FACULTY BPA 2017, 2018
Timeless in a Changing Music World
Barcelona Piano Academy (BPA) brings together an exceptional team of international piano teachers who will offer master classes addressed to young professional pianists, graduate students, undergraduate students and advanced preparatory level students.
Concertist
Liceu Conservatory, Barcelona
Director of L'Escola de Música de Barcelona
Concertist
Head of the Piano Department at the Royal Academy of Music, London
Concertist
University Mozarteum Salzburg
Universität der Kūnste, Berlin
Concertist
Head of the Piano Department at the Royal Academy of Music, London
Concertist
Liceu Conservatory, Barcelona
Concertist
Conservatoire National Supérieure de Musique et Danse de Paris
Concertist
President of the Seattle International Piano Festival & Competition
Chopin Music Academy, Washington
Concertist
Steinhardt School - New York University
Manhattan School of Music
Concertist
L'École Normale Supérieure de Musique de Paris
Schola Cantorum de Paris
Concertist
Vice-President of the Seattle International Piano Festival & Competition
Chopin Music Academy, Washington
Concertist
Head of the Piano Department at the Amsterdam Conservatory
Den Haag Conservatory
FACULTY OF THE PAST EDITIONS
FACULTY BPA 2012-2017
The pianist David Kuyken made his debut in the Great Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, where he studied with Peter Feuchtwanger. He was prizewinner at the International Piano Competition in Santander in Spain. There he also received the prize for best interpretation of contemporary music.
David Kuyken is a very versatile pianist. He has played with various orchestras at home and abroad under such conductors as Comissiona, Montgomery, Haenchen, Lazarjev, Ros Marba, Vedernikov, Vonk, Ostmann, Brüggen and Spanjaard. In 2001 he and his duo partner, Brenno Ambrosini made a succesful debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 2003 followed his solo debut with this orchestra. As a chambermusician David Kuyken frequently partners violinist Janine Jansen, Candida Thompson and Ilya Grubert. He also appeared with the Prazak String Quartet and Mandelring Quartet. As a recitalist David Kuyken has toured widely in the Netherlands and other European countries, and in the United States, South America and Japan. He performs regularly on Dutch national radio and has recorded for the BBC.
David Kuyken has recorded various Dutch piano concertos with the Radio Orchestra’s for CD. His solo CDs with Dutch composers and piano sonatas by Schubert were highly acclaimed by the press. Next season recordings will follow of works by Brahms and a CD with works by Reger, Liszt and Franck. David Kuyken is professor of piano at the Conservatory in Amsterdam and The Hague.
He is a frequent adjudicator and regularly gives master classes at home and abroad.
JOSEP COLOM (Liceu Conservatory, Barcelona) - BPA 2015 -
Antonio Sánchez Lucena is a Spanish professor and concert pianist. He began his studies in Córdoba with Carmen Flores, the aunt and professor of pianist Rafael Orozco. He then continued with Rafael Quero, obtaining the highest ratings and awards. He won the First Prize at the piano competition organized by "Musical" in Cordoba in 1977 and again in 1978.
In 1985, the Spanish conductor Jesus Lopez Cobos awarded him a scholarship for further studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Christopher Elton. He finished his studies with the highest distinctions. He has also worked with pianists such as Manuel Carra, Alexander Jenner, Stephen Kovacevich and Josef Kalestein, among others.
At eighteen he performed the complete cycle of Chopin Études Op.10 and Op. 25; this is a cycle that he has continued to play to great public acclaim.
He was awarded the First Prize at the Piano Competition "Ciudad de Albacete" (1988). He has recitals throughout Spain. Recording for Spanish radios and TVs. Performances at major Spanish venues such as Gran Teatro of Córdoba, Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Granada, Falla Hall of Seville, Palacio de Viana in Cordoba, Villanueva Hall at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, etc. Also International festivals such as Granada, Baza, Ubeda, Contemporary Music Festival of Córdoba and the International Piano Festival of Lucena. Solist with the Orchestra of Córdoba under the direction of Leo Brouwer, and other Andalusian Orchestras and conductors. Since 1987 he has taught at the Conservatories of Cordoba and Jaen.
