Concert access is included for Symposium participants.

Josu De Solaun [June 24, 2022]

• Schumann Sonata, Op. 11
• Liszt Mephisto Waltz
• Chopin Impromptu Op. 36
• Chopin Ballade Op. 52
• Granados Valses Poéticos (Poetic Waltzes)
• Granados Los Requiebros (The Galant Compliments), from GOYESCAS

Ilya Itin [June 25, 2022]

• Tchaikovsky The Seasons, Op. 37a
• Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Thomas Bagwell [June 26, 2022]

• Bach Sonata in B minor for Violin and Keyboard, BWV 1014
     I. Adagio
     II. Allegro
     III. Andante
     IV. Allegro
  Kumi Shimizu, violin
• Chopin Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 3
• Chopin Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 55, No. 2
• Chopin Waltz in G-flat Major, Op. 70, No. 1
• Debussy Images (1894)
     I. Lent (mélancolique et doux)
• Griffes Fountain of the Acqua Paola (from “Roman Sketches”, Op. 7)
• Ravel Noctuelles (from “Miroirs”)
• Debussy Sonata for Violin and Piano
     I. Allegro vivo
     II. Intermède: Fantasque et léger
     III. Finale: Très animé
  Kumi Shimizu, violin

Josu De Solaun has been hailed by the international press for his “poetic sense of sound, artistic vision and brilliant virtuoso skills, entirely at the service of the works being performed.” Nikolaus Frey, Fuldaer Zeitung. He is an extraordinarily prolific pianist-composer performing in many of the world’s most celebrated halls as concerto soloist, chamber musician, solo piano recitalist and solo improviser and composer. He is also a published poet.

The opening of the 2020 – 2021 season featured his debut free improv concert, panDEMiCity, in León, in March 2021 – (recorded live for release in July 2021), as well as performances as concerto soloist with orchestras in Spain, Czech Republic and Romania. In 2021, he also received the prestigious ICMA Award (International Classical Music Award) for his recording of French violin Sonatas with violinist Franziska Pietsch. His latest solo album of works by Brahms and Schumann for the IBS Classical label has garnered excellent reviews. This summer he will record both Liszt Piano Concerti as well as Totentanz with the Moravian National Philharmonic.

First Prize winner of the XIII George Enescu International Piano Competition, Bucharest (also won by legendary pianists Radu Lupu and Elisabeth Leonskaja), the XV José Iturbi International Piano Competition and the First European Union Piano Competition, Spanish-American pianist Josu De Solaun has been invited to perform in distinguished concert halls throughout the world, including the Romanian Athenaeum, Bucharest, Teatro La Fenice, Mariinsky Theatre, The Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera, London’s Southbank Centre, Salle Cortot, Leipzig’s Schumann Haus, Taipei’s Novel Hall, Mexico City’s Sala Silvestre Revueltas, Prague’s Nostitz Palace, Academia de España, Menton Festival International de Musique, and all the major cities of Spain. He is the only pianist from Spain to win the Enescu and Iturbi competitions in their respective histories, and was recently invited to a private reception with the King and Queen of Spain at the Royal Palace after winning the coveted Bucharest prize. In 2019 he was given the title of Officer of Cultural Merit, a state decoration, by Klaus Iohannis, president of Romania.

Beginning at a young age, he has performed in France, Georgia, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, Germany, Japan, China, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands, Mexico, Chile, and Switzerland as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist, playing under conductors such as Constantin Orbelian, Ormsby Wilkins, Gheorghe Costin, Rumon Gamba, Romeo Rimbu, Ilarion Ionescu-Galati, Robert Houlihan, Karl Sollak, Marco de Prosperis, Alvise Casellati, Ovidiu Balan, Horia Andreescu, Radu Postavaru, Christian Badea, Bruno Aprea, Ramón Tébar, Justus Frantz, Francesco Angelico, Yaron Traub, Max Bragado, Paul Daniel, Ryan Haskins, Constantin Grigore, Theodore Kuchar, Jonathan Pasternack, Yuri Krasnapolsky, Alexis Soriano, Francisco Valero, Shinya Ozaki, Radu Gabriel Ciorei, Manuel Hernandez Silva, and Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, among others, as well with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra of Saint Petersburg, Orchestra Filarmonica la Fenice of Venice, George Enescu Philharmonic of Bucharest, Bucharest Radio Orchestra, Timisoara Philharmonic, Cluj Philharmonic, Oradea Philharmonic, Brasov Philharmonic, Ploiesti Philharmonic, Iasi Philharmonic, Targu Mures Philharmonic, Satu Mare Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, Orquesta de Valencia, Rudolf Barshai Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, Monterey Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Malaga Philharmonica Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de la Region de Murcia, Spain’s Radio and Television Orchestra (RTVE), American Ballet Theatre Orchestra of New York, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, and Bari Philharmonic Orchestra of Italy. His performances have been broadcast on Spanish National Radio and TV, Taiwanese National TV, Czech National TV, as well as on New York’s WQXR, Princeton’s WPRB, and Chicago’s WFMT.

