PIANO
ABOUT
Pianists will have the opportunity to participate in daily master classes of solo, piano duet, concerto, and chamber music repertoire. All participants will be constructively critiqued and offered suggestions to improve their performances.
Practical guidance will be offered in interpretation, technique, and fingering. Problems of facility will be addressed: pedagogical issues will be examined, teaching issues for the private piano teacher will be discussed and guidance for pianists entering competitions will be offered.
Pianists wishing to explore the chamber music and accompanying fields will be paired with appropriate instrumentalists and singers. These pianists will receive coaching by both a piano faculty member and an appropriate additional faculty member.
Participants will also have the opportunity to perform in public recitals if they desire.
Assigned times will be given for independent practicing.
Auditors are welcome.
Please submit a recording of two contrasting pieces of your choice with the application for your audition.
FACULTY
Michael Baron
An award-winning concert pianist, Michael Baron performs over 40 concerts each year, including annual tours of Europe and engagements throughout the United States, Asia, and South America. Equally at home as a recitalist, a soloist with orchestra, and a chamber musician, Baron commands a diverse repertoire, ranging from Baroque compositions to world premieres of contemporary pieces. His virtuosity and musicianship regularly garner the highest critical acclaim. Baron received his doctorate in Piano Performance from The Ohio State University where he studied with the legendary American pianist, Earl Wild. He also worked extensively in Italy with the renowned pianist, Orazio Frugoni.
Dr. Baron serves as Professor of Music and Head of Keyboard Studies at the Bower School of Music at Florida Gulf Coast University in Ft. Myers, Florida. He is also Honorary Professor of Music at Yantai University and Hubei University in the People’s Republic of China. A distinguished educator, Baron has presented masterclasses and workshops at schools, festivals, and universities throughout the world. He regularly serves as a jurist on regional, national, and international piano competitions.
An acclaimed master teacher, Dr. Baron's students regularly win competitions throughout the United States and abroad. He is a popular teacher and presenter for teacher groups. Recent performances have taken him to Peru, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, South Korea, and Serbia, as well as throughout the United States.
Anikó Szokody
Anikó Szokody is a native of Hungary and holds a Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance from Indiana University, having studied with György SebÅ‘k, a Piano Artist Degree from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest as well as a Teachers Diploma. She also earned an Artist Diploma from the Conservatorio Beethoven in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she studied with Pia Sebastiani.
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As an active international soloist and chamber musician, she regularly appears on Hungarian Television and Radio and can be heard on WMHT and Vermont Public Radio. Hungarian Public Television has produced a documentary on her professional career, which has been aired in Hungary and throughout Europe.
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Anikó has performed as soloist with the Budapest Strings, the Orchestra de Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Chautauqua Festival Wind Orchestra and has concertized in Italy, Poland, Austria, Germany, Argentina, and throughout the United States, China, Japan and Qatar. Ms. Szokody was Associate Instructor of Piano at Indiana University. During the summer, she is resident artist and Chair of the Piano Department at Luzerne Music Center, New York. Having moved to Hungary in the Fall of 2011, she joined the piano faculty of the University of Szeged. In 2012 was invited to join the faculty of the Conservatory and in 2015 accepted responsibilities as International Liaison for the Faculty of Music.
​For more information, visit http://www.aniko-szokody.com
Priscila Navarro
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Peruvian pianist Priscila Navarro performs solo recitals, major chamber works, and a large selection of concerti with orchestras throughout the United States, Europe and South America. At age 25, she is finishing her Doctorate from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami under the tutelage of Santiago Rodriguez, where she also received a Master’s and an Artist Diploma. Previously, she graduated Suma Cum Laude from the Bower School of Music at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida, where she was a student of Dr. Michael Baron. She started her piano studies at the age of 9, at the National Conservatory of Music of Peru, in the studio of Professor Lydia Hung.
While at FGCU she was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, and for three subsequent years she was the winner of the BIG ARTS Kenneth L Nees Classical Music Scholarship. She also won the South American Chopin Competition in which she completed against all eligible pianists up to the age of 30 in South America. As part of her prize she studied for two weeks at the Warsaw Conservatory in Poland and was presented in solo recitals at a major halls in Warsaw. She has returned to Warsaw many times for further concerts.
As the winner of the International Chopin Competition of Texas she made her Carnegie Hall Solo Recital Debut on March 7, 2013. She also won the Artist Series of Sarasota Piano Competition, the International Beethoven Sonata Piano Competition in Memphis, Tennessee, the International Liszt-Garrison Competition in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Imola City Awards, in Italy. Priscila has been a fellow at the prestigious Imola Piano Academy in Italy where she studied with Boris Petrushansky. This past April, Priscila was one of five award winners from over 400 participating pianists at the International City of Vigo Competition, where she received the Bach Prize with Martha Argerich as head of the jury.