VILLA SANDRA PIANO ACADEMY
7th Edition at Teatro Maggiore, Verbania
4th - 12th August 2024
​
Massimo Marenzi, president
George Vatchnadze, artistic director
Kyomi Sugimura, managing director
The main features:​
​
7 individual lessons of 45 minutes
3 Masterclasses
6 students recitals at Concert Hall
​
Lodge by the Theatre
2 students x room
3 meals included
​
An Excursion will be organized on August 8th
The huge facility include:
-
rooms for lessons and masterclasses
-
rooms for individual practice on upright pianos
-
hall with 600 seats and Steinway concert piano on stage
-
bar and restaurant
-
arena and beach
The organization provides the pick-up and transportation from and to the airport of Malpensa (MXP).
For other arrivals or destinations there will be a transfer from and to Stresa train station.
Arrivals and departures are intended on the days before and after the Academy, August 3rd and 13th.
​
Participation fee 2900€
​
George Vatchnadze
“Deep authority and a stunning and reliable technique”
Daniel Cariaga, Los Angeles Times
“George Vatchnadze is one of the freshest and most exiting young pianists to come along in a long, long time”
Patrick Meanor, Listener.
George Vatchnadze has appeared with orchestras and in recital throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Israel, Russia, Japan, Taiwan, as well as Central and South America. He has performed at the Hollywood Bowl Festival, Ravinia Festival, Stresa Festival, and Rotterdam Philharmonic’s “Philips Gergiev” Festival. He has also been a frequent guest of St. Petersburg’s “White Nights” and “Mikkeli” (Finland) festivals.
In 1997 Mr. Vatchnadze made a sensational recital debut at the prestigious Edinburgh International Music Festival and received the “Herald Angel Award” presented by the “Scottish Herald” newspaper. He has appeared on live broadcasts of the Dutch National Radio, BBC and NPR’s “Performance Today”. In 1999 Mr. Vatchnadze made his New York recital debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.
Critic and writer Faubion Bowers wrote in American Record Guide: “Vatchnadze is a consummate artist, now at the height of his musical and intellectual powers. He can do absolutely anything he wants at the piano. He commands delicate pianissimi, massive diapasons and everything in between”.
​
Mr. Vatchnadze’s engagements have included performances with the marrinsky Orchestra under the direction of Gianandrea Noseda, at the St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater and London’s Covent Garden, as well as appearances at the Salzburg Festival, Maggio Musicale Festival, Stresa Festival, Gilmore Festival, Ravenna Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall and New York’s Miller Theater.
His most recent engagements include appearances at the Marrinsky Piano festival in St. Petersburg, Stravisnky and Shostakovich Festivalsin Washington DC, Woodstock Festival (NY), Stanford Stravinsky Festival, Pacific Symphony Rachmaninoff Festival, SYArts Festival in Taiwan, performances in Japan, Georgia, and others.
​
Mr. Vatchnadze recorded two CDs with the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Jansug Kakhidze featuring Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 and Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand for the Sony and Excelsior Labels. Both recordings were reissued several times and received the highest critical acclaim.
He was also part of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony CD recording alongside Alexander Toradze and Paavo Jarvi. Mr. Vatchadze’s new CD is being released this year with the piano music of Gia Kanceli and music for cello and piano of Sulkhan Tsinstadze.
​
Mr. Vatchnadze studied at Indiana University South Bend, Mannes College of Music, Tbilisi State Conservatory and Tbilisi Central Music School for Gifted Children.
Among his teachers were Alexander Toradze, Arkady Aronov, Wanda Shiukashvili and Larissa Bakhtadze. He is a winner of numerous International Piano Competitions including 1994 Gina Bachauer Competition, 1998 Palm Beach invitational Competition, 1996 Alabama competition, and 1997 World Piano Competition.
​
Currently Mr. Vatchnadze is the Associate Professor at DePaul University School of Music in Chicago. Throughout his teaching carrier, his students have won top prizes at the numerous international competitions and have performed extensively throughout the world.
katsunori
ishii
Katsunori Ishii won the 3rd place prize at the 59th Japan Music Competition while studying at Tokyo College of Music as a scholarship student. He won the 4th prize at the Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition in Cleveland, and the 1st prize at the Hamamatsu International Piano Academy Competition in 1997.
​
In 1992, Ishii was invited to join the fellowship program at the Tanglewood Music Festival, and studied piano and chamber music with Leon Fleisher and Peter Serkin. At the graduate school of Mannes School of Music in New York, he studied piano with Rudolf Serkin's beloved disciple Stephanie Brown, music analysis with Carl Schachter, conducting with Michael Charlie, and graduated with the J. Fiedelman Piano Prize in 1996. He returned to Japan temporarily in 1994 and held his Tokyo debut recital at the recital hall of Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, co-sponsored by the Japan Federation of Musicians and the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Katsunori Ishii has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras including Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra New York, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Costa Rica National Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Kyusyu Symphony Orchestra, Osaka Symphony Orchestra, Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra and Hamamatsu Philharmonic Orchestra, and has appeared on Nippon TV’s “Midnight Concert” and others.