His repertoire includes rare piano concerti such as Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony Nr. 2 “The Age of Anxiety”, Giuseppe Martucci’s 2nd Piano Concerto, Britten’s Diversions, Hummel’s A-Minor piano concerto, Constantinescu’s Piano Concerto, as well as the complete concerti of Liszt, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and Bartok. He is also an avid improviser and frequently plays totally improvised solo piano recitals.

His creative voice is expressed in a large range of recordings including the incomparably virtuosic complete works for piano of George Enescu for the NAXOS Grand Piano label, Stravinsky’s “Les Noces” with Joann Falletta conducting, two chamber music discs for the German Audite label, the live, improvised León recital and beloved piano music of Schumann and Brahms for the IBS Classical Label. Next season will feature the premiere of his own piano concerto and releases of new recordings of Haydn Sonatas, and Piano Trios, Enescu’s Complete Chamber Music, plus a disc of Czech piano music. His volume of poetry in 2021 titled “Las Grietas” was published by EDICTORALIA.

Josu De Solaun is a citizen of Spain and the United States, where he earned his doctorate at the Manhattan School of Music. His two main musical mentors in New York were pianists Nina Svetlanova (a pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus) and Horacio Gutierrez, as well as composers Giampaolo Bracali and Salvador Chuliá (this last one in his native Spain) . He also studied chamber music with Isidore Cohen of the Beaux-Arts Trio, and piano privately with Albert Lotto and Edna Golandsky, both of which he considers fundamental influences in his approach. He resided in New York city from 1999 to 2019.

He currently resides in Madrid where he helped craft the entire performance curriculum to teach young artists from around the world at the Musical Arts Madrid academy, where he is also Visiting Professor.

Ilya Itin has performed with many of the world’s great conductors, including Sir Simon Rattle, Neemi Jarvi, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Yakov Kreizberg, Vassily Sinaisky, Valery Polyansky, and Mikhail Pletnev performing as soloist with orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, the National Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the China National Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra of India; the Mexico City Philharmonic; and the Rochester Philharmonic.

Born in Yekaterinburg, Russia, his piano studies began at the Sverdlovsk School for the Gifted with Natalia Litvinova. He went on to graduate from the Moscow Conservatory with the highest honors in 1990 working with legendary teacher Lev Naumov. Mr. Itin won his first major piano competition while at the Conservatory, taking second place in the 1990 Russian National Rachmaninov Competition. Soon after, he won top honors in the William Kapell Competition, followed by First Prize, and the Special Chopin Prize at the Casadesus Competition (Cleveland Competition), and the Best Performance of a Work of Mozart, Best Prokofiev Performance, and Third Prize at the Gina Bachauer Competition.

Ilya Itin is on the teaching faculties of the Musashino Academy in Tokyo, the Academy of the Miami International Piano Festival and the Golandsky Institute at Princeton University. He has also taught in the piano departments of the Juilliard School prep and college divisions, Peabody Conservatory, and the Graduate Program at CUNY. Ilya Itin resides in Tokyo, Japan, and New York City where he maintains a private teaching studio.

Thomas Bagwell has led productions of La Boheme, La Traviata, Die Zauberflöte, Suor Angelica and others at the Miami Music Festival, the Vienna Music Festival, the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival and the CoOPERAtive Winter Opera. He made his conducting debut with the Royal Danish Opera with “The Merry Widow” in 2021 and will conduct performances of “Cenerentola” and “West Side Story” there in 2022. He has been an assistant conductor at the Washington National Opera and New York City Opera as well.

Thomas Bagwell’s “expressive pianistic powers” have established him as “an equal partner no less than revelatory” (The Washington Post) in song recital and chamber music on the international stage.  His career has included critically acclaimed performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and other major concert halls across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Japan.  He has collaborated in recital with operatic superstars such as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Denyce Graves, Marilyn Horne, Kristine Jepson, James Morris, Roberta Peters, Andrea Rost, and Frederica Von Stade.

Mr. Bagwell joined the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera at the age of 24 and has also served on the music staffs of the Washington National Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, the Seattle Opera, and the New York City Opera. He joined the fulltime music staff of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen in the fall of 2018. Conductors he has worked with include Roberto Abbado, Philippe Auguin, Paolo Carignani, Sir Andrew Davis, Placido Domingo, Christoph Eschenbach, Asher Fisch, Heinz Fricke, Michael Guettler, Lothar Koenigs, Raymond Leppard, James Levine, Renato Palumbo, André Previn, Sir Charles Mackerras, Eduardo Mueller, Donald Runnicles, Nello Santi, Michael Schǿnwandt, and Alexander Vedernikov.