Since 1992 he is a Professor and the Head of Piano Department at the Conservatory "Victoria Eugenia" of Granada. He is frequently invited as a jury member in piano competitions and he gives frequent masterclass. Among his students, are winners of first prizes in piano competitions. Since 1996 he is an Academician of the Royal Academy of Fine Letters and Fine Arts of Cordoba.
"I was born in Barcelona in 1947, and music always was very important in our family.
In young age I won the International competitions of Jaen and Santander, and later on the Ministry for Culture of Spain gave me the National Prize of Music.
In the 70s I lived in France and studied in the École Normale de Musique in Paris, and most of my discography runs under the label "Mandala".
I have played with all the Spanish orchestras but also in recitals and chamber music in all the major festivals and auditoriums, in Spain and abroad. Though I am of introversive temper, being mainly inclined to play recitals and chamber music, I am not able to renounce to the opportunities of enjoy the marvels of orchestral repertoire.
Pedagogy has obtained increasingly a special value; apart from teaching regularly in master classes, I teach since 1990 in the University of Alcalá de Henares (until 2012), in Superior Conservatory of Zaragoaza, as well as the Musikeon of Valencia, and nowadays, from 2012-2013 academic curs, I teach at Liceu Consevatory, in Barcelona.
It is a privilege for me to make music, and I thank all the people who have taken the effort of coming to share what for me is a daily miracle".
RITA WAGNER (Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest) - BPA 2013 -
Rita Wagner graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and been teaching ever since. First in the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music, Budapest, and since 2005 she has been teaching chamber music and piano in the class of exceptional young talents at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Rita Wagner teaching methods are outstanding for her great commitment to an enjoyable piano study and his great ability to convey her musical thoughts and to take advantage of each student’s technical resources and personality.She has also given courses all across Europe. It may be mentioned the Weimar courses and the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, England. She has given masterclasses at the main Conservatories in Spain and Alcalá de Henares music courses and at the Fundación “La Caixa” in Barcelona.
JOANNA MACGREGOR (Royal Academy of Music, London - Head of Piano Department) - BPA 2014, 2018 -
Joanna MacGregor is thought of as one of the world’s most innovative and creative pianists. Artistic Director of Bath International Music Festival since 2006, she was also the curator of the 2010 multi-arts Deloitte Ignite Festival at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in September 2011 became Head of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Joanna read music at Cambridge University and continued her postgraduate studies with Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music, receiving the Hodgson Piano Fellowship.
Appearing as a concert pianist in over 70 countries, she has worked with many eminent conductors — Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev and Michael Tilson Thomas amongst them — and orchestras – London and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, Chicago, Melbourne and Oslo Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony and Salzburg Camerata, amongst many others - and has premiered many landmark compositions, ranging from Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Django Bates to John Adams and James MacMillan. She performs regularly at major venues through out the world, including the Wigmore Hall, Southbank and the Barbican in London, Sydney Opera House, Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Concertgebow in Amsterdam and the Mozarteum in Salzburg.In summer 2012 she performed at two BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and made her debut at Lincoln Center‘s ‘Mostly Mozart‘ Festival. She is currently performing the complete Mozart Concertos, and performed the complete Chopin Mazurkas to widespread acclaim in 2010. Known for her Bach interpretations, she was invited by Sir John Eliot Gardiner to perform the Goldberg Variations at the Royal Albert Hall in April 2013, which was broadcast live by BBC Radio 3 and received rave reviews.Joanna MacGregor made her conducting debut in 2002 and has solo-directed concerts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata and the Hallé, and enjoys a close artistic partnership with Britten Sinfonia, in programmes ranging from classical music to collaborations with jazz and world musicians.Joanna was the subject of a South Bank Show on ITV1, and her performances are regularly broadcast on both television and radio, including the Last Night of the Proms (playing Shostakovich’s first piano concerto). She filmed Bach’s Preludes and Fugues for the BBC, and has appeared on television and radio throughout Europe, North and South America and Australia.Joanna MacGregor has made over 30 solo recordings, ranging from Bach, Scarlatti, Ravel and Debussy, to jazz and contemporary music. Her own record label SoundCircus — now in partnership with Warner Classical and Jazz — was founded in 1998 and has released many highly successful recordings of solo and concerto repertoire, including the Mercury Prize-nominated Play, Live in Buenos Aires, Bach’s Goldberg Variations (recorded at the Mozarteum in Salzburg), concertos by Britten, Gershwin, Schnittke and Bach, and a four-CD Messiaen set.Joanna MacGregor has received Honorary Fellowships from the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music and Murray Edwards, Cambridge, as well as Honorary Doctorates from Bath University, Bath Spa and the Open University. From 1997 to 2000 she was Professor of Music at Gresham College, London where she gave a series of public lectures. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours in 2012. In September 2013 she was appointed as a Professor of the University of London at the Royal Academy of Music.
