Nikolay Khozyainov is one of the world’s most remarkable pianists. His musicality and formidable technique have thrilled audiences and his recitals and concerto engagements include sold out performances on the world’s foremost stages. In 2012, Khozyainov won First Prize at both the Dublin International Piano Competition and Second Prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition, where he also received several special prizes, notably “Best performance of both Concertos voted by members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra”, “People’s Choice”, “youngest finalist”, and for his performances of Liszt and Schubert.

Khozyainov has performed with the London Philharmonia Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Russian State Symphony Orchestra, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, among many others.

Born in Blagoveshchensk in 1992, a city in the Russian Far East, Khozyainov started to play piano at the age of five. His musical talent was immediately noticed. He continued his studies at the Central Musical School, and at the age of seven he made his public debut with the Handel Piano Concerto at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. He graduated from the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the Gold Medal and “The Best Student of the Year” award.

He now lives in Germany, where he has received an Advanced Degree at the Hannover Hochschule fur Music. In November 2022, Khozyainov was awarded the Gold Medal of Peace from the United Nations Peacekeeping Force – the Blue Helmets.

Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott balances a versatile career as a soloist and collaborator. She performs more than 100 concerts a year, seamlessly moving between solo recitals, concerti and chamber music. McDermott has performed internationally with many leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, National Symphony, Houston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Sao Paulo Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic, among others. She has toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi.

As a soloist, McDermott has recorded the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas, Bach English Suites and Partitas (named Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice), and most recently, Gershwin’s Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony and Justin Brown.

In addition to her many performance achievements, McDermott serves as the Artistic Director of the famed Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado, which hosts the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony and also presents chamber music concerts throughout the summer. She is also Artistic Director of The Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival and The Avila Chamber Music Celebration in Curaçao. As an adjudicator, she most recently served on the jury of the Sixteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022.

As a chamber music performer, McDermott is a long-time member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She also performs each season with her sisters Maureen McDermott and Kerry McDermott in the McDermott Trio.

McDermott studied at the Manhattan School of Music, was a Young Concert Artists auditions winner and received an Avery Fisher Career Grant award.

With an innate musical sensitivity, 24-year-old pianist Mao Fujita is one of those special talents to come along only rarely, equally at home with Mozart as with the major romantic repertoire. Born in Tokyo, he was still studying at the Tokyo College of Music in 2017 when he took First Prize at the prestigious Concours International de Piano Clara Haskil in Switzerland, along with the Audience Award, Prix Modern Times, and the Prix Coup de Coeur. He was the Silver Medalist at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Fujita, who started piano lessons at the age of three, won his first international prize in 2010 at the World Classic in Taiwan, and became a laureate of numerous national and international competitions such as the Rosario Marciano International Piano Competition in Vienna (2013), Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians (2015), and the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition (2016).

Fujita made his highly anticipated US recital debut at Carnegie Hall in January 2023 to great acclaim. He has appeared in recital at major international festivals. Orchestral highlights include performances with the Gewandhausorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Philharmonique de Radio France, Konzerthaus Berlin, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, RAI, Filarmonica della Scala, and Lucerne Festival orchestras.

In November 2021, Fujita signed an exclusive multi-album deal with Sony Classical International. The new partnership started with a studio recording of Mozart’s complete piano sonatas. He performed the same set of works, interspersed with sets of Variations over five concerts, for his debut at London’s Wigmore Hall at the end of the 2022/2023 season.

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.

Among the most critically acclaimed musicians of his generation, Namoradze was bestowed the 2020 & 2021 Young Pianist Award by the UK Critics’ Circle, which called him “very much more than a top-flight pianist.” Recent highlights include 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 and Sinfonieorchester Basel.

After completing his undergraduate studies 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. He currently is pursuing postgraduate studies in neuropsychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College, London, where his research interests include 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.

A Gilmore Young Artist and winner of Salon de Virtuosi, Janice Carissa’s hands “convey a vivid story rather than a mere showpiece” (Chicago Classical Review). Carissa has garnered great acclaim at renowned concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, United Nations, Kennedy Center, Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park and Louis Vuitton Foundation.

Following her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at age sixteen, Carissa has performed as soloist with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and performed with the symphonies of Kansas City, Amarillo, Des Moines, John Hopkins, St. Peters by the Sea, Symphony in C, Eastern Wind, Bay Atlantic and Midwest Young Artist. Her 2023 engagements include solo appearances with the Sacramento Philharmonic, Promusica Chamber Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and the Tacoma and Battlecreek symphonies.

Carissa’s passion for chamber music has led her to performances with the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society and Jupiter Chamber Concert Series; and collaborations with Vadim Gluzman, Miriam Fried, Paul Neuebauer, Lucy Shelton, Marcy Rosen, David Shifrin, Jennifer Cano, and Peter Wiley; and appearances at Marlboro, North Shore, Ravinia, Caramoor, and Kneisel Hall festivals.

Born in Indonesia, Carissa left in 2013 to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with Gary Graffman . She is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree at The Juilliard School with Robert McDonald.

Alessio Bax’s exceptional lyricism and consummate technique led him to capture First Prize at both the Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions and catapulted him to prominence. He is now a familiar face on five continents, not only as a recitalist and chamber musician, but also as a concerto soloist who has appeared with more than 150 orchestras, including the London, Royal, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the New York, Boston, Dallas, Cincinnati, Sydney, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, and the NHK Symphony in Japan.