Thomas Bagwell’s collaborations with renowned soprano Renée Fleming include a recital at the State Department for Secretary Hillary Clinton, the preparation of her acclaimed performances and recording of Messiaen’s song cycle Poèmes pour Mi with the New York Philharmonic (conducted by Alan Gilbert), her appearances as Blanche DuBois in André Previn’s opera A Streetcar Named Desire, a recording of Berg and Wellesz with the Emerson String Quartet, the world premiere of Anders Hillborg’s The Strand Settings with the New York Philharmonic (also conducted by Alan Gilbert) and the creation of  Previn’s “Ten by Yeats” in collaboration with the composer.

In the field of chamber music, Mr. Bagwell has been a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival and his “bejewelled playing” (New York Magazine) has been heard in recitals with violinists Midori, noted contemporary specialist Miranda Cuckson, and Scott St. John, with whom he made a critically acclaimed CD of works by Antonín Dvořák on the Marquis Classics label.  Thomas also made a memorable impression during his time at the Music Academy of the West as a student of Warren Jones; he became the first and only accompanying student to win the notable concerto competition as a soloist.  This opportunity led to invitations from Marilyn Horne to play at her Foundation’s Gala at Carnegie Hall in later seasons.

 Thomas Bagwell has organized and performed several concert series in New York at the Austrian Cultural Forum, including the complete songs of Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler, and surveys of Schubert, Schoenberg, and Zemlinsky.  He was co-artistic director for an Austrian Lieder festival in Washington, D.C. at the Austrian Embassy, and has performed numerous recitals in New York sponsored by the Lotte Lehmann Foundation.

Mr. Bagwell premiered and recorded the Five Boroughs Songbook in 2012, a collection of new art songs on the subject of New York by such composers as Tom Cipullo and Ricky Ian Gordon, and performed the Five Boroughs Songbook Volume Two  in 2017 featuring composers such as Laura Kaminsky, Missy Mazzoli, Matthew Aucoin and Kevin Puts.  He has also curated and performed in several versions of the landmark AIDS Quilt Songbook, including the recent CD Sing for Hope: an AIDS Quilt Songbook, featuring many of today’s most acclaimed classical singers.  His involvement in that project has led to the creation of twenty-five new songs being added to the original collection.

As a teacher of opera, art song, and chamber music, Thomas Bagwell was on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music from 1998-2018, and has also taught at Yale University.  He has led masterclasses at the Santa Fe Opera, New Jersey Opera, University of Colorado at Boulder, Simpson College, Portland State University, and was the keynote teacher at the Oregon chapter of NATS. He is a regular faculty member of the CoOPERAtive summer opera program in Princeton, New Jersey.

Thomas Bagwell has received degrees from the Mannes College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, and has studied with Warren Jones, Graham Johnson, and Edna Golandsky.  After his formal studies, Mr. Bagwell pursued additional training with Elly Ameling and Rudolf Jansen at the Academie Villecroze.

Kumi Shimizu completed Bachelor and Master’s degree at Tokyo University of the Arts under Professors Kazuki Sawa, Eszter Perenyi and Herwig Zack, where conferred the Doseikai Award at graduation.

In 2018, she moved to London to continue her studies at Royal Academy of Music supported by the Isamu Sumino Foundation, where she awarded Foundation Award, Moir Carnegie Prize, Poulett Scholarship and dipRAM at Graduation. She won Harold Craxton Prize and Winifred Small Prize in London while playing as a fellowship member in the London Symphony Orchestra.

In 2021, she won prizes in the Ysaye International Violin Competition and Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition. Since 2009, she has won many prizes including 1st prize at Takarazuka-Vega Music Competition as well as Governor award and Audience award, prizewinner of 3rd Munetsugu Angel International Competition, 10th Tokyo Music Competition, 2nd Salzburg Mozart International Ensemble Competition and others.

Kumi has performed numerous concertos such as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saens with New Japan Philharmonic, Central-Aichi Philharmonia, Siberian State Symphony Orchestra, Krasnoyarsk Chamber Orchestra and other well-known orchestras under the baton of Messrs. Yukio Kitahara, Masahiro Izaki, Kim Hong-Jae, Masahiko Enkoji, Kazuki Sawa, Koji Toyoda, Keiko Mitsuhashi, Mikhail Golikov, Maria Benyumova, Vladimir Lande. While enjoying recitals and performimg with orchestras, she has been eager in playing chamber music with eminent artists including Gerard Poulet, Mate Szucs, Kazuki Sawa.

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