Started her career after winning prizes at the Brussels "Queen Elisabeth", the
"Viotti" (first prize) and the Tokyo International Competitions within a period of a year and half.
Since then she has played with growing success concerts in various European countries (Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Ukraine), Turkey, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, and the United States, as well as regularly in her home country Korea.
Special events were concerts with orchestra in Berlin (frequently in the Philharmonic Hall and
the Konzerthaus), Brussels, Liège, Oostende, Boston, Ljubljana, Cracow, Seoul, Pusan, Tokyo,
Salzburg, Innsbruck, Nürnberg, Mannheim, Jena, Darmstadt;Chorin Festival, as well as piano recitals in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Paris, Orléans, Brussels, Milano, Torino, Genova, Bologna, Salzburg, Boston, at the Yokohama-Festival, Seoul and many other cities in Korea, Munich, Bonn (Beethovenhaus), Dresden, Zwickau (Schumannhaus), and in many other German cities.
Her CDs with works be Schumann and Saint-Saëns were highly appreciated internationally.
Besides her activities as a soloist, Mi-Joo Lee also has played chamber music (violin/piano, piano-trio, piano-quartet), - increasingly in a piano-duo team with Klaus Hellwig (one piano-four hands and two pianos). She recorded for many radio stations in Germany, Belgium, France, the Czech Republic, and Korea.
Already as a child, Mi-Joo Lee was awarded many prizes and appeared in concert and on
television. A German state scholarship allowed her to study in Essen, Berlin; studies in Boston and Salzburg and courses with Guido Agosti and György Sebök completed her education. She graduated from the Berlin University of the Arts with a diploma and the concert examination, and the International Foundation Mozarteum awarded her with the Lilli-Lehmann-medal for outstanding artistic merit.
Mi-Joo Lee has been teaching at the Berlin University of the Arts since 1990, she is professor for piano. She held master classes in Austria, France, and Korea. She was in the juries of international competitions – among others Geneva, "Viotti" (solo and chamber-music) repeatedly, Pinerolo in Italy and "Piano music of the 20th century" in Orléans, France, Munich ARD-Competition, Busoni-Competition, “André Dumortier”/Belgium, San Marino.
She increasingly is in demand as artistic adviser for festivals and pedagogical projects in Korea.
MI-JOO LEE (Universität Der Künste, Berlin) - BPA 2015 -
GUIGLA KATSARAVA (L'École Normale Supériere de Musique de Paris "Alfred Cortot") - BPA 2013, 2014 -
Born in Tbilissi, the French-Georgian pianist Guigla Katsarava at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, as well as the Franz Liszt Hochschule in Weimar, and lastly a post-graduate course at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris. His teachers were Lev Naumov (a disciple of Heinrich Neuhaus), Lazar Berman y Gerard Frémy (a disciple of Yves Nat and Heinrich Neuhaus).Guigla Katsarava is in line with the great tradition of the Russian school of piano-playing, while having a unique musical personality of his own. The legendary Lazar Berman described his interpretations as being «always impregnated with a true comprehension of style», giving them «a personal artistic touch».Guigla Katsarava has performed in solo recitals, with chamber-music and with orchestra, in many countries all across Europe, as well as in the ex-USSR territories, U.S.A., Brazil, Japan and in the Middle-East.Among the concert-halls where he has played, may be mentioned the Residenz in Munich, Minato Mirai Hall in Yokohama, the National Opera House in Hanoi, the Deutsche Bank Atrium in Berlin, the Jerusalem Music Centre, the Great Hall of Minsk Philharmonie, the Great Hall of the Tbilissi Conservatory, Tokyo Art Center,Kobe Big Auditorium, Salle Cortot, etc. He has been invited to perform at many relevant festivals such as the Carmel Festival (Israel), Europejkie Spotkania Artystyczne (Poland),Bonneville Chamber Music Festival(USA), F.I.M.P, Musica nas Montanhas (Brazil),Radio-France Montpellier, Piano à Riom, Piano Pic, Saint-Omer en Musique, Flâneries Musicales in Reims, Rencontres Musicales de l'Abbaye de la Prée (France), and more. A well-known and sought-after pedagogue himself, Guigla Katsarava is a tenured professor at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot since a number of years, and teaches in several master classes, in France and abroad.Various television and radio recordings of his concerts have been made in France-Musique, Radio Classique Alsace, RCF, M6, France Bleu, TV Suisse Romande, the Georgian radio and television, The Voice of Music in Israel and the Macedonian and Serbian national televisions.
