Competition Jury, 2008

Ian Hobson, Jury Chair
Tong-Il Han
André-Michel Schub
Karen Shaw
Susan Starr
Jeffrey Swann

Ian Hobson, is a musician of tremendous versatility who has earned an international reputation as a pianist, conductor and teacher. Born in England, Mr. Hobson studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and Cambridge and Yale Universities.

His international career was launched in 1981, when he won First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, having already garnered silver medals at both the Artur Rubinstein and Vienna-Beethoven competitions. His teachers have included Sidney Harrison, Ward Davenny, Claude Frank and Menahem Pressler. During the last several seasons, his engagements have included appearances at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and recitals in the United States, England and Italy. Major orchestras of the world with which Ian Hobson has appearedinclude the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony, and the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Houston. He is in demand as a conductor, particularly for performances in which he doubles as piano soloist and as an opera conductor. He has made over 35 recordings for such labels as EMI, Hyperion, BMG/Catalyst, Arabesque and Albany/Troy and for his own recently-founded label, Zypher. His recordings include the complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, all of the Brahms Variations for Piano, as well as Rachmaninoff's Seventeen Etudes-Tableaux and Twenty-four Preludes, Chopin-Godowsky's Etudes, Bach's Goldberg Variations and contemporary works written for him by Ridout, Lees, Liptak, and Gardner. Ian Hobson is Professor of Music at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Artistic Director of the University's Summer Festival. He is a much sought-after judge for both national and international competitions.

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Tong-Il Han, has performed with many of the world's finest orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Scottish National Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Monte Carlo Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Polish Radio National Orchestra, Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra and Russian National Symphony among many others.

Han already enjoyed an impressive career when he was named the First Prize winner of the 24th International Leventritt Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall by Leonard Bernstein, the chairman of the international jury. He is also the recipient of the Marjorie Merryweather Post Award. Mr. Han received his early musical training from his father at the age of four. In 1954, he was accepted to the Juilliard School, where he studied with Rhosina Lhevinne and Ilona Kabos, graduating with Bachelor of Music and Master of Science degrees. The list of Han's recordings include 24 Preludes, 4 Ballades and 4 Scherzos by Chopin. He also has recorded works of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann and Liszt. The CD, "The Kennedy White House Concert" was released, in which Han performed Debussy's Reflet dans l'eau and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz. In the spring of 2004, he recorded a new CD in Rome, Italy for Arcadia label. Tong-Il Han taught at Indiana University, Illinois State University and the University of North Texas, before joining Boston University in 1987. As the artistic director of Tong-Il Han Piano Institute, he has held summer piano festivals in London, Budapest, Boston, Honolulu, Vancouver, Seoul, Pebble Beach, and Hiroshima, among other places. The 2003 festival, held in Seoul, Korea drew over one hundred-twenty pianists.

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André-Michel Schub, as a recitalist, orchestral soloist and chamber musician has been praised by critics and audiences around the world since his career began almost three decades ago. Winner of both the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the Naumburg International Piano Competition, he recently joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as an Artist Member. Mr. Schub's career is a distinguished one. He has performed with many of the world's most prestigious orchestras, among them the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Since 1997, Mr. Schub has been Artistic Director of the Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Music Series, and from 1998-2002 he served as Artistic Director of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina.

For television, Mr. Schub has appeared on "Live from Lincoln Center" with the Chamber Music Society, and on PBS with the Boston Symphony conducted by Seiji Ozawa. He has also been seen on ABC's "Good Morning America," "CBS Sunday Morning," and a PBS live presentation as well as a three-part series about the Sixth Van Cliburn Competition on the cable station ARTS. His recordings, for Vox Cum Laude and CBS Masterworks (now Sony Classical,) include works of Beethoven, Brahms and Liszt, as well as an all Stravinsky disc with Cho-Liang Lin. He has also recorded music of Liszt, Mozart and Schumann for the PianoDisc system. Born in France, André-Michel Schub came to the United States when he was eight months old. Mr. Schub began his piano studies with his mother and continued his studies with Jasha Zayde. He first attended Princeton University, and then transferred to the Curtis Institute, where he studied with Rudolph Serkin from 1970 to 1973.

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Karen Shaw, brilliant American pianist, has been widely acclaimed as an interpreter of authority and compelling emotional power. Born in Connecticut, Ms. Shaw inherits the background of a musical family. She first appeared in New York as winner of the Concert Artists Guild Award which prompted unusual acclaim from NY Times critic Donal Henahan. Her debuts in London and Berlin were received with equal praise and enthusiasm. Since then the artist has distinguished herself in numerous performances across the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Far East as both recitalist and soloist with orchestra.

