Yunchan Lim, Gold Medal winner at this year’s Van Cliburn Competition, is the youngest performer ever to do so. In his first-ever competition, the 2018 Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists, Lim won second prize and the Chopin Special Award. That same year, he was the youngest participant in the Cooper International Competition, where he won third prize and the audience prize, awarding him a performance with the Cleveland Orchestra. 2019 brought more accolades, when, at age 15, he was the youngest to win Korea’s ISANGYUN Competition.

Now just 18, he has concertized across South Korea—including with the Korean Orchestra Festival, Korea Symphony, and Suwon and Busan Philharmonic Orchestras, among others—as well as in Madrid. He also participated in the “2020 Young Musicians of Korea” recording organized by the Korean Broadcasting System and released that November.

A native of Siheung, Yunchan studies at the Korea National University of Arts under Minsoo Sohn.

American pianist Jon Nakamatsu continues to draw unanimous praise as a true aristocrat of the keyboard. His playing combines elegance, clarity, and electrifying power. A native of California, Nakamatsu came to international attention in 1997, when he was named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the only American since 1981 to have achieved the distinction. Extensive recital appearances include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center, as well as premier venues in Europe, South America, and the Far East. His CD, featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and the Concerto in F, hit #3 on Billboard’s classical music charts. In 1999, Nakamatsu performed at the White House for President and Mrs. Clinton.

Nakamatsu studied privately with Marina Derryberry and has worked with Karl Ulrich Schnabel, son of the great pianist Artur Schnabel. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in German Studies and a master’s degree in Education.

Ukrainian Vadym Kholodenko is fast building a reputation as one of the most musically vibrant and technically gifted classical pianists. Winner of the 2013 Cliburn Competition, Kholodenko captivated audiences and critics alike, with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra immediately appointing him their first Artist in Partnership. He has released recordings of Liszt, Rachmaninov, Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Prokofiev, and Medtner. His latest solo disc on Harmonia Mundi, presenting works by Scriabin, won the prestigious Diapason d’Or de l’année.

In 2013 he held a residency at the Mariinsky Concert Hall, where Valery Gergiev named him Artist of the Month. He has performed in recital and as soloist with orchestras throughout Ukraine, Europe, China, Israel, Japan, Russia, and the United States. His 2017 London debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra resulted in an immediate re-invitation.

Kholodenko was born in Kiev, Ukraine and began his musical studies at Kiev’s Mikola Lysenko Special Music Schoo. He gave his first concerts at the age of 13 in the USA, China, Hungary and Croatia before moving to study at the Moscow State Conservatoire under renowned teacher, Professor Vera Gornostaeva.

With her consistently striking and dynamic performances, pianist Natasha Paremski reveals astounding virtuosity and masterful interpretive abilities. She continues to generate critical excitement as she wins over audiences with her musical sensibility and powerful, flawless technique.

Born in Moscow, Paremski moved to the United States at the age of eight and became a U.S. citizen shortly thereafter. Natasha made her professional debut at age nine with the El Camino Youth Symphony in California. At age fifteen, she debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and recorded two discs with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Paremski won several prestigious prizes at a very young age, including the Gilmore Young Artists prize in 2006, the Prix Montblanc in 2007, and the Orpheum Stiftung Prize in Switzerland. In September 2010, she received the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year award. Her first recital album was released in 2011 to great acclaim, topping the Billboard Classical Charts.

Paremski is a regular return guest of many major orchestras and has toured extensively in Europe, giving recitals and master classes.

Born to an Italian mother and a Persian father, Alessandro Deljavan began learning to play piano before the age of two and debuted in concert at age three. He has since performed extensively across Europe, Asia, and North and South America. Deljivan’s prizes include first in the 1996 Concours musical de France, and second at the 2005 Hummel and 2010 ISANGYUN Competitions. He was also awarded the jury discretionary awards at the 2009 and 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competitions.

Deljavan has an extensive discography of over forty albums. He recently recorded the complete Chopin waltzes, etudes, and mazurkas; the complete piano/string works of Taneyev; and, the complete violin sonatas of Grieg, with violinist Daniela Cammarano. His recent recording of the complete Grieg Lyric Pieces was streamed on Spotify over 200,000 times in its first month. He has also released an album of the Liszt Mephisto Waltzes and the Sonata in B Minor, as well as a recording of the Bach Goldberg Variations.

Deljavan graduated from the Conservatorio Statale di Musica Giuseppe Verdi and the Istituto Gaetano Braga. He is currently professor of piano at the U. Giordano Conservatory of Music in Foggia, Italy.

Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit has been enchanting audiences and winning international competitions since age 14. Smit won First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 2019 and the Naumburg Foundation First Prize in 2017. His Fondation Louis Vuitton recital in early 2019 at the Frank Gehry–designed “glass cloud” in Paris was broadcast live globally. In October 2019, Smit made his Carnegie Hall debut with the world premiere of Stephen Hough’s Partita for Piano, commissioned for him by the Naumburg Foundation. He has been praised for his “dazzling technical and emotional dexterity” (DNA).

Smit completed his Artist Diploma at Juilliard in 2020, where he was awarded the 2020 Rubinstein Prize for Piano. He enjoys an international career on the orchestral, recital and chamber music stages. Smit has performed as a soloist with the San Diego, Las Vegas, Manchester, Barcelona, and Catalonia symphony orchestras, and the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, and Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, among others. In the 2022-2023 season, he will be performing Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 4, Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto No. 5, and Gershwin’s Concerto in F.

An advocate for new music, Smit has premiered numerous solo works on his recital programs, commissioned for him by Stephen Hough, Miquel Oliu, and Katherine Balch. He has given four hands performances with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, taken part in the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the Bridgehampton Chamber Festival, and performed with artists Gary Hoffman, Andrej Bielow, and Thomas Mesa. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with ensembles such as the Szymanowski, Casals, Cosmos, and Verona Quartets and has released for Champs Hills Records an album of Austrian viola music with Emma Wernig.

Now among the world’s most admired pianists, Benjamin Grosvenor became the youngest-ever winner of the BBC Young Musician Competition at age 11. At 19 he became the youngest British musician ever signed by Decca Classics; his first album won the Gramophone award for best instrumental album of the year. He has also won the Classic Brits Critics’ Award, UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent, and a Diapason d’Or Jeune Talent Award. Grosvenor has been featured in two BBC television documentaries, BBC Breakfast and The Andrew Marr Show, as well as in CNN’s Human to Hero series. Since 2011 he has appeared eight times at BBC Proms. In January 2019, Gramophone named Grosvenor one of five “Piano’s Golden Generation” artists who are leading the way among today’s classical pianists.

His 2020 recording of the Chopin Piano Concerti won both a Gramophone and a Diapason d’Or de l’année award, with the Diapason’s critic declaring it “a version to rank among the best, and confirmation of an extraordinary artist.”

Born in Gijón, Spain, Martín García García began his musical studies at the age of 5. He graduated from Reina Sofía School of Music, where he studied for more than a decade with Galina Eguiazarova. He received the prize for the Best Student of the Chair from Her Majesty Queen Sofía of Spain.

García has won first prize in several national and international competitions. He recently won the Sir Jeffrey Tate 2022 Prize, an award given every two years by the Hamburg Symphony to exceptionally talented young musicians. He won the 2021 Cleveland International Piano Competition, and received third prize at the XVIII International Chopin Piano Competition (and the special award for the Best Performance of a Concert). He was also awarded first place at the 2018 International Keyboard Institute & Festival, held in New York.

For the past two years, García has resided in New York City, where he has been completing his artistic training with the distinguished pianist Jerome Rose.

Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen has received widespread acclaim for his profound musicianship and distinctive interpretations of repertoire from Bach to Salonen. His interpretations are known for their intensity, thoughtfulness, and fearless musical conviction. In 2009, Sir András Schiff chose Pohjonen for Germany’s Klavier Festival Ruhr Scholarship and its prestigious invitation to play at the Festival. He performs widely in Europe, Asia, and North America and has appeared at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the 92^nd Street Y, at the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, and numerous other prestigious venues.

Pohjonen has appeared as a soloist with well-known orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City. He has won numerous prizes in both Finnish and international competitions including first prize at the International Young Artists 2000 Concerto Competition in Stockholm, the Prokofiev Prize at the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition in 2003, and first prize at the 2004 Nordic Piano Competition in Denmark.

Rustem Hayroudinoff has performed to critical acclaim in Japan, the USA, Latin America, Canada, Russia and Europe. He has recorded for Chandos, EMI and Onyx Classics. His CD of the complete Rachmaninoff Preludes was selected by Classic FM Magazine as part of its ‘Essential Rachmaninoff Collection’ together with the recordings of Arthur Rubinstein and André Previn. Hayroudinoff’s disc of the complete Rachmaninoff Études-Tableaux was hailed as a ‘benchmark recording’ and became BBC Music’s Instrumental Choice of the Month, as well as being nominated for the Best Instrumental CD of the Year. BBC Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’ selected the disc as the finest existing version of these pieces. His CDs of the Études-Tableaux and the Dvorák Piano Concerto were compared to the celebrated recordings of Sviatoslav Richter.

A charismatic communicator, he enjoys engaging his audience in a light, yet informative rhetoric about the works he performs.

Hayroudinoff studied with Lev Naumov at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, with Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music, and privately with Murray Perahia. He is a Professor of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music, London.