Three aspects of the Pierre Réach’s career mark his originality, concerts and recitals around the world, teaching and masterclasses and the organization of various artistic events. He was awarded in international competitions, among others, Olivier Messiaen First Prize, First Prize Pozzoli and Medal Arthur Rubinstein. He has been a student of Yvonne Lefébure and Yvonne Loriod in Paris, Maria Curcio in London and worked with Arthur Rubinstein and Alexis Weissenberg, among others. Offers recitals and concerts with orchestra around the world such as the KBS in Seoul, the Tokyo NHK, the Orquestre Radio France in Paris… Offers chamber music concerts with such artists as Gary Hoffman, Joan Martin Royo, Christoph Henkel and Gerard Poulet among others. He performes in the USA with the "Goldberg Variations" by JS Bach and receives enthousiastic reviews from the American press. He gives master classes worldwide. Has numerous recordings on CD. He is jury in competitions like the Olivier Messianen Competition, the Masters in Monte Carlo, the Maria Canals in Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro and Shanghai, among others. Creates the "Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition" at Bagnères de Bigorre and the "International Piano Competition Paul Badura-Skoda" in Vila-Seca. He is professor at the Paris Conservatory and at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC) and is Prof. Honoris Causa of the Shanghai Superior Conservatory. He is also artistic Director of Festival Piano-Pic in France and of the MusicFestival in Vila-seca, Spain.
PIERRE RÉACH (Conservatoire National de Région de Paris, Escola Supeior de Música de Catalunya) - BPA 2014 -
Ramon Coll began his musical studies at a very early age, and he performed his first concert with an orchestra at the age of eleven, playing Beethoven’s Concerto No. 1. At eighteen he won the Second Prize at the International Frédéric Chopin Valldemossa and the Magda Tagliaferro Award.He studied further at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, obtaining the First Prize of the center.Among his teachers may be mentioned Jaume Mas Porcel, Joseph Morpain (who had been a pupil of Fauré), Vlado Perlemuter, Lelia Gousseau and Magda Tagliaferro. He also received advice from Sviatoslav Richter.He has given numerous recitals in Europe and America. He has performed with many orchestras, among which may be mentioned OBC, RTVE Orchestra, National Orchestra of Spain, Orchestra of Moscow Radio, National Orchestra of New York, Santa Maria de Lucerne Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Moscow Symphony Orchestra Asturias Symphony Orchestra Vancouver and Portland or London Philharmonia Orchestra, among others.Among the great conductors he has acted may remind Kirill Kondrashin, Leopold Hager, Antoni Ros-Marbá, Essa-Pekka Salonen, Enrique García Asensio, Salvador Brotons or Maximiliano Valdés, among many others.His involvement in chamber music has resulted in his collaborations with the violinist Gonçal Comellas and the cellist Marcal Cervera.His discography, edited by Test, Musical Heritage, Ethnos, Russian Disc and Music Column, includes works by Ravel, Debussy, Fauré, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Brahms and Montsalvatge.Has developed an important educational work in centers such as the Conservatory of Seville, the Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona, the Barcelona Conservatory, the Conservatory of Palma de Mallorca and the ESMUC. He is frequently invited to give courses and lectures, and to be part of juries in national and international competitions, among which may be mentioned the Jaén Contest, the Pilar Bayona Contest, Albert Roussel Competition in France, Alfred Cortot Contest of Italy and the Andorra International Competition.Ramon Coll is an Academician of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts St. Elizabeth of Hungary and has been awarded the Golden Badge of Jeunesses Musicales International.
HORTENSE CARTIER-BRESSON (BPA 2015 - 2018)
JACQUES ROUVIER (BPA 2017 - 2018)