​
In Haydn Year 2009, he was invited to the Viana do Castelo International Music Festival in Portugal, where he performed Haydn's concerto in F major with his own cadenza, which was well received. In recent years, he has been invited to perform at Weikersheim Music Festival in Germany, Engers Music Festival in Germany, Xi'an Conservatory of Music in China, Piano Summer Academy at Lago Maggiore Lesa in Italy, etc. He has also held masterclasses around the world and put his effort into teaching young pianists.
​
He has sat on the juries of international piano competitions such as Shigeru Kawai international Competition,
the 3rd ASEAN International Chopin Piano Competition in Malaysia, California International Young Artists Piano Competition and Japan Music Competition, Screening jury of Sendai international Competition and has been a member of Experts & Screening Committee of Hamamatsu International Piano Competition since 2006.
He is currently Professor of piano at Tokyo College of Music.
CD: Los Requiebros: Granados, Stravinsky, Schubert (OVCT-00133)
Schubert: 4 Impromptus, D.935; Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (SONARE-1002)
Pianist Eteri Andjaparidze has gained international acclaim as one of the most multifaceted artists and insightful pedagogues. Her discography on Naxos, Marco Polo, and Melodia labels includes Grammy and Deutsche Schallplatten awards nominated solo albums.
Andjaparidze has appeared around the globe in solo recitals, chamber programs, and as guest soloist with Montreal, Quebec, London and Oregon Symphonies, Beijing and Shanghai Philharmonics, Singapore Symphony, Russian State Symphony, Moscow State Philharmonic, Moscow Radio Symphony, Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Georgian State and Tbilisi Symphony Orchestras, under the baton of Franz-Paul Decker, James DePreist, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Valery Gergiev, Djansug Kakhidze, Dmitri Kitayenko, Michel Plasson, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Temirkanov, and Pascal Verrot to name a few.
Her international festival engagements have included Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival, International Keyboard Festival-Institute, Mannes Sounds Festival, NYU Summer Piano Intensive, Round Top Festival-Institute, PianoSummer at New Paltz, Los Angeles International Piano Symposium, Piano Festival Northwest, Southeastern Piano Festival, Apollo Music Festival, Puerto Piano, Bermuda Piano Festival, Villa Sandra Piano Academy, Todi International Music Masters, Festival International de Colmar, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Duszniki-Zdroj International Chopin Festival, White Nights, Russian Winter, Neuhaus Piano Festival, and Autumn Tbilisi Music Festival. Her special project PianoTheatre has featured collaborative programs such as Spectral Scriabin; La boîte à joujoux by Debussy; L'histoire de Babar by Poulenc; La Voix humaine by Poulenc/Cocteau; Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev; They Got Music: Rachmaninoff and Gershwin.
Based in New York City, Andjaparidze is teaching at NYU Steinhardt and Mannes School of Music. She has served as Head of the Keyboard Program and Professor of Piano at DePaul University in Chicago, the State University of New York, the Moscow and Tbilisi State Conservatoires and as visiting professor with masterclass series worldwide.
A Steinway Artist, Andjaparidze is founder and artistic director of an artistic/educational project AmerKlavier, the first piano performance studio named to the International Steinway Artists roster.
AmerKlavier has presented myriads of festivals and programs including The United Sounds of America; American Piano Forms: Sonata, Variations, Etude, Rags and Pieces; Pour le piano; Grand Piano à la Russe: A Taste of Georgia; Piano Theatre; J. S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I; Complete Piano Sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, and Prokofiev; Complete Nocturnes by Chopin; Complete Poems by Scriabin; Complete Opera for Two Pianos and One- Piano Four/Six Hands by Rachmaninoff; Complete Concerti for Two Keyboards and Strings by J. S. Bach; Complete Piano Quartets by Brahms, and other musical offerings. Andjaparidze has curated “Beethoven the Contemporary” festival and The Art of Piano series at NYU, special thematic programs at Mannes Sounds Festival, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and project “Eteriani”.
Born to a family of musicians in Tbilisi, Georgia – her father, Zurab Andjaparidze, the leading tenor with the Bolshoi Opera and mother, pianist Yvetta Bachtadze, a student of Alexander Iokheles from Konstantin Igumnov’s piano lineage – Andjaparidze studied at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire with Vera Gornostaeva, a student of Heinrich Neuhaus. The youngest participant, Andjaparidze received Fourth Prize at the Fifth Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow and was the first Soviet pianist to win Grand Prix at the Montreal International Piano Competition. Her awards include the People’s Friendship Order, Order of Honor, and People's Artist of Georgia title.
eteri
andjaparidze
YOOJUNG
KIM
Praised for her poetic and dramatic interpretation, Yoojung Kim has performed with orchestras throughout the United States and internationally, including the Prague Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Budapest Chamber Orchestra, North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Mozart Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, and NYU Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist and collaborative artist at venues such as Wigmore Hall (London), Sutton Coldfield Town Hall (Birmingham), Konzerthaus (Vienna), Smetana Hall (Prague), Bartók Saal (Budapest), Raum Arts Center (Seoul), Seoul Arts Center (Seoul), Arnoff Center for the Arts (Ohio), Roy and Edna Disney Redcat Theatre (Los Angeles), National Gallery of Art (Washington), Steinway Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Merkin Hall (New York). Most recently, she was invited to perform at the newly opened Steinway Hall in Seoul, and was featured at the International Healthcare Metaverse Conference in her own solo arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, captured in 360-degree video.
