EN
KO- Pietro Borgonovo (Italy)
- Sunghoon Simon Hwang (South Korea)
- Klaus Kaufmann (Germany)
- Mamiko SUDA (Japan)
Born in Milan, Pietro Borgonovo distinguishes himself in conducting symphonic and operatic productions for prestigious festivals and theatres. Noteworthy is his presence at Salzburger Festpiele in the Progetto Pollini as the conductor of Klangforum Wien and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor as well as his work in the conducting the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentinoat Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, at Ravenna Festival with the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, at Venice Biennale. Moreover he has conducted the Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, the Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona, the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico in Cagliari,the Orchestra del Teatro Verdi in Trieste, the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, the Semperoper in Dresden, theOrchestra della Toscana, the Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, the OrchestraCherubini, the Orchestra Verdi in Milano, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. and more importants Orchestras of Italy, Europe and USA.
In October 2003 he conducted the world première of “Medea” by Adriano Guarnieri at Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The opera was very successful with both audience and critics, some newspapers saying it was a “triumph”. The Italian Critics Association awarded the “Abbiati 2003” prize for the “refined music and stage performance which rendered the original preciosity of the composing and multimedia concept.”
A versatile musician, he is the Musical and Artistic Director of one of the oldest and most prestigious Italian concert societies, GOG (Giovine Orchestra Genovese) and the Artistic Director of the International Competition G.B. Viotti in Vercelli.
From a very early age he has excelled in the international scene as one of the best known oboe soloists. A pupil of Heinz Holliger, he plays at the major festivals and for international institutions: Salzburger Festpiele, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Venice Biennale, Musica Bayreuth, Festival d’Automne in Paris, Montreux Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, New York, Berlin, London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Monte Carlo, Prague, Bonn, Luxembourg, Moscow, Saint Peterbourg, Madrid, Lisbone.
Profoundly interested in contemporary music he also cooperates with many contemporary composers such as George Benjamin, Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, Azio Corghi, Franco Donatoni, Ivan Fedele, Adriano Guarnieri, Salvatore Sciarrino, Fabio Vacchi, Carlo Galante, Iannis Xenakis … He has played and conducted their works, also premières, which have often been dedicated to him.
Both as an oboe soloist and as a conductor he has many recordings produced by important international labels such as Denon, Erato, Ricordi, RCA, Col legno, BMG to his credit. He received the Grand Prix du Disque and a classification among the five most appreciated records of symphonic music from Italian critics.
The concert pianist Sunghoon Simon Hwang is one of the most prominent pianists of his generation. He has appeared internationally with major orchestras such as the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Montbeliard, the Janáček Philharmonic, the San Remo Symphony Orchestra, the Duisburg Symphony, the Orquestra Granada, the Orquestra Nacional do Porto, the Filarmonica Marchigiana, the Filarmonica Banatul, the Orchestra Sinfonica Sicilliana, the Vina del Mar Orchestra, the Bacau Symphony, the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfonica Perfecto Garcia Chornet, the Seoul Academy Symphony Orchestra and the Busan Metropolitan Orchestra.
His performances as soloist with orchestra, as a chamber musician and piano recitals received worldwide recognition from the audience and the music press, specially after his Debut at the Carnegie Hall in New York (USA) Mr. Hwang received a great critic at the New York Concert Review Inc.
Sunghoon Simon won more than 40 international awards and 9 special interpretation prizes at prestigious piano competitions like Epinal, Jaen, Porto, Senigallia, Maria Canals, Luis Sigall, Glenn Gould, Serge Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Anton Rubinstein, Johannes Brahms and Bellini. He got numerous concert invitations from European and Asian music festivals like the Ferrucio Busoni festival, the Alfredo Speranza Festival, the Grosseto international piano festival, the “Klassik in der Altstadt” festival, the Chateau de Lourmarin festival, Niestetal international piano festival, Busan Maru International Music Festival(BMIMF), the Wennigsen music festival and many others.
