GFA Piano Masterclass

Olivier Gardon

OLIVIER GARDON teaches piano at the Hochschule Hannover and at the Schola Cantorum Paris. He previously taught piano at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris and art director of the Académie internationale d’été de Nice. Sommerakademie at the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Toho Gakuen School of Music (Japan), Institut franco-japonaise de French Academy of Music in Tokyo, Yonsei University and Sookmyung University in Seoul, Bowdoin College in the USA, Musikhochschule in Leipzig, London He is regularly invited to teach master classes at numerous music academies, including the Trinity Laban Conservatory in , Hochschule Lübeck, the University of Graz and le Festival Pablo Casals de Prades.

He served as a jury member in many international competitions. Some of them are: Marguerite Long-Thibaud (France), Cincinnati World Piano Competition (USA), Tbilisi International Piano Competition (Georgia), Cagliari International Competition (Italy), Concours International d’Epinal (France), Valencia Iturbi International Piano Competition, Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, Panama International Piano Competition, Bremen European Piano Competition (Europäischer Klavier Wettbewerb), etc.

As a performer and pedagogue, Olivier Gardon places great emphasis on the pursuit of beauty and the unremitting exploration of many aspects of sound so that musical emotion can be fully expressed and shared. He believes the connection between the sense of touch and perceived vibrations is at the heart of the relationship between instrument, artist and music.

Gábor Farkas

Gábor Farkas graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest where he finished his DLA studies in 2014 under the mentorship of Zoltán Kocsis. He was also a student of Prof. William Grant Naboré at the International Piano Academy Lake Como. He won the “6. International Liszt Piano Competition” in Weimar in 2009, the “Hungarian National Radio’s Piano Competition” in 2003 and the “Bartók Béla Piano Competition” in Baden bei Wien in 2000. In 2012 he got the Franz Liszt Award (highest Hungarian State Award). He made his debut at the Carnegie Hall in 2016 as the winner of the 2015 Audition of New York Concert Artists & Associates. He regularly performs in the most prestigious concert halls worldwide among others in Teatro la Fenice, BOZAR, Konzerthaus Berlin, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Vienna Musikverein, Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid, NCPA Concert Hall Beijing, Seoul Art Center, Oriental Art Center Shanghai , Bunka Kaikan Tokyo, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, New York. He has worked with such well known conductors as Zoltán Kocsis, Ádám Fischer, Olli Mustonen, Philippe Bender, George Tchitchinadze, Olaf Henzold, Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro, Tamás Vásáry, Charles Dutoit. And with orchestras such as Weimar Staatskapelle, Erfurt Symphony Orchestra, Jena Symphony Orch. ,Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Osaka Century Orchestra, Vietnam Hanoi Symphony Orchestra, Austrian- Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, and major Hungarian ones BFO, NFZ, MR Symphony, MAV Symphony.

His debut CD recording entitled „An evening with Liszt” was published by Warner Music in 2008, which won the prestigious “Grand Prix” as the best Liszt recording of the year 2009 given by the Franz Liszt International Society. He regularly makes recordings for Brilliant Classics, Naxos, Hungaroton Records and the Steinway & Sons, USA. In 2017 he became an official Steiway Artist and proudly represents the company worldwide. He is a Professor at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest, regularly gives master classes in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and he is also a jury member at the PTNA International Piano Competition, Tokyo. Mr. Farkas has been honoured to receive a professorship at the prestigious Tokyo College of Music, Japan in 2017. The Aoyama Music Award was just recently given to the artist, Kyoto, for the best performance of the year.

Gülsin Onay

Gülsin Onay’s truly international career has spanned 80 countries across all continents, from Venezuela to Japan. She has given concerts in the major musical centres such as Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, National Gallery of Art and Miller Theater. Onay has performed as a soloist with such leading orchestras as Dresden Staatskapelle, Philharmonia Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony. Conductors with which she has performed include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Erich Bergel, Jorg Faerber, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Neeme Jarvi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jose Serebrier and Stanislaw Wislocki.

Cambridge-based Turkish State Artist, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, in high demand for her unique and sensuous Chopin, Saygun and Rachmaninoff interpretations. Onay was in 2007 honoured with the award of a State Medal by the Polish nation. She is also acknowledged worldwide as the finest interpreter of the music of A.Adnan Saygun, whose works feature prominently in her concerts and recordings, and whose 2nd Piano Concerto was dedicated to her.