Reinhardt Piano Festival and Academy
June 3 - 7, 2019 at Reinhardt University in Waleska, GA
Learn from experienced instructors in state-of-the-art facilities at Reinhardt’s prestigious School of Performing Arts.
Housing available on the Reinhardt University campus.
Concerts by our world-class RPFA faculty members and guest artists
Festival Level - Open to intermediate- to advanced-level pianists of high school age
- Lessons with Festival Faculty
- Performance opportunities
- Masterclass opportunities
- Free attendance to all evening concerts
- Daily classes on a variety of topics such as sight-reading, improvisation, etc.
Academy Level - Open to advanced-level pianists of high school age and undergraduate college age
- Lessons with Academy faculty
- Performance opportunities
- Masterclass opportunities
- Free attendance to all evening concerts
- Daily classes on a variety of topics such as sight-reading, improvisation, etc.
- Participation in piano duo competition, the winner of which will receive a performance opportunity with an Academy Faculty member
Reinhardt School of Performing Arts Faculty
Dr. Alexander Wasserman
Assistant Professor of Music (Piano)
Academy Faculty
Website
Dr. Alexander Wasserman is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Reinhardt Piano Festival and Academy and Assistant Professor of Music at Reinhardt University. His recent recital performances include the cities of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, La Jolla, Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Santa Barbara. His performances have been broadcast on television and classical radio stations. As a soloist with orchestra, Dr. Wasserman has performed concertos by Beethoven, Liszt, Grieg, Rachmaninov, and Tchaikovsky. Dr. Wasserman has also served as Professor of Piano at Youngstown State University (OH) and is a member of the music faculty and Artist-in-Residence at Reinhardt University. Dr. Wasserman received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Dr. Wasserman’s students have been winners of regional, national and international competitions, including MTNA Senior Division (1st prize), GMEA, GMTA (1st prize), Rising Stars, Nashville International Piano Competition (bronze medal), AMTA Romantic and Impressionistic competition (grand prize), GMTA (1st prize), Ruth Kern Concerto Competition, Rome Symphony Concerto Competition and many others.
Dr. Mason Conklin
Festival Faculty
Dr. N. Mason Conklin is an Assistant Professor of Music at Reinhardt University’s School of Performing Arts, where he teaches piano pedagogy, class piano, theory and music technology. He has received degrees in Piano Performance from Baylor University and a Ph.D. in Music Education with an emphasis in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma. He is active in the Cherokee Music Teachers Association, a local chapter of the Music Teachers National Association and is recognized by that organization as a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music. He has presented in local, state, and national conferences, is a member of the editorial committee for the American Music Teacher magazine and is a regularly sought out adjudicator and clinician. Dr. Conklin and his wife Jessica Conklin are co-owners of Conklin Studios and have provided innovative group classes for the young beginner, private instruction for the late elementary and advancing piano students, and recreational music making for active adults. He is an adherent of the music educational philosophy of Jean- Jacques Dalcroze and strongly advocates for complete musicianship including playing by ear, improvisation, theory and composition, technic, reading and performance. He believes that with passion, an entrepreneurial spirit and proper training, anyone can have an exciting and lucrative career in music.
2018 Featured Guest Artists
Zsolt Bognár’s sold-out 2012 Berlin debut at the Young Euro Classic Festival at the Konzerthaus in Gendarmenmarkt is described by The German Press as “intellectually shaped, powerful, and of crystalline precision.” His performances in America, Europe and Asia have been described by European critics as “overwhelmingly visceral… a phenomenal sound world realized through maximum palette.” Following debut performances in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Munich, Brussels, Vienna, and Tokyo, Bognár released a much-lauded first CD album of works by Schubert and Liszt in 2013. His musical collaborations and diverse projects, including a week of study with Martha Argerich supported by an International Festival Society Grant also feature international speaking engagements, publications, and residencies in performance series and universities.
Dr. Michael Finlay is an accomplished pianist and teacher who has performed all over North America. His former students have gone on to such prestigious music schools as Indiana University, Peabody Conservatory and the University of Montréal. He has twice been listed as a Gold Medal Teacher by the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He specializes in injury prevention and piano technique, a subject on which he has given lectures all around the country. Dr. Finlay holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, a Master’s from the Peabody Institute and a Doctorate from the University of Montreal.
American pianist Albert Kim has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, and China and maintains a busy schedule as a performer, teacher, and arranger. He is assistant professor of piano at the University of Central Missouri and pianist of the Tabletop Opera in Rochester, New York, which premiered his seven-piece chamber ensemble adaptation of Richard Strauss’s Salomé. His new performance version of Ravel’s La Valse and other transcriptions for solo piano will be published in 2019. He is regularly invited to work with students across the United States and China and has served on the summer faculty of the Castleman Quartet Program and the Dakota Sky Academy’s Young Artists Program. He has recorded or premiered works by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Hilary Tann, and Robert Bradshaw and collaborated on stage with Charles Castleman, Colin Jacobsen, Griffin Campbell, Ensemble Signal, and the Eastman Virtuosi. He holds a B.A. in music from Harvard University and D.M.A. and M.M. from the Eastman School of Music, where he completed his studies with Natalya Antonova. He received his formative training under the tutelage of Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division.
Ukranian-Canadian pianist and composer, Dmitri Levkovich was born into both avocations. His performances have been praised for "artistic sophistication far above the ordinary" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and "understanding of the music far beyond most young pianists" (American Record Guide). His recording of Rachmaninoff's 24 Preludes was met with worldwide critical acclaim and earned Dmitri nomination for the 2016 International Classical Music Award. He is the winner of more than a dozen international piano competitions, including the China, Cleveland, German Piano Award, Gina Bachauer, Jose Iturbi, and the Vendome Prize. His performing credits include solo engagements with the Cleveland Orchestra, China National, Dresden Philharmonic, Gulbenkian, Frankfurt HR Radio, Mariinsky, Slovak Philharmonic, and the Utah Symphony Orchestra. He has performed at Great Halls of the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts, Berlin Philharmonie, Gulbenkian Foundation, Moscow Conservatory, and Carnegie Hall.
Michael Schneider, hailed as a ‘pianist with exceptional insight’ and ‘performer with great panache’, is a world-renowned classical pianist, active collaborator, educating artist, and composer. He regularly performs throughout North America and abroad in Europe, Russia, and South America at prestigious venues including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Library of Congress in Washington DC, the Liszt Museum in Budapest, and the Chopin Festival in Nohant, France at the legendary château of George Sand. He’s been a major prizewinner in competitions such as the 7th San Antonio International Piano Competition, the Kosciuszko Chopin and Frinna Awerbuch Competitions in New York, the International Paderewski and International Liszt Competitions in Poland, the LA International Liszt Competition, and the Grace Welsh Prize for Piano in Chicago.