Bax constantly explores the many facets of his career. He released his eleventh Signum Classics album, Italian Inspirations, whose program was also the vehicle for his solo recital debut at New York’s 92nd Street Y as well as on tour. He recently embarked on a trio tour of Spain with violinist Joshua Bell and cellist Steven Isserlis. Bax and his regular piano duo partner, Lucille Chung, gave recitals at New York’s Lincoln Center and were featured with the St. Louis Symphony and Stéphane Denève. He has also presented the complete works of Beethoven for cello and piano with cellist Paul Watkins in New York City.

In recent seasons, Bax has made his solo recital debut at London’s Wigmore Hall, and has given concerts at L.A.’s Disney Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, and New York’s Carnegie Hall. In 2009, he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and four years later he received both the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award and the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists.

At age 14, Bax graduated with top honors from the conservatory of Bari, his hometown in Italy, and after further studies in Europe, he moved to the United States in 1994. A Steinway artist, he lives in New York City with pianist-wife Lucille Chung and their daughter, Mila. He was invited to join the piano faculty of Boston’s New England Conservatory in the fall of 2019.

In 2012, pianist Pavel Kolesnikov became a sensation at the Honens International Piano Competition when he took home one of the world’s largest piano prizes. The London-based pianist was born in Siberia into a family of scientists. He studied both the piano and violin for ten years, before concentrating solely on the piano. Following his Wigmore Hall debut in 2014, The Telegraph gave his recital a rare five-star review and called it “one of the most memorable of such occasions London has witnessed for a while.”

Celebrated for his imaginative, thought-provoking programming, Pavel has since given recitals at Carnegie Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Louvre and Salle Gaveau in Paris, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. During 2020-2021, he was the Artist in Residence at Wigmore Hall.

An avid ensemble player, Kolesnikov regularly performs in piano duo with Samson Tsoy and collaborates with other musicians, such as cellist Narek Akhnazarian, Hermes String Quartet and Calidore String Quartet. In 2019 he performed the complete cycle of Brahms violin and viola sonatas with Lawrence Power. He formed Trio Aventure with Elina Buksha and Aurelien Pascal.

Kolesnikov records for Hyperion, with repertoire ranging from rarely heard harpsichord pieces by Louis Couperin to Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons. In 2016, Kolesnikov’s Chopin Mazurkas album won the Diapason d’Or de l’Annee. His sixth album, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, was released in 2020, receiving a five-star review from The Guardian.

In 2019, together with Samson Tsoy, Kolesnikov started Ragged Music Festival at the Ragged School Museum in London’s East End. In the same year, Kolesnikov was honored with the Critics’ Circle Young Talent Award 2019 for piano, praised for his “intensely personal interpretations, often daring in their originality” and for his “crusading vision.”

Acclaimed for their technical mastery and an extraordinarily sensitive – almost telepathic style – the Trio Wanderer is one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles. Called a “Wandering Star” by the Strad Magazine, the Trio has performed on the most prestigious music stages: Berlin’s Philharmonic, Paris’ Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Wiener Musikverein, London’s Wigmore Hall, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Barcelona’s Palau de la Musica, Washington’s Library of Congress, Rio de Janeiro’s Teatro Municipal, Tokyo’s Kioi Hall, Zürich’s Tonhalle and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

They have collaborated with artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Christopher Hogwood, James Loughran, Fayçal Karoui, Marco Guidarini, François-Xavier Roth, and José Areán, and accompanied world-class orchestras, in triple or double concertos.

The Trio Wanderer has released 20 recordings with Harmonia Mundi since 1999 receiving top prizes including Critic’s Choice and Editor Choice of Gramophone, CD of the Month’ by the BBC Music Magazine, and the Diapason d’Or of the Year, among others. The New York Times declared their interpretation of Mendelssohn’s piano trios “the new reference,” and their Schubert Trout Quintet and Hummel Quintet recording is included in Forbes’s Top 100 Quality Music Library.

Trio Wanderer’s members (Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian, Violin; Raphaël Pidoux, Cello; and Vincent Coq, Piano) all graduated from the Paris’ Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. They studied at Bloomington’s School of Music and New York’s Julliard School. In 1988, they won the ARD Competition in Munich, and in 1990, they took first place in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

Praised by Gramophone as “one of the more original thinkers of his generation,” Federico Colli has been rapidly gaining worldwide recognition for his compelling, unconventional interpretations and clarity of sound. After winning First Prize at the Salzburg Mozart Competition in 2011, and the Gold Medal at the 2012 Leeds International Piano Competition, International Piano Magazine selected him “as one of the 30 pianists under 30 who are likely to dominate the world stage in years to come.”

His first volume of Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, released by Chandos Records, was awarded “Recording of the Year” by Presto Classical. His second volume of Scarlatti Sonatas was named “Recording of the Month” by both BBC Music Magazine and International Piano Magazine and was chosen by BBC Music Magazine as “one of the best classical albums released in 2020.”

Colli has performed with renowned orchestras around the world and worked with esteemed conductors, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Temirkanov, Juraj Valčuha, Valery Gergiev, Ion Marin, Thomas Søndergård, Ed Spanjaard, Fabio Luisi, Vasily Petrenko, Case Scaglione and Sakari Oramo. He has also performed to delighted audiences in some of the world’s most famous concert halls, including Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre and Philharmonia, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and New York’s Lincoln Center.

Born in Brescia in 1988, Colli studied at the Milan Conservatory, Imola International Piano Academy and Salzburg Mozarteum. The Music Section of the UK Critics’ Circle included him among the recipients of its 2018 Awards.