FRANCESCO CIPOLLETTA 

Francesco Cipolletta lives in Turin (Italy) where, at the age of seven, began his studies with the well-known Italian teacher Maria Golia. He graduated cum laude at the Conservatory “G.Verdi” of his city. He continued improving his technique with Lev Nikolaevic Naumov and with Maria Tipo at the famous School of Music in Fiesole.

Since very young, he revealed both in National Competitions (he gained 20 First Prizes in many cities as Milan, Treviso, Florence, Taranto, La Spezia, Catanzaro, Stresa, Como and Albenga) and in prestigious International Competitions (“Busoni” in Bolzano, “Dino Ciani” in Milan, Pretoria in South Africa, “Viotti” in Vercelli, “Rina Sala Gallo” in Monza, European Piano Competition in Luxemburg).

As a consequence of the great results gained in such important competition, he began an intense career which lead him in the main Italian cities (Turin, Milan, Rome, Bologna, Verona, Venice, Genova, Florence, Bari, Brescia, Como, Bergam and many others), and all around the world (Brussels, London, Munchen, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe, Wien, Strasburg, Paris, Luxemburg, Copenaghen, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Sendai, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Cleveland, Norfolk).

He performed in prestigious concert halls as Teatro “Alla Scala” in Milan, the Auditorium RAI in Turin and Rome, “Sala Verdi” in Milan, the Theatres “La Fenice” and “Goldoni” in Venice, “Salle Gaveau” in Paris, the Theatres “Monnaie” and “Royal” in Brussels, Konzerthaus of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, Gasteighalle of Muenchen, “Purcell Room” in London, “Suntory Hall” in Tokyo, “Izumi Hall” in Osaka, Theatre “Colon” in Buenos Aires, Municipal Theatre in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro… 

He’s been hosted by many important Musical Societies, where he always obtained good consents of critic and audience.

He played as soloist with the Orchestra of the Theatre “Alla Scala” Milan, RAI Television Orchestra of Milan, National Symphony Orchestra of RAI - Torino, National Symphony Orchestra of Treviso, National Symphony Orchestra of Sanremo, Symphony Orchestra of RTL Luxemburg, National Symphony Orchestra of the Lorreine (France), National Symphony Orchestras of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Symphony Orchestra of the State of Virginia (USA), Symphony Orchestra of Cordoba (Argentina),Symphony Orchestra of Sao Paulo (Brasil), Symphony Orchestra of Malta…

His audio and video recordings have been broadcasted from RAI, BBC, Swiss Radio Television, RTL Luxemburg, SABC South Africa. He records for RealSound (RS)  ARTS Record, Brilliant Classic. He’s often invited for Piano Master Classes at the University of Pretoria South Africa, at Academy for Performing Arts Hong Kong and he is invited as a jury member in both in National and International Piano Competitions as PTNA competition in Tokyo. He is Full Professor of Piano at the State Conservatory of Music of Cuneo (Italy)

GULMIRA ABDUKHALIKOVA

Having graduated with high distinction from the Moscow state Tchaikovsky conservatory in piano performance, Gulmira is a professional pianist. In order to develop her talent as a pianist, she got the opportunity to work closely with some of the world’s greatest pianists. As part of her training, she was taught in the traditions of Heinrich Neuhaus School, one of the world’s most renowned schools for its pedagogical methods of teaching. After starting her career as  concert pianist in Soviet Union, she quickly gained soloist status, being invited to play in European and Asian countries.
                                                  

                                                      As well as being a concert pianist, Gulmira has always had a passion for teaching. Many of her students have taken different prizes in the international piano competitions in Europe. She has conducted numerous master-classes in Russia, Italy, Spain, France and South Korea, Middle East. As a result of her support from the royal Al Saud family in Saudi Arabia, she established the Riyadh Music & Art Studio, where 500 students studied in classes. Having a deep interest in musicology and the history of music, Gulmira is collaborating with Geneva Conservatory, the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, Dhow Countries Music Academy in Zanzibar, Warsaw Music Academy, National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai, and others. Gulmira organizes outreach concerts, workshops and guest lectures, and works for partnership and cultural exchange projects with numerous UAE government education and cultural institutions, including the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK), UAE Ministry of Culture & Youth and Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority.

