Piano Competition

Born in Chieti, he studied under the guidance of Lucia Passaglia at the Conservatory "L. Cherubini" in Florence graduating with highest honours. He participated as a student performer on a three-year piano perfection course at the “Accademia Musicale Umbra” where he achieved a "Diploma of Excellence”.

Later, he participated in the "International Master Classes" in Klaipeda (Lithuania), held by Lazar Berman. With him, his concert repertoire deepened and improved with particular attention to the music of F. Liszt, at the European Academy of Music, Erba (CO). He perfected Chamber Music at the International School of Chamber Music in Duino under the guidance of "Trio of Trieste" achieving a "Diploma with Merit". He has won national and international competitions, including "M. Clementi" in Florence, “Agorà 80" in Rome, "F. Liszt" in Lucca, and "Città di Stresa". In 1997 he won second prize at the 'T. I. M. " - International Music Tournament; in 1998, he was awarded the prestigious "Prix Venice"; in 1999 he won second prize at the international competition "Ecomusic" of Monopoli (BA); in 2002 was the winner of the 40th International Piano Competition "Arcangelo Speranza" in Taranto. In 2009 he was awarded in the “4th International Tbilisi Piano Competition" in Georgia (WFIMC).

Michael Bulychev-Okser is an American pianist, composer, piano professor.

Michael Bulychev-Okser is a Piano Professor at Lucy Moses School at Kaufman Music Center and Long Island Conservatory. He also held teaching positions at New York University, Rutgers University of New Jersey, and Mokwon University in South Korea. While teaching piano to a variety of students aged 7-36, Bulychev-Okser has developed his own method of piano education, which is focused on developing critical thought processes. Bulychev-Okser summarized his method in a book “Conversations with students”, which is to be published in 2022 in New York.

His students won numerous competitions, including Chopin International, Naumburg, Paderewski, Steinway & Sons, and Indonesia National Competition among others. 

Bulychev-Okser is a frequent guest at many music festivals, masterclasses, competitions, and concert series, including Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, U. K.; Chopin National University in Warsaw, Poland; Todi International Music Festival, Italy; Kaufmann Music Center, New York; Latvian Academy of Music in Riga; Changsha Music Competition, China; Valencia International Piano Festival, Spain; Piano Island Festival, Singapore; International piano festival in Universidad de Nuevo Leon, Mexico; Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, Israel; Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatory: Tbilisi, Georgia; SUMY International Festival (Ukraine); Rachmaninov Concert Hall in Moscow, Russia; Isidor Bajic Piano Competition – Novi Sad, Serbia; XX Scriabin International Competition – Grosetto, Italy; XVI Compositores des Espagna – Madrid, Spain; Piano Competition “Vals de travers” – Nouchatel, Switzerland; XI MozArte Piano Competition – Aachen, Germany; XI Lyon International Piano Competition – Lyon, France; Palais Auersperg in Vienna, Austria, and Paderewski and Chopin International Competitions in the United States and Poland.

Epifanio Comis was student of Boris Petrushansky, Lazar Berman and Pietro Rattalino. He has toured as a soloist throughout Europe, Asia, Russia, and the United States. He has performed with numerous world class orchestras including the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra of Bucharest, the Karlovy Vary Symfonic Orchestra, the Tulare County Symphony Orchestra of California, the Orquestra Sinfonica UANL, Catania Massimo Bellini Theatre Orchestra, Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, the Osaka Symphoniker, the Kyoto Symphony. His recitals in the USA and Asia have brought him great critical acclaim.

Epifanio Comis gives masterclasses in important academies and universities like Manhattan School of Music, Chopin Academy Warsaw, Royal Conservatoire Mons, Ecole Normale in Paris, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow and Bucarest Music Academy. He performed in prestigeous halls such as Discoteca di Stato di Roma, Catania Massimo Bellini Theatre, Sala delle Erbe di Milano, Steinway Hall in New York, Symphony Hall in Osaka, Carnegie Hall in New York and many others. Comis is also active as a conductor. Last concerts he conducted are Rachmaninov’s Piano Concertos, Rhapsody and the Second Symphony with Catania Massimo Bellini Theatre Orchestra in Catania and in Moscow.

