Chinese pianist Xiaofu Ju is an alumnus of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Ting Zhou. He holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School after studies with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Nicolas Namoradze. He also serves as a visiting artist at Singapore Capital College. Xiaofu was winner of the Second Hong Kong Youth International Piano Competition and has performed in prestigious venues throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. He is also an advocate for contemporary music, having premiered works by Philip Glass and Xiaogang, and is set to release his debut album, Waldeinsamkeit this year, having already published two collections of poems in 2019 and 2024.
Pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze came to international attention in 2018 upon winning the triennial Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada—among the largest prizes in classical music. His recitals around the globe have been met with universal critical praise, and recent album releases have received extraordinary accolades, including the Choc de Classica, Record of the Month in Limelight, Instrumental Disc of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, Editor’s Choice in Presto Classical and Critics’ Choice in International Piano.
His current activities include residencies at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Toronto Summer Music; recitals at concert halls including New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin and the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan; festival appearances at Tanglewood, Banff, Gstaad, Santa Fe and more; and performances with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, with conductors such as Iván Fischer, Karina Canellakis, Hans Graf, John Axelrod, Ken-David Masur, Finnegan Downie-Dear and Daniele Rustioni.
After completing his undergraduate in Budapest, Vienna and Florence, Namoradze moved to New York for his master’s at The Juilliard School and his doctorate at the CUNY Graduate Center. His teachers and mentors have included Emanuel Ax, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Zoltán Kocsis, Matti Raekallio, András Schiff and Eliso Virsaladze in piano, and John Corigliano in composition. He also holds a postgraduate degree in neuropsychology from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College, London, where his research interests included the effects of mental practice and mindfulness on musical performance. Namoradze is the author of the book “Ligeti’s Macroharmonies”, published by Springer in the Computational Music Science series, and his compositions are published by Muse Press.
After serving on the faculty of Queens College, where he taught chamber music, composition and music history, Nicolas Namoradze now teaches piano and chamber music on the faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center and The Juilliard School.
Hamburg’s exceptional talent Niklas Paschburg has developed his own musical style in which neo-classical, ambient and serious music merge into a sound that is both meditatively moving and symphonically uplifting. The artist, who now lives in Berlin, plays his favourite instrument, the piano, with a twist, in churches and clubs. Like a DJ, his music mixes synthesiser, piano, accordion and bass drums with a computer to create video and light shows. Niklas Paschburg loves nature and draws inspiration from it, creating sound-painting journeys through deep soundscapes with club-ready intensity.
Maki Namekawa is a leading figure among today’s pianists, bringing to audiences’ attention contemporary music by international composers. As a soloist and a chamber musician equally at home in classical and repertoire of our time, she performs regularly at international venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center New York, Musikverein Vienna, Barbican Center and Cadogan Hall London, Citè de la musique Paris, Philharmonie de Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, BOZAR Bruxelles, Suntory Hall and Sumida Toriphony Hall Tokyo, Salzburg Festival, Ars Electronica Festival, Musik-Biennale Berlin, Rheingau Musik Festival and Piano-Festival Ruhr.
Maki Namekawa records and performs frequently for major radio networks in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and USA. Orchestra engagements include Royal Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, Münchner Philharmoniker, Bamberger Symphoniker, Dresdner Philharmonie, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Filharmonie Brno, American Composers Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony.
In 2013, she performed the world premiere of the entire cycle of Philip Glass’ 20 etudes for piano solo at Perth International Arts Festival under the participation of Glass himself, followed by concerts around the world in the US, Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Poland, Germany and Japan. A double-CD of the complete Glass etudes has been released in 2014 by Orange Mountain Music, reaching number 1 of the iTunes Classic charts and receiving high praise in the categories “Performance” and “Recording” by BBC Music Magazine. In September 2017 Maki Namekawa presented the whole cycle of Glass etudes for the first time in Austria at the Ars Electronica Festival as a project „Pianographique“ with real time visualization by Cori O‘Lan.
In September 2018, Maki Namekawa released the piano version of Philip Glass’ soundtrack “MISHIMA – A Life in Four Chapters” that depicts the life and death of the japanese writer and political activist Yukio Mishima. The arrangement was especially crafted for her by Glass’ longterm musical director Michael Riesman and features her crystal-clear technique. The recording was awarded the prestigious “Pasticcio Prize” by ORF – Austrian National Radio Broadcast. In June 2019, her another recording Isang Yun | Sunrise Falling was awarded Pasticcio Prize again.
In 2019 Philip Glass composed his first Piano Sonata especially for Maki Namekawa. She premiered the Sonata on July 4th, 2019 at Piano-Festival Ruhr in Germany in the presence of the composer. This Piano Sonata was commissioned by the Piano-Festival Ruhr, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Ars Electronica Festival.
Together with her husband, the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, Maki Namekawa formed a piano duo in 2003 which regularly performs in leading venues in Europe and North America including the Piano Festival Ruhr, the Radialsystem in Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, the Ars Electronica Festival, the Lincoln Center Festival, the Morgan Library and “Roulette” in New York City, the Philips Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Other Minds Festival in California. Major works written for the Namekawa-Davies Duo include Philip Glass’ “Four Movements for Two Pianos”, “Chen Yi’s “China West Suite”, and Glass’ “Two Movements for Four Pianos“ (with Katia and Marielle Labèque) all commissioned by the Piano Festival Ruhr. In July 2017, Maki Namekawa, Dennis Russell Davies and Philip Glass received the Piano Festival Ruhr Award. In 2019 japanese composer Joe Hisaishi composed for the Namekawa-Davies Duo a work for 2 pianos and chamber orchestra “Variation 57”, premiered in Tokyo under the baton of the composer.
Maki Namekawa studied piano at Kunitachi Conservatory in Tokyo with Mikio Ikezawa and Henriette Puig-Roget. In 1994 she won the Leonid Kreutzer Prize. In 1995 she continued her studies with Werner Genuit and Kaya Han at Musikhochschule Karlsruhe, where she completed her diploma as a soloist with special distinction. She went on to perfect her artistry in Classical-Romantic repertoire with Edith Picht-Axenfeld, in contemporary music with Pierre-Laurent Aimard at Musikhochschule Köln, György Kurtág, Stefan Litwin and Florent Boffard.
Jérémie Moreau, born in 1999, began playing the piano at the age of 7 with Françoise Ragon. He also studied ballet for 7 years, but eventually gave up this discipline to devote himself to music. At the same time, he entered Anne-Lise Gastaldi’s class at the CRR in Paris, where he was introduced to the contemporary piano repertoire by composers such as Guy Sacre and Yves Dufourt. He obtained his Prix de piano in June 2014 and entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in September 2015 in Denis Pascal’s class. After graduating in June 2018 with unanimous congratulations from the jury, he joined Andras Schiff’s class at the Saïd-Barenboïm Academy in Berlin.
He is regularly advised and guided by Bruno Rigutto, and takes part in masterclasses with Jean-François Heisser (Académie de Villecroze), Yves Henri (Festival Chopin à Nohant), Marie-Joseph Jude (Académie Ravel), Jean-Marc Luisada and Daniel Barenboïm. In 2007 he was unanimously awarded first prize at the UFAM competition, went on to win the Vatelot competition several times, won first prize at the Flame competition in 2011 and 2012, and won the Virtuoses du cœur competition in 2018. Jérémie performs regularly in recital and chamber music at the Festival Piano aux Jacobins, the Festival de la Roque d’Anthéron, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Auditorium de Radio France, the Festival de Saint-Denis, the Festival Lisztomanias, the Festival Chopin à Nohant and the Orangerie du Parc de Bagatelle.
In 2021, Jérémie was nominated in the Revelations category of the Victoires de la Musique Classique awards. For his first recording with Erato, he joins forces with his sister Raphaëlle Moreau, and his brothers Edgar and David Moreau, for a programme based on Dvorak and Korngold (“A Family Affair”, 2020).
Recognised by the international press as one of the great specialists in 18th-century keyboard music, Swiss-Italian pianist Olivier Cavé was a disciple of three piano legends; Maria Tipo, Aldo Ciccolini and Nelson Goerner.
In December 2015, the American magazine Forbes ranked his album “Chiaro e scuro: Haydn & Scarlatti” as the No. 1 classical album of 2015.
Olivier Cavé has built his career and his international reputation around a first-rate discography built up over many years.
He has surrounded himself with the greatest musicologists, recounting the history of his instrument, the piano. From Scarlatti to Bach, via Clementi, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, the international press praises each new album.