                                                She was a jury member of the Emirates International Music Competition in Dubai, Fourth UAE International Chopin-Beethoven-Debussy Competition, the Young Musicians International Competition in Sharjah American University (chair), and UAEU Piano Competition for Higher Education Institutes, etc. In addition, Gulmira served as the Artistic Director of the Youth Festival-Competition “Gardens of the Sheikh Zayed” organized by the UAE Ministry of Culture & Youth, Music Project Director of Michelangelo Pistoletto Music installation “The Third Paradise” in AbuDhabi Art 2016 by DCT, Coordinator of the First UAE Art Biennale 2016 by UAE Ministry of Culture & Youth, Music Programmer DCT Al Ain Book Fair 2016-2019, Music Coordinator DCT Abu Dhabi Classics children choir in the Emirates Palace 2016, Music Project Coordinator of the EAS Children section of the Choir of Nations for Papa Francis Mass 2019, Music Project Coordinator of autism children choir for the Opening Ceremony of Special Olympics World Games (Abu Dhabi 2019), Music Expert of DTCA and ADEK Music Talent Development Program, Music Coordinator of Chamber Orchestra for Abu Dhabi Executive Council workshop Tune In To Leadership (Abu Dhabi 2020), Participant of T4 On Line Global Teaching Conference ( May 2020), Music Coordinator for Benjamin Zander Talk for Government and Business ( March 2019), Music Manager UAEU Symphony Orchestra (2018– 2022), etc. Gulmira is Music Expert Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT), Art & Music Advisor for Government Emirates Autism Society, Co-Founder of Music Initiative Da Coda Musiqaa, Founder Mawhiba Youth Orchestra.

ILYA KONDRATIEV

”A revelation!....... Ilya is the most exceptional of all.........Never before did a pianist keep me locked on my seat, full of excitement from beginning to end. He is a fascinating artist. He makes the piano sound like a full orchestra“.  Yvonne Georgiadou, Artistic Director of The Pharos Arts Foundation 

A critically acclaimed pianist, Ilya Kondratiev is the prize-winner of several renowned international music competitions, including Franz Liszt Budapest 2011, Franz Liszt Weimar 2011, the Fifth Tbilisi 2013, Brant Birmingham 2015 and Chappell Gold Medal in 2016. Born in Russia, he studied from the age of seven in Samara with the distinguished teacher Victoria Soifer and, from the age of 16, at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the People’s Artist of Russia Zinaida Ignatieva. In 2014 he moved to London in order to further his studies at the Royal College of Music under Vanessa Latarche and Sofia Gulyak, graduating with a Master of Performance and an Artist Diploma. 

Ilya performs extensively as a soloist and chamber music player at venues such as the Great Hall of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Gasteig Munich, Weimarhalle, Palacio de Festivales de Santander, the Palace of Arts in Budapest and the Great Hall of the Tbilisi Conservatoire. In 2011 Ilya was invited to work with Elisabeth Leonskaya at the Franz Liszt Piano Academy in Schilllingfurst, Germany and with Pavel Gililov at the Eppan Piano Academy in Italy. He has also worked with Dina Yoffe, Konstantin Shcherbakov, Willem Brons, Dmitry Bashkirov, Jerome Rose, Leslie Howard, Lang Lang and Arie Vardi. His repertoire is mostly based on classical and romantic music, but also includes many contemporary works. Recent performances featured Ilya performing all Beethoven violin sonatas. 

In various years Ilya was invited to different festivals such as 'Encuentro' Festival in Santander, Gumusluk Festival in Turkey, Beethoven Music Festival and Academy in Altaussee in Austria and New Millennium festival in Bulgaria. Together with the performing, Ilya is developing his teaching career and in 2019 he was appointed piano professor at the Royal College of Music London.

OLEG POLIANSKY

Oleg Poliansky was born in Kyiv (Ukraine) in 1968. He is prize winner of many international competitions, first of all of the international “Tchaikovsky Competition” in Moscow 1998. In addition to that, he won prizes in Tokyo (Japan) 1986, Montreal (Canada) 1988, "International Duo Competition in Memoriam Christian Ferras and Pierre Barbizet" Marseille (France) 1997, "World Piano Competition" Cincinnati (USA) 1999 and as well at "Citta di Cantú" (Italy) 1998 and 2003. 