Milana Chernyavska, a German artist with Ukrainian roots. Looking back at her impressive career, she established herself as one of the leading pianists and pedagogues of our times. Her critics agree with Alfred Brendel, who wrote that “Happiness was complete when one listened to Milana Chernyavska”. Since 2009 she is a piano professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. She is also a professor at the International Music Academy in the Principality of Liechtenstein and at the Reina Sofia Escuela Superior de Musika in Madrid. With her doctorate theses "The evaluation and pedagogical aspects of the theory of interpretation" she leads a discourse on insights from a perspective of musicology.

Milana Chernyavska is a sought-after teacher at international master classes as well as a jury member at various prestigious piano competitions, such as the ARD in Munich, the Busoni Competition, Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn, the Mozart Competition in Salzburg , the Santa Cecilia in Porto Competition or the Bluethner Goldaward in Vienna. Her students constantly win top prizes at important international competitions as Van Cliburn, Santander Paloma O`Shea, Ferruccio Busoni, Maria Canals, Vendome Prize at the Verbier Festival, Vladimir Horowitz and competitions in Los Angeles , Ettlingen, San Marino, Malta and many more.

Gülsin Onay began playing the piano at the age of three, and gave her first public recital on Turkish Radio when she was six. With the aid of a special state scholarship she studied with Ahmed Adnan Saygun and Mithat Fenmen, and then in Paris, where her teachers includes Pierre Sancan, Monique Haas and Nadia Boulanger.. She graduated from the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 16, winning the prestigious “Premier Prix du Piano”, and prizes in top international competitions, including the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud (in Paris) and the Ferruccio Busoni (in Bolzano), quickly followed.  Gülsin Onay's subsequent, truly international career has spanned 80 countries across all continents, from Venezuela to Japan. She has given concerts in the major musical centres of the world such as Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Washington DC National Gallery of Art and the New York Miller Theater. She has performed as a soloist with such leading orchestras as Dresden Staatskapelle, Philharmonia Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, Munich Radio Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony Orchestras. Conductors with which she has performed include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Erich Bergel, Michael Boder, Andrey Boreyko, Jorg Faerber, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Edward Gardner, Neeme Jarvi, Emmanuel Krivine, Ingo Metzmacher, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jose Serebrier, Vassily Sinaisky, Stanislaw Wislocki and Lothar Zagrosek. Gülsin Onay's many festival appearances include Berlin, Warsaw, Granada, Mozartfest Würzburg, Newport, Schleswig-Holstein, Singapore and Istanbul.

Italian pianist Igor Roma was born in Baden, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, to where  his parents had emigrated from Italy in the Sixties: his father came from the North and his mother  from the South. His father discovered his son’s remarkable musical talent very soon and showed  him the rudiments of music theory. Later, at the age of eleven, he was given an upright piano and  began to take piano lessons from a private teacher recommended by his mother. 

When his family moved back to Italy in 1984 and settled in northern Italy, he started attending  classes at the local school of music and later at the Conservatoire of Music “Arrigo Pedrollo” in  Vicenza with Carlo Mazzoli until 1991, when he received his diploma with honors. Between 1988  and 1989, Roma successfully participated in various Italian piano competitions and won three  National Competitions in Como, Ravenna and Gallarate, the Senigallia International Piano Festival  and third prize at the National Competition in Mantua. 

After these important achievements Igor Roma was admitted to the prestigious International Piano  Academy “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola, where he studied with Franco Scala, founder, director  and one of the main teachers at the School. Furthermore, he took lessons from Lazar Berman, Boris  Petrushansky and Alexander Lonquich, as well the other main teachers at the Piano Academy. In  1990 he won second prize in the piano competition held for the students of the Institute assigning  six important study grants. 

During his military service, he took part in the National Piano Competition in Venice, where he won  third prize. After his discharge in 1993, he returned to Imola to complete his studies at the Piano  Academy and set up an intense study program with Franco Scala to prepare for the international  piano competition scene.