Olivier Cavé records exclusively for the Alpha label.
He performs in the most prestigious concert halls in Europe and the United States, in recital or with orchestra. Each of his appearances, from New York and Washington to San Francisco, via La Roque d’Anthéron and the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, is unanimously acclaimed.
Dmitry Shishkin is a critically acclaimed Russian pianist who has been highlighted for both his creative and individual approach to music, as well as his brilliant piano skills by the international press. “In his playing we can hear both excellence and playfulness.” He was awarded a silver medal in June 2019 at the prestigious 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition and won the first place prize in November 2018 at the 73rd Geneva International Music Competition where he performed with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
Born in Chelyabinsk, Siberia, Dmitry demonstrated an exceptional talent for the piano at a very young age. He performed his first recital at the age of three and orchestra concert at the age of six. He then entered the prestigious Gnessin Moscow School of Music for gifted children (class of Mikhail Khokhlov) at the age of nine and then attended the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (class of Eliso Virsaladze). He has also studied in Sicily at the “Vincenzo Bellini” State Conservatory in Catania with Epifanio Comis, and in Hannover at Musikhochschule with Arie Vardi.
From a young age, Dmitry has won many competitions, and received numerous awards and scholarships from Russia and abroad. He is a prize winner of such renowned competitions as Busoni in Bolzano (third place prize in 2013); Rio de Janeiro (second place prize in 2014); Chopin in Warsaw (sixth place prize in 2015); Queen Elisabeth in Brussels (finalist in 2016); and the first place prize winner of the Top of the World Competition in Tromsø (2017).
Dmitry currently resides in Switzerland, but performs around the world. Most notably, he has collaborated with the Mariinsky Theatre (conductor: Valery Gergiev); State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Svetlanov Orchestra”; Russian National Orchestra (conductor: Mikhail Pletnev); Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra (conductor: Vladimir Fedoseev); Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra; National Orchestra of Belgium (conductor: Marin Alsop); Staatskapelle Weimar; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Dmitry’s concert schedule additionally includes festival performances; notably Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Bergen Music Festival, Chopin and his European Festival, and Brescia Bergamo Music Festival.
Bruce Liu was brought to the world’s attention in 2021, when he won the First Prize at the 18th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw.
Following his competition’s success, he immediately embarks on a world tour, appearing at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Wiener Konzerthaus, BOZAR Brussels, Tokyo Opera City, Sala São Paulo, Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, U.S tour with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Past highlights include performance with ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as North-America tour with the China NCPA Orchestra.
His upcoming highlights include debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, European tour with Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker at Musikverein, festival appearances at la Roque d’Anthéron, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Rheingau, Edinburgh, Chopin and his Europe, Duszniki, and Gstaad Menuhin.
An exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon, his first album featuring the winning performances from the Chopin Competition won a Fryderyk Award and received international acclaim including both the Critics’ choice and Editor’s choice from the Gramophone Magazine, as well as being included in its list of Best classical albums from 2021.
“What we all have in common is our difference”, the young pianist likes to say. Born in Paris to Chinese parents, Bruce Liu grew up in Montreal. His life has been steeped in cultural diversity, which has shaped his differences in attitude, personality and character. He draws on various sources of inspiration for his art: European refinement, Chinese long tradition, North American dynamism and openness. Following his artist path with optimism and a smile, his teachers include Richard Raymond and Dang Thai Son.
Dan Nimmer was born in 1982 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a young man, Nimmer’s family inherited a piano on which he started playing by ear.
Nimmer studied classical piano and eventually became interested in jazz. At the same time, he began playing gigs around Milwaukee.
Upon graduation from high school, Nimmer left Milwaukee to study music at Northern Illinois University. It didn’t take him long to become one of Chicago’s busiest piano players. Working a lot in the Chicago scene, Nimmer decided to leave school and make the big move to New York City where he immediately emerged on the New York scene. In 2005, a year after moving to New York, he became a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as well as the Wynton Marsalis Quintet and Septet, all of which he is currently a member.
Nimmer has performed and recorded with Jimmy Cobb, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Renée Fleming, Houston Person, Fareed Haque, Ruben Blades, Lewis Nash, and many more.
He has released six of his own trio albums on the Venus label (Japan).