Yoojung Kim has garnered critical acclaim for her recent recording release of Scriabin's piano works on the Bridge Records label and received the American Record Guide Critics' Choice Award, 2023. According to the American Record Guide Review, “Yoojung Kim stands out.. with Scriabin that is technically rock-solid and well-balanced between the exciting virtuosic moments and the lyrical ones.” Fanfare writes “.. a virtuoso technique.. the prevalent lyric beauty and poetry.. a firm grasp of the music’s architecture and progression.. Yoojung Kim possesses all of the necessary attributes.”
A passionate chamber musician and collaborator, she has performed with members of the New York Philharmonic and with artists at the Euro Music Festival, Summit Music Festival, and Burgos International Music Festival. Her collaborators have included Yehudi Menuhin, Albert Markov, Felix Andrievsky, Mignon Dunn, Tania León, and Gillian Anderson.
Yoojung Kim is active internationally as a musical curator and entrepreneur. She directs an annual summer concert series at the Raum Arts Center (Seoul), and is the founder of MusicY, a creative performance and educational management firm. In 2019, she directed a piano showcase involving multiple venues in New York City (notably, The Oculus and Saint John’s in the Village) in collaboration with Make Music New York Winter Festival, Steinway & Sons, and Music Traveler, for which she serves as an ambassador. She is also in demand as a clinician, most recently presenting masterclasses and lecture-recitals at Steinway Hall, Busan University and Sangmyung University in South Korea.
A student of Nikolai Demidenko and Ruth Nye at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Yoojung Kim was awarded the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother Scholarship for undergraduate study at the Royal College of Music. She holds a Master’s degree in solo piano performance, a Professional Studies Certificate in collaborative piano from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Ph.D. in piano performance from NYU Steinhardt as a recipient of the Phillip J. Zlatchin Memorial Scholarship.
Yoojung Kim is currently a member of the Artist Faculty in Piano Studies at NYU Steinhardt.
OLEG
MARSHEv
The British music magazine “The Gramophone” reviewed Oleg Marshev’s recording of Prokofiev music as “one of the most authoritative and impassioned performances on disc so far”. His interpretation of the “War” trilogy has been awarded the prestigious accolade “Classic CD Choice” against such competitors as Richter, Berman, Ashkenazy.
​
Born in Baku, former USSR, OLEG MARSHEV trained with Valentina Aristova at the Gnesin School for Highly Gifted Children and with Mikhail Voskresensky at the Moscow Conservatory where he completed his Performance Doctorate in 1988 gaining the Diploma with Honor. Marshev is thus a direct representative of the fifth generation of Russian pianism since Liszt, through Alexander Siloti, Konstantin Igumnov and Voskresensky’s teacher, Lev Oborin. Resident in Italy since 1991, Marshev has received awards in several international piano competitions in Canada, Italy, Portugal, Spain, USA, including 4 first prizes. The illustrious competition victories have confirmed the artist’s reputation as one of the most talented Russian pianists of his generation.
​
1991 saw his New York debut with a highly acclaimed recital at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. The following year he appeared at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw which led to other invitations to perform at this prestigious hall. Since then he has performed throughout the world from Canada to New Zealand, performing with such orchestras as London Philharmonic and appearing at such important venues and festivals as Wigmore-Hall, London, Hall of the Conservatory “G.Verdi” Milano, Sala Cecília Meireles, Rio de Janeiro, “A.B. Michelangeli Festival” of Brescia-Bergamo, Italy, Ruhr Klavier Festival, Germany, Festival at Roque d’Antheron in France.
Alongside his concert engagements, Oleg gives masterclasses in many different countries and is a Professor at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, Austria.
​
Oleg Marshev’s first recording project was the complete original works for solo piano by Prokofiev (5 CDs) for Danacord Records. He has since recorded about 50 CDs for the same label, featuring works by Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, Rubinstein, Rachmaninov and others. He has made the world premier recording of Emil von Sauer’s complete piano music in 6 volumes. Another result of the artist’s abiding interest in little-known or forgotten music is a recording of Danish romantic piano concertos in 4 CDs. Oleg Marshev is probably the first pianist ever to have recorded the complete works for piano and orchestra by the great Russian Four – Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Also worthy of note are two projects: Chopin – complete works for piano and orchestra in 2 CDs and Mendelssohn – complete works for piano and orchestra in four CDs. In 2022-23 new recordings were released: a cd with Brahms sonatas and three CDs set with the complete works by Maurice Ravel.
​
All Marshev’ recordings have been received to widespread critical acclaim by leading international publications. His Shostakovich Concerti disc was reviewed thus by BBC Music magazine: “Marshev a phenomenon – master of every mood from strip-cartoon crispness to thundering monster, but above all a controlling sensibility of intelligence and feeling”.