Sunghoon Simon Hwang studied at the Korean National University of Arts in Seoul with Prof. J.P. Lim, at the Santa Cecilia Academia in Roma with Prof. Sergio Perticaroli, at the École Normal de Musique in Paris with Prof. Youngshin An, at the Hannover Musikhoschule in the classes of Prof. Einar Steen-Nökleberg and Prof. Mi-Kyung Kim.
Sunghoon Simon Hwang has taught worldwide master classes for piano and got many invitations from universities, conservatories and music summer schools, as for example at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, at the Kloster Michaelstein in Blankenburg with an invitation of the “Landesmusikakademie Sachsen-Anhalt” in Germany. In 2010, he was invited as a Professor by the "Tenerife international concert academy festival" in Spain. From 2009 to 2013 he taught piano at the Hildesheim University in Germany.
Mr. Hwang is currently the Artistic Director of the Sviatoslav Richter international piano online competition, the Classic On international piano competition and the Glenn Gould in Memoriam piano competition in South Korea. Furthermore, he was invited as a member of Jury by numerous piano competitions such as the Maria Canals in Barcelona, the Claude Bonneton in Sete, the Rina Sala Gallo in Monza, the Tokyo international music competition, the Roma international music competition, the G.Raciti international music competition, the Terra degli Imperiali international music competition, the Euterpe international music competition.
Klaus Kaufmann was born in Rosenheim in 1948. He studied piano and conducting in Munich, Salzburg and Stuttgart under Vladimir Horbowski and Gerhard Wimberger, among others. After graduation, he began teaching at the Academy for Music and Theatre Munich and Mozarteum Salzburg. From 1982 to 1984 he was guest professor at Musashino Academie Tokyo. He founded the “Wasserburger Klaviersommer” in 2003.
Internationally active, Prof. Kaufmann has been on the jury of competitions including the Maria Canals in Barcelona, Concorso pianistico in Senigallia in Italy, EPTA International Piano Competition in Croatia and the competition for young pianists in Arhus in Denmark. He has recorded many albums for Koch International, and has made radio productions for the Bavarian Radio.
Since 2002, Prof. Kaufmann has been chairman of the piano department at the Mozarteum Salzburg. He has been regularly invited to lecture in Asia. In 2008, he was coordinator of ASEA Uninet and Eurasia Pacific Uninet (EPU) networks and has been taking part in the development of Austrian Chinese Music University with EPU.
Mamiko SUDA was born in Tokyo, where she began her musical studies from an early age. At the age of 12, she won a major piano competition in Japan and gave performances throughout the country, which were broadcast both on national radio and television.
She continued her studies at the Toho High School of Music in Tokyo. After graduating with highest honours, she received a French Government Scholarship with a recommendation from Vlado Perlemuter to enter the Paris Conservatoire. In 1972, she graduated as Premier Prix Première Nommée and also received the “Prix spécial Roger Ducasse” for piano and chamber music.
She was awarded a prize at the “Premio Jean International Competition” in Spain and also at the “A. Casagrande International Competition” in Italy. She was a finalist at the “F. Busoni International Competition” in Italy and at the “Clara Haskil International Competition” in Switzerland. In 1980, she won first prize at the “Mozart Memorial International Competition” in London. She then performed with the London Mozart Players, as well as in solo at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Around the same time, she had the privilege of studying with Annie Fischer in Budapest.
In 1985, renowned for her outstanding interpretation of Chopin’s works, she was awarded the “Chopin Prize” by the Chopin Society in Japan. Since then, she has toured Asia and Europe extensively and has performed with leading orchestras. She has also played in concerts and festivals with artists such as Lorand Fenyves (former concert master of the Suisse Romande Orchestra), Philippe Graffin, Zvi Harel (solo cellist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra), Fritz Dolezal (solo cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra), Toby Hoffman, Nobuko Imai (viola), Daniel Schott-Muller, Quatuor Via Nova, the Vienna String Quartet, the NHK String Quartet, the Czech Philharmonic Sextet and others.
Currently, she is professor at the Toho University of Music in Tokyo and is often invited to give master classes and to sit on juries for international piano competitions around the world.