2023 Golandsky Institute Virtual Summer Symposium

Josu De Solaun

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 main musical influences in New York were pianists Nina Svetlanova and Horacio Gutierrez and composers Salvador Chuliá and Giampaolo Braccali. He also studied chamber music with Isidore Cohen. 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.

Ilya Itin, piano

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.

Find A Teacher

How the Golandsky Institute Trains Teachers

The pedagogy for the Taubman Approach involves more than learning how to apply the information to one’s own hands. An important initial observation is that we are all built the same — the same bones, muscles, ligaments and nervous system. In addition, the piano is governed by its own mechanical principles.

We do not, however, all end up with the same technical problems. For example, some people may come with a technique that involves too much relaxation, while others come with excessive tension. One person may have difficulties with a particular skill, while another person may find the same skill easy. In the first stages of learning, a person is given the information to help overcome problems related to his/her particular limitations. It is only after one has solved these technical problems and has internalized the information so that it begins to become automatic that one is ready to start teaching others.

Successful teaching demands that a teacher see the big picture, understand how to diagnose problems, implement solutions and know how to integrate the many various components of the technique and the music. It is also crucial to know how long to stay on a given track and when to move on.

The only way to develop the skills necessary to become an expert teacher is to learn by doing. For that reason, we have a system where each teacher can be mentored by taking his/her students to one of the teachers who has produced consistenly good results. The principles of the technique are logical and straight-forward, but the application is highly individual. A teacher needs to see many different problems in a variety of contexts in order to begin to develop true expertise.

The success of the mentoring approach has been dramatic. Once it was understood that the art of teaching could be taught, results became consistently better. Some people have more natural ability in this area than others; they identify problems more accurately and inculcate solutions more directly. However, we see over and over that with the right input from a more experienced teacher, most teachers can develop their own pedagogical skills to a much higher level.

The proof of this is in the results of the teaching. Students are learning faster and more thoroughly than ever before. With the right information from a teacher, skills can develop more predictably.

In a real sense, all teachers of the Taubman Approach are students too. We never stop refining our skills. The principles of the technique are clear, but we are constantly developing more insightful ways to describe them and help others understand them inside their own bodies. By having teachers with the most experience be available to help those who want to become experts, there is a way to nourish and train teachers at every level.

The teacher training Workshops are one of the mainstays of the mentoring system. The workshops take place several times a year in New York City, Philadelphia, and Berkeley. We teach students of our most experienced students in front of the group, and these students, in turn, teach the students of other teachers who are trying to boost the level of their own teaching. In addition, we present new developments and insights that facilitate the learning and teaching of the Taubman Approach.

The collaborative approach has proven beneficial to students and teachers alike. It might be thought that a naturally competitive spirit would undermine the process, but on the contrary, a sense of collegiality and community support has been the result. Every teacher knows that there is help around the corner if he/she comes to an impasse with a student. In fact, the only mistake a teacher can really make in the mentoring system is not to ask for help, which is the very thing that stops progress.

We are always happy to recommend experienced teachers for those looking for help on any level, whether it is to solve occasional passage problems, to address greater limitations, to correct serious problems, to improve in general or to gain greater insight into the Taubman Approach.

Many people exposed to the Taubman Approach have become excited by its possibilities and present themselves as Taubman teachers. They sometimes use the Taubman name in their biographical information and in the promotion of their workshops. While some may be gifted musicians, their results can be poor when they try to implement Taubman work without being thoroughly trained. In some cases, the results have been detrimental to the students.

Occasionally, teachers with this type of limited background combine Taubman concepts with other pedagogical approaches and different types of body work. These may bear a superficial resemblance to Taubman work, but they are not recommended by the Golandsky Institute, because they fundamentally alter the nature of the Taubman Approach.

The pedagogy of the Taubman Approach is highly specialized. Currently, successful instructors have rigorous, on-going training in order to be able to diagnose and solve problems effectively.

The Institute will be happy to recommend qualified teachers or clinicians, as well as to offer an assessment of anyone who claims to be teaching the Taubman Approach.

The Taubman Approach

Decades ago, Dorothy Taubman’s genius led her to analyze what underlies virtuoso piano playing. The result of that investigation has produced a body of knowledge that can lead to an effortless and brilliant technique. It can also prevent and cure fatigue, pain and other playing-related injuries.

The Taubman Approach is a groundbreaking analysis of the mostly invisible motions that function underneath a virtuoso technique. The resulting knowledge makes it possible to help pianists overcome technical limitations as well as cure playing-related injuries. It is also the way that tone production and other components of expressive playing can be understood and taught.

Edna Golandsky is the person with whom Dorothy Taubman worked most closely. In 1976 Ms. Golandsky conceived the idea of establishing an Institute where people could come together during the summer and pursue an intensive investigation of the Taubman Approach. She encouraged Mrs. Taubman to establish the Taubman Institute, which they ran together as co-founders. Mrs. Taubman was Executive Director and Ms. Golandsky served as Artistic Director. Almost from the beginning, Mrs. Taubman entrusted Ms. Golandsky with the planning and programming of the annual summer session. She gave daily lectures on the Taubman Approach and later conducted master classes as well. As the face of the Taubman Approach, Ms. Golandsky discusses each of its elements in a ten-volume video series.

Mrs. Taubman has written, “I consider her the leading authority on the Taubman Approach to instrumental playing.“

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2023 Golandsky Institute Virtual Summer Symposium

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