Judges
Chairman
Santiago Rodriguez
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Santiago Rodriguez was born in Cuba and began his piano studies at the age of four. He made his concert debut at the age of ten with the New Orleans Philharmonic. His international career was launched in 1981 when he won the Silver Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
Called "a phenomenal pianist" by the New York Times, Mr. Rodriguez performs regularly with the world's leading orchestras, including the Chicago, St. Louis, London and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras. He has also appeared in recital in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls, Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Kennedy Center and the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
One of today’s foremost interpreters of the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Santiago Rodriguez has performed all of the composer’s major piano works in concert. He is currently recording the entire catalog of Rachmaninoff’s solo piano compositions. He is a professor of music and artist-in-residence at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Eduardo Delgado
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Argentine pianist Eduardo Delgado has appeared in recital in Europe, Asia, South America and North America. His many awards and prizes include the Vladimir Horowitz Award as well as grants from the Mozarteum Argentino, Martha Baird Rockefeller, and the Concert Artists Guild.
Delgado has participated on such international competition juries as the William Kapell, the Gina Bachauer, and the Vega in Japan. In 2003, he served as a juror in the 2nd Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in Buenos Aires. He has been on artist faculties of several universities in Japan as well as in California, and is in demand for piano master classes and workshops, such as his master class series in Osaka in June 2004.
Delgado has recorded with tenor Jose Cura for ERATO Records and has also recorded the complete solo piano music of Alberto Ginastera. He recently recorded a CD in Buenos Aires of romantic works of Schumann, Chopin and Mendelssohn. He is currently on the faculty at California State University at Fullerton.
Robin McCabe
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American pianist Robin McCabe has enthralled audiences on four continents with her virtuosic performances and has established herself as one of America's most communicative and persuasive artists.
The winner of numerous prizes and awards, including the International Concert Artists Guild Competition and a Rockefeller Foundation grant, McCabe was the subject of a lengthy New Yorker magazine profile, “Pianist’s Progress,” which was later expanded into a book of the same title. Her recordings have received universal acclaim, and her debut album featured the Agosti transcription of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, a premiere recording of that piece.
A graduate of the University of Washington and the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with Rudolf Firkusny, she joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in 1978. She is currently Director of the UW School of Music where she continues to teach as professor of piano and head of the school’s keyboard division.
Gustavo Romero
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American pianist Gustavo Romero achieved international fame as the First Prize winner in the Clara Haskell International Piano Competition in Switzerland. In 2004, Dallas radio station WRR selected one of his concerts as the best performance of the year.
Mr. Romero has performed in recital and with orchestras throughout the world including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Pops and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Honolulu He has also performed with such notable international orchestras as the English Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of Radio France and the New Japan Philharmonic.
For the past seven years, he has prepared a series of concerts focusing on the music of one composer each year. Thus far, he has presented the works of Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert and Brahms. A native of San Diego, California Gustavo Romero is currently associate professor of piano at the University of North Texas.
Ilana Vered
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Born in Israel, Ilana Vered graduated from the Paris Conservatory at the age of 15 and completed her studies at the Juilliard School in New York City. She made her debut as one of the first winners of the Young Concert Artists International Competition.
Heard in recital in virtually all of the music centers of the world, Ms. Vered has performed with, among others, the Chicago, San Francisco, London and Japan NHK Symphonies, and the New York, Los Angeles, Royal, Munich and Israel Philharmonics. She has recorded the concertos of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, in addition to etudes by Chopin, Moszkowski, Schumann, Liszt and Debussy for the London label.
A regular participant in summer festivals, including Mostly Mozart and Tanglewood, Ms. Vered is also the musical director of the "Piano Fest Perugi," a vibrant new international music festival in which all students play with orchestra and appear in recitals. A sought-after teacher, she was featured in The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA and conducts regular master classes at institutions such as Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and the University of South Carolina.
Preliminary Judges
Robert Roux
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Chair of the keyboard department at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Robert Roux has performed at the White House, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Merkin Concert Hall in New York, Stude Concert Hall in Houston on the Horowitz Steinway, St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music and Villa Pignatelli in Naples. A Steinway artist, he has toured as recitalist and concerto soloist in 16 countries.
Roux has been associate director of the Prague International Piano Master Classes since 1997, and has served on the faculty of the Van Cliburn Institute, the Moscow International Piano Master Classes, the Paris International Piano Sessions, the Association of German Music Schools and the Amalfi Coast festival in Italy. He has also taught on the faculty of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. His students have been frequent prizewinners and award recipients in the United States and internationally.
Wei-Yi Yang
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A pianist from Taiwan, Wei-Yi Yang has concertized on four continents as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals. Winner of the Gold medal in the Fifth San Antonio International Piano Competition, Mr. Yang's performances have been featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in NPR, Minnesota Public Radio, WCNY-New York, WFMT-Illinois as part of the "Live From Studio One" concert series, and KLRN public television in Texas.
An active recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Yang has performed in Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and the Kennedy Center among many other major concert venues around the world and has performed with members of some of the world’s finest orchestras.
Mr. Yang was the chair of the keyboard department of Syracuse University until 2005, when he joined the music faculty of Yale University.
Coordinator of Judges
Elisenda Fabregas
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Elisenda Fábregas, a composer and pianist born in Terrassa, Barcelona, came to the US with a post doctoral grant and as a Fulbright scholar to study at The Juilliard School (B.M., M.M) and Columbia University Teachers College (Ed.D). Her compositions have been commissioned by numerous orchestras, chamber groups and soloists, her music has been performed throughout Europe and the US, as well as in in Asia, México, Australia, South Africa, and Canada, at such prestigious venues as The Kennedy Center and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.; Merkin Concert Hall and The Joyce Theater in New York City; The 1995 United Nations Conference in Beijing, China; and the 2003 and 2004 Bodensee International Music Festivals. Her works are published by Alphonse Leduc & Cie., Friedrich Hofmeister MusikVerlag, Southern Music Co., and Hidden Oaks Music Co.; and recorded on the PROFIL EDITION Guenter Haenssler, Eloquence label (ABC Classics), and Leonarda Productions. In 2001 Elisenda received the Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year Award from MTNA.
