Japan), Nancyphonies Music Festival (France), University of Florida Young Pianists Festival, and Berkeley University (California, USA). Their critically acclaimed CD featuring works for piano four hands by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms has been released internationally by the Classical Records label and is available through Amazon & iTunes.
Native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Nikita Fitenko graduated from the St. Petersburg State Conservatory with a citation for excellence given to only five other graduates in the last fifty years. After receiving the Anton Rubinstein Memorial Award, he came to study to the US pursuing his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of North Texas. His principal teachers included Roman Lebedev, Igor Lebedev, and Joseph Banowetz.
Dr. Fitenko has been invited to serve on many international piano competition juries, including 2015 & 2018 Campillos International Piano Competition (Malaga, Span), 2013 Schubert International Piano Competition (San Cristoforo, Italy), 2012 Nordic International Piano Competition (Malmo, Sweden), 2011 Chopin International Piano Competition (Hartford, CT), 2010 & 2018 Scriabin International Piano Competitions (Grosetto, Italy), 2009 American Pianists Association's Classical Fellowship Awards (Indianapolis, IN), 2008 Rachmaninov International Piano Competition (Moscow, Russia), and 2003 World International Piano Competition (Cincinnati, OH) among others. He has presented master classes at the Verdi Conservatory of Music (Turin, Italy), Hochschule fur Musik (Saarbruken and Cologne, Germany), Tokyo College of Music, Jose Iturbi Conservatory of Music (Valencia, Spain), Estonian Academy of Music (Tallinn, Estonia), Korean National, Yeonsei, Hanyang, Sejong, ChungAng Universities (South Korea), Sichuan Conservatory, Xinghai Conservatory, Jinan University, Changchun University, Hangzhou University (China), as well as at the 2010 Convention of the Maryland State Music Teachers Association, and 2009 Chinese-American International Piano Institute (Chengdu, China). Among his students are winners of national and international competitions including the National MTNA Competition.
Currently, Dr. Fitenko holds a position of Associate Professor of Piano at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Prior to that he was Associate Professor and Coordinator of Keyboard Area at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. He is also the Artistic Director of the American International Piano Festival & Competition (www.aipfc.us), the Washington International Piano Festival (www.washingtonpianofest.com) and the Middleburg Music Fest International (www.middleburgmfi.org). Dr. Fitenko is also the founder of the Louisiana International and Florida International Piano Competitions.