In the course of his career, Oleg Poliansky has performed in the largest international concert halls and as a soloist with renowned orchestras such as Moscow Soloists, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra, Ural Symphony Orchestra Yekaterinburg, Budapest Strings, Sinfonietta Hungarica, Camerata Hungarica, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Junge Philharmonie Köln, Thuringian Philharmonic Gotha, National Orchestra of Malta and KBS National Radio Orchestra of Korea. 

He can also look back on numerous solo recitals that have been highly acclaimed by audiences and critics and is a regular guest at international festivals such as the Ruhr Piano Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, European Classical Music Festival, Festival du Vigan, La Grange de Meslay and La Folle Journée (Nantes), Great Waterbury Summer Music Festival (Connecticut).

Oleg Poliansky is also a distinguished chamber musician; many well-known artists such as Pavel Gililov, Henry Sigfridsson, Pierre Amoyal, Kathrin ten Hagen, Sayaka Shoji, Leticia Munoz-Moreno, Erik Schumann, Boris Pergamenschikow, László Fenyö, Tatjana Vassilieva and Dmitri Sitkovetsky value him as a reliable partner on the piano. He made various recordings for various Russian and German radio stations; Among other things, he recorded the great piano sonata by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Mieczyslaw Weinberg's violin sonata No. 1 with Mikhail Ovrutsky for WDR. In 2006 he released a duo CD with the cellist Lázsló Fenyö on Aulos Records. 

His teachers include three legendary personalities: Aleksander Aleksandrov at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow, Sergej Dorensky at the Moscow Conservatory and Pavel Gililov at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. Oleg Poliansky has been living in Cologne since 1993 and has hold the academic position of Associate Professor for Major Piano at the Hochschule für Musik Köln since 2007, which he gave up in 2012 in order to be able to devote himself fully to concerts again. 

In the times of the corona pandemic, he accepted the call as professor for piano at the Fujairah Fine Arts Academy in the United Arab Emirates from 2021-22. After this amazing experience he started again with worldwide concerts in Europe, North America and Japan.

OLIVIER CAZAL 

Olivier Cazal was a student of the great Pierre Sancan and entered his piano studio at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris at the age of 12. There, he won first prizes in chamber music and piano (1st of his class with Special Mention). Following the advice of Mikhaïl Faerman, he then participated in the great international piano competitions, where he found success and won more than thirty prizes, notably winning the Busoni competition and the Grand Prix Marguerite Long and being a laureate at the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

His performances are applauded by some of the greatest musicians in the world such as Lazar Berman, Lorin Maazel, Martha Argerich, Ivo Pogorelich and Leon Fleisher. Since winning, among others, first prizes at the Senigallia, Marsala, Bellini, Cantu, Viotti-Valsesia, Jaen and Pretoria competitions, he has been performing in more than 50 countries around the world, in solo recitals, in chamber music ensembles and as a soloist with many different orchestras. After winning Second Prize and the People’s Choice Prize at the 1992 Sydney International Piano Competition he toured Australia performing in fifteen concerts with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. 

In 2017, he played Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.4 for Left Hand with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Georgy Dimitrov, who then invited him to play Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto at the prestigious Ruse International Festival in March 2018. After performing at the Busoni Festival as a soloist and being a jury member at the Bolzano International Piano Competition, he was invited by Mario Coppola to be the president of the jury at the new Oleggio International Piano Competition in May 2018. 

He is frequently invited to give masterclasses in Asia, America, Australia and Europe including recently at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and the Horowitz Summer Music Academy in Kiev. As well as continuing to teach piano at the Conservatoire de musique de Chantilly (as he’s done since 1981), he will again be president of the juries at the next Oleggio and Gallineri piano competition and be a jury member at the next Sydney International Piano Competition. Olivier Cazal has recorded Francis Poulenc’s complete piano works under the Naxos label. 

VICTOR CHESTOPAL 

Pianist, musicologist, poet Victor Chestopal was born 1975 in Moscow into a family of musicians, writers, scientists and artists. His first piano lessons, at the age of five, were under the guidance of his mother, Professor Victoria Yagling (1946-2011): a cellist and composer, a former student of Mstislav Rostropovich. At the age of six, Chestopal was enrolled as a pupil at the Gnessin Music School and three years later at the Central Music School of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. 

