Winner of the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall, Anton Nel continues to tour internationally as recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Highlights in the U.S. include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, and Detroit Symphonies as well as recitals coast to coast. Overseas he has appeared at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, major venues in China and Korea and undertakes regular tours to South Africa. Much sought after as a chamber musician he regularly appears with some of the world’s finest instrumentalists at festivals on four continents. He holds the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at Austin, is currently also a Visiting Professor at the Manhattan School of Music and annually presents masterclasses at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. During the summers he is on the artist-faculties at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Orford Music Academy in Quebec and at the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival. Mr. Nel also frequently performs as harpsichordist and fortepianist. His recordings include four solo CDs, several chamber music recordings, and works for piano and orchestra by Franck, Faure, Saint-Saens and Edward Burlingame Hill. The Johannesburg-born Mr. Nel is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, where he studied with Adolph Hallis, and the University of Cincinnati where he worked with Bela Siki and Frank Weinstock. His website is antonnel.com.

PROGRAM

Johann Sebastian Bach

Partita No. 5 in G Major, BWV. 829

1. 1. Praembulum
   2. Allemande
   3. Sarabande
   4. Tempo di Minuetto
   5. Passepied
   6. Gigue

Claude Debussy

Estampes (2013)

1. 1. Pagodes
   2. La soirée dans Grenade
   3. Jardins sous la pluie

Johann Nepomuk Hummel

Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 20

1. 1. Allegro moderato
   2. Adagio maestoso
   3. Finale: Presto

Andrey Ponochevny is a concert pianist and competition winner. Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer has written that “His performance seized attention from first note to last”. He has won 1st prizes at Kapell competition in Maryland and Tomassoni competition in Cologne, Bronze medal at XII Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, among others awards in Warsaw, Dublin, Prague, New Orleans, Hong Kong, Riga. Mr.Ponochevny has performed solo recitals at major venues such as Lincoln Center and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York); Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, DC; Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria in Santander and Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Grand Opera in Harbin and City Hall in Hong Kong. Festival appearances includes Ruhr Klavier, IKIF, Ludwigsburg, PianoTexas, Nuevos Virtuosos, Music in the Mountains, Bravissimo, Changchung, Beijing. Mr. Ponochevny has appeared as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony and Louisiana Philharmonic, Wuhan Philharmonic and Belarussian Symphony, Des Moines Symphony and Tianjin Symphony among others. He was named “Outstanding Artist in China” in 2009 and 2011 as well as “Minsk Citizen of the year” in 2002. Andrey Ponochevny is a Yamaha Artist. In addition to his concert career, Ponochevny serves on the teaching faculty of University of Dallas.

PROGRAM

Domenico Scarlatti

Six Sonatas

1. D Minor K. 213
2. E Minor K. 198
3. C Major K. 487
4. B Minor K. 87
5. E Major K. 531
6. A Major K. 24

Sergei Rachmaninov

Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 28

1. Allegro moderato
2. Lento
3. Allegro molto

Praised for “demon precision and complete dedication” (Audio Society), the Lomazov/Rackers Piano Duo garnered wide attention as the Second Prize Winners of the Sixth Biennial Ellis Duo Piano Competition, the only national competition for piano duo in the United States at that time. Since then, they have performed as recitalists and in concert with orchestras throughout the United States and Europe, including performances at the Kiev International Music Festival, Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival, Indiana University Piano Festival, Seoul International Piano Festival, American Liszt Society Festival, Perugia International Music Festival, Varna International Piano Festival, Moulin d’Andé Arts Festival, Burgos International Music Festival and Infiorata di Genzano, in addition to appearances in every region of the United States. Fanfare praises the duo for “a superb demonstration of piano playing” and American Record Guides writes “the ensemble between Lomazov and Rackers is dead on”.

Lomazov and Rackers are Steinway Artists. As advocates for modern music for piano duo, they have premiered numerous works across the United States, including several compositions written specifically for them. Their broad repertoire ranges from important works by Bach, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert, to wide-ranging performances of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Petrushka, leading one critic to write that the duo “really lit up the audience….demonstrating that nearly 100 years after it was written, this modernist touchstone can still sound modern” (Columbia Free Times).

Marina Lomazov and Joseph RackersPraised as a “diva of the piano” (Salt Lake City Tribune), Marina Lomazov has performed throughout the United States, Europe, South America and China. She has won prizes in the Gina Bachauer, Cleveland, William Kapell and Hilton Head International piano competitions, and was the first pianist to be awarded the Artist Diploma at the Eastman School of Music in nearly two decades. Lauded for “unflappable virtuosity” (American Record Guide), Joseph Rackers has appeared throughout the United States, Bulgaria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Ukraine at venues including the Shanghai and Sichuan Conservatories of Music, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, Banff Center for the Arts and Yantai International Music Festival, among others. He is the recipient of the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music.
Ms. Lomazov and Mr. Rackers each hold the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from the Eastman School of Music. Both serve on the artist piano faculty of the University of South Carolina School of Music (Columbia, SC), where they co-direct the Southeastern Piano Festival.

PROGRAM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Sonata in C Major, four hands, K. 521

1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Allegretto

Franz Schubert

Fantasie in F Minor, four hands, D. 940

Johannes Brahms

Variations on a Theme by Haydn, two pianos, Op. 56

1. Theme. Andante
2. Variation I. Poco più animato
3. Variation II. Più vivace
4. Variation III. Con moto
5. Variation IV. Andante con moto
6. Variation V. Vivace
7. Variation VI. Vivace
8. Variation VII. Grazioso
9. Variation VIII. Presto non troppo
10. Finale. Andante

Igor Stravinsky

Three movements from Petrushka, four hands

1. Russian Dance
2. At Petrushka’s
3. The Shrovetide Fair