Ms. Shaw began her studies with her mother. She later studied with Bela Nagy, Menahem Pressler, Abbey Simon, as well as coaching with her close friend, Jorge Bolet. In a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall, Ms. Shaw was repeatedly recognized as a "persuasive interpreter of Romantic music" possessing a virtuosity "as dazzling as accurate, and sensitivity tenderly poetic." (NY Times) Her performance of Rachmaninoff's Etudes-tableaux was noted for its power, panache, and incontestable authority, prompting her recording of the complete set which remains incomparable. Karen Shaw has been performing, teaching, conducting master classes, and lecturing for over three decades. A teacher of wide reputation, Dr. Shaw also dedicates herself to training and assisting young pianists in reaching their career goals. Among her numerous pupils are noted performers and successful teachers at every level. She joined the faculty at Indiana University School of Music in 1968 where she is Professor of Piano.

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Susan Starr, internationally acclaimed pianist has performed more than 50 occasions with the Philadelphia Orchestra since her debut at age six, an engagement that marked her as the youngest soloist to ever appear with a major orchestra. She has been heard with The New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Moscow State Symphony, and the National Symphony (Washington, D.C.). In addition she has appeared with the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, St. Louis, Denver, Houston, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Montreal, New Jersey, New Orleans, and Vancouver, among others. In 1977, Ms. Starr had the honor of performing at the White House at the invitation of President Carter.

Among the eminent conductors who have chosen Ms. Starr as soloist are Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Comissiona, Charles Dutoit, Aldo Ceccato, Arthur Fiedler, Erich Kunzel, Sir Neville Marriner, Eugene Ormandy, Max Rudolf, Robert Shaw, Maxim Shostakovich, Joseph Silverstein, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Leonard Slatkin and William Steinberg. As the 1962 Silver Medalist of the Tchaikovsky Competition, Susan Starr returned to Moscow later in 1994 as one of the judges of the competition. Over the span of her career, she has judged at least five other international competitions. A native of Philadelphia, Susan Starr began her studies with Eleanor Sokoloff at age four. She later entered the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Rudolf Serkin until her graduation in 1961. Ms. Starr continues to perform and teach at the Sarasota Music Festival, where she has done so for the past 20 years. Currently, she is a Distinguished Professor at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Ms. Starr has recorded four Bach Suites for Hallmark Classics, a division of Carleton Entertainment.

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Jeffrey Swann, enjoys an international performing career which has taken him throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Orient. He won first prize in the Dino Ciani Competition sponsored by La Scala in Milan, a gold medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and top honors at the Warsaw Chopin, Van Cliburn, Vianna da Motta and Montreal Competitions, as well as the Young Concert Artists auditions in New York City. His large and varied repertoire includes more than 50 concertos as well as solo works ranging from Bach to Boulez. Mr. Swann has performed with the symphonies of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Indiana, Dallas, Saint Louis, Houston, Baltimore and Minneapolis; and in Europe with the orchestras of Rotterdam, The Hague, Belgian National and Radio, Santa Cecilia, RAI Turin and Rome, and the London Philharmonia, among many others. The conductors with whom he has performed include Zdenek Macal, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Marek Janowski, Kazimirz Kord, Myung-Whun Chung, Roberto Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti and Leonard Slatkin. In addition, he has lectured for three consecutive years at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, and taught courses and master classes in Italy and the United States. Appearances during the 2003/2004 season include orchestral appearances in San Francisco, Phoenix, Lexington, Stamford and Toronto; many recitals in Italy including two complete cycles (with lectures) of Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas; and master classes in New York City and Israel.

A native of Williams, Arizona, Jeffrey Swann studied with Alexander Uninsky at Southern Methodist University and with Beveridge Webster and Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School, where he received his B.M., M.M. and D.M.A. Degrees. Mr. Swann can be heard on Ars Polona, Deutsche-Gramophon, RCA-Italy, Replica, Fonit-Cetra, Music & Arts, and Agorá recordings. His CD, "The Virtuoso Liszt" (Music & Arts) won the Liszt Societ's Grand Prix, and his first volume of the Complete Beethoven Sonatas (Agorá) was chosen one of the Best of the Year by Fanfare magazine. His most recent release features works for piano and orchestra by Chopin with the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano.

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