There, his teachers were Tamara Bobovich, Alexander Mndoyants, Professors Lev Vlassenko and Mikhail Pletnev. At the age of twelve, Chestopal performed Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor in Saratov and the following year gave a recital at Moscow’s Rachmaninoff Concert Hall. In 1990 Chestopal won the First Prize at the “Carlo Soliva” International Competition in Casale Monferrato (Italy), and in 1991 played before Pope John Paul II at the Vatican as a soloist in Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto with the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev.

Chestopal has lived in Helsinki since 1990 and became a Finnish citizen in 1997, graduating with a Master’s degree from the Sibelius Academy in 2001. His studies at the Sibelius Academy were under the guidance of Professors Vitali Berzon and Erik T. Tawaststjerna. During his studies at the Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola (Italy), 1992-1997, and at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar (Germany), 1995-1997, Chestopal was tutored by Lazar Berman. In 2001-2002, Chestopal had an opportunity to play several times for Mstislav Rostropovich.

A prize-winner of several major piano competitions Chestopal has performed all over the world, appearing in concert halls such as the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Herkulessaal in Munich, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, Kolarac Hall in Belgrade and Finlandia Hall in Helsinki. Victor Chestopal has been a guest at many festivals, such as the Festival de Wallonie, Naantali Festival, Janacek May, Brancaster Midsummer Music, Carl Orff Festival, Ascoli Piceno Festival. Chestopal has appeared as a soloist with such orchestras as the Moscow Philharmonic, the Russian National Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Janacek Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Belgium and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, the conductors including Mikhail Pletnev, Hugh Wolff, Dennis Burkh, Pierre Bartholomée and Aleksandar Markovic among others.

In the domain of chamber music, Victor Chestopal collaborated with Victoria Yagling (over 20 years), Arto Noras, Michael Flaksman, Xavier Phillips, Pavel Berman, David Grimal, Tokyo String Quartet and other artists and ensembles. Chestopal has recorded for Melodiya, Russian Disc, Ricercar and Record Production of Radio and Television of Serbia (Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with the Serbian Radio and Television Orchestra, conducted by Aleksandar Markovic). In 2010, Victor Chestopal became a Doctor of Music at the Sibelius Academy. The doctoral degree comprised five recitals dedicated to the cornerstones of the piano repertoire (Bach’s Goldberg Variations; Beethoven’s Grosse Sonate für das Hammerklavier, op. 106; Schubert’s Sonata in B flat major D 960; Brahms’ Sonata No. 3, op. 5; Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, among other works) and a doctoral thesis entitled “Temporal correlation in the Goldberg Variations”.

Chestopal has been active as a pedagogue, conducting master-classes at several European universities and conservatories. Since 2007 he has led annual piano master-classes in Liège, and since 2018 he is a piano professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and Accademia Perosi (Biella, Italy). Chestopal is invited as a jury member of international piano competitions. Victor Chestopal is regularly involved in charity projects: he gave performances for “Save the Children”, “Mary’s Meals”, “Arche”, “Deutsche Stiftung gegen Mangelernährung” and other organizations. In 2012, Dr. Chestopal donated Victoria Yagling’s and his own sound archives to the National Library of Finland. 2013: live recording of Victor Chestopal’s recital in Liège (Grieg, Schumann, Yagling) is issued on two CDs by Pianos Wielick. 2013-2014: in a series of recitals in Finland, Germany and Belgium Victor Chestopal performed Victoria Yagling’s complete piano works. Several concerts in Italy, with Jelena Ocic, were dedicated to V.Yagling’s works for cello and piano. 2014: Ruslania Books (Helsinki) published Victor Chestopal’s collection of poems “Anno” (in Russian, Italian and French). 2015-2016: series of recitals in several European countries (Beethoven’s op. 109/110/111; Chopin’s 24 Etudes). 2017: series of recitals in Belgium and Germany (Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas No. 6, 7, 8). 2018: Ruslania Books (Helsinki) published Victor Chestopal’s collection of poems “Poeticheskie dnevniki / Diari poetici / Journaux poétiques” (in Russian, Italian and French). Victor Chestopal begins his work as a piano professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and Accademia Perosi (Biella, Italy). Victor Chestopal teaches in French, English, Italian, German, Swedish and Russian. Since September 2020 Victor Chestopal is a chairman of the Keyboard section of the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles.