4th Annual Frost Chopin Festival Returns live June 19 - 26
The Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and the Chopin Foundation of the U.S. are pleased to announce the fourth annual Frost Chopin Festival. The critically acclaimed week-long event begins Sunday June 19, and will conclude Sunday, June 26 returning live in-person this year following last year’s highly successful all-virtual platform due to the COVID crisis. This year generous donor support has enabled all concerts to be available free of charge with more full scholarships awarded to participants selected this year than in previous editions. Concerts will take place at UM’s Maurice Gusman Concert Hall located on the University of Miami Campus, 1314 Miller Drive in Coral Gables, Florida and will be livestreamed to a global audience via the Frost YouTube channel.
“We are so excited to be able to host the return of the Frost Chopin Festival with in-person events, offering world-class classical music to the people of South Florida free of charge,” states Kevin Kenner, Frost Chopin Festival Academy Founder, Artistic Director and Associate Professor of piano at the Frost School of Music. “We especially want to welcome those who have rarely come to classical music events in hopes they will discover the transformative power and beauty of this music.”
In addition to the concerts featuring some of the most celebrated pianists of the music of Chopin today, an integral part of the Frost Chopin Festival is the Academy. The Academy offers each participant specialized masterclasses and lectures fashioned to help with specific issues surrounding the performance of Chopin’s works. Guest lecturers will share their specialized knowledge of Chopin in the form of workshops and subsequent breakout groups applying newly learned skills. Workshops are also open to the general public free of charge.
The 4th annual edition of the Frost Chopin Festival is especially significant for the Chopin Foundation, states Barbara Muze, Executive Director of the Chopin Foundation of the U.S. “The program really goes to the heart of the Foundation’s mission by both supporting the young talented pianists who receive the finest musical instruction, and by offering accessible, high quality classical music concerts by world renowned artists to the South Florida community. Additionally, a total of seven pianists from our Scholarship Program for Young Pianists will be participating this summer. Because of Frost’s philosophy which is rooted in the transformative power of music, the Chopin Foundation has started an endowment fund for the Frost Chopin Festival, which will allow the Frost School to continue in perpetuity this important celebration and pedagogy of Chopin. Our goal is to reach $100,000 (or more) within the next 5 years and we hope that others who recognize the importance of this great program will join the Chopin Foundation with additional pledges to the endowment.”
This year’s festival has many highlights, notably two concerts featuring some of Ukraine’s finest treasures: the illustrious Ukrainian-Polish soprano Olga Pasichnyk performing Ukrainian and Polish songs, and one of Ukraine’s most gifted young talents, 16-year-old pianist Khrystyna Mykhailichenko, one of the event’s students receiving a full scholarship. Khrystyna, who had to flee her Ukrainian home and is now living in Poland and will perform works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko. “At this disturbing moment in world events, I have been deeply concerned for the people of Ukraine,” states Kevin Kenner. “This unjust war has not only shocked the world, but is also taking aim at Ukraine’s rich cultural heritage, as it attempts to erase the very identity of the Ukrainian people, their literature, art and music. Our Festival, therefore, has aligned with the King Baudouin Foundation of U.S Relief Fund for Ukrainian Musicians. Donations can be made at https://bit.ly/FrostChopinSupportsUkraine.
Chopin Specialists Participating:
Chopin specialists joining the festival’s distinguished artistic director Kevin Kenner, (who won the 12th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw) in conducting workshops and performing in concert include:
· Garrick Ohlsson, one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Chopin will make a rare appearance in South Florida.
· Dina Yoffe, winner of the Chopin and Schumann International Competitions will perform Beethoven and Schumann.
· Ewa Pobłocka, the distinguished Polish pianist and pedagogue returns to perform works of Bach.
Introducing the Gifted Chopin Festival and Academy Participants:
The selection of 21 gifted pianists many of whom already recognized throughout the world, include J.J. Jun Li Bui of Canada, who is just turning 18 years old and won 6th prize in the highly publicized 2021 International Chopin Competition, which was watched by over 4 million viewers worldwide. Participants range in age from 13 – 28 and represent their home countries of South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Poland, Ukraine, Canada and the U.S. The youngest Evelina Kleczek who hails from Virginia is a prize winner in 12 competitions including most recently the Gold Prize in the Musicale Winter Music Festival 2022. The oldest Shih-Man Weng hails from Taiwan, and has been awarded prizes in 6 competitions including winning the 2019 Frost School of Music Concerto Competition.
The 4th Annual Chopin Festival is made possible with generous support from the Chopin Foundation of the U.S the Dr. M. Lee Pearce Foundation, Patrick Park Foundation, and Olga and David Melin.
THE FROST CHOPIN FESTIVAL SCHEDULE IS AS FOLLOWS:
Sunday, June 19, 2022, 4:00 p.m.
Opening Concert: Celebrating the Live Return of Chopin’s Music and More!
Free, Reservation Required
J J Jun Li Bui, piano
Ewa Pobłocka, piano
Frank Cooper, moderator
The 4th Annual Frost Chopin Festival celebrates its live return with an amazing lineup of two stellar pianists: 18-year-old J J Jun Li Bui, who won 6th prize at the XVIII International Chopin Competition in Warsaw last year, as well as the eminent Polish pianist Ewa Pobłocka, prize winner of the X International Chopin Competition. A specialist in the music of Chopin and J. S. Bach, Pobłocka recently recorded all of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, and will open our festival performing some of his most magnificent keyboard works. The concert opens with J J Jun Li Bui’s renditions of works by Chopin, Debussy, and Stravinsky. Miami’s beloved musicologist Dr. Frank Cooper joins us again this year to introduce the concert program.
https://events.miami.edu/event/opening_concert_celebrating_the_live_return_of_chopins_music_and_more
Monday, June 20, 2022, 7:00 p.m.
Workshop on Chopin’s Etudes with Prof. John Rink
Professor John Rink (University of Cambridge) and eminent Chopin scholar returns for the 3rd time to our academy to lead workshops on Chopin-related topics. In this first workshop he will discuss Chopin’s magnificent and fiendish etudes with students of the academy. Together, they will discover how musicological and contextual information can inspire new creative ways of looking at these staples of the piano repertoire. This workshop is free and open to the public. Reservation is not required.
Tuesday, June 21, 2022, 7:00 p.m.
Workshop on Chopin’s Nocturnes with Prof. John Rink
Professor John Rink (University of Cambridge) and eminent Chopin scholar leads a second workshop on a Chopin-related pin-related topics. This time he will delve into Chopin’s wonderous and elusive nocturnes with students of the academy. This workshop is free and open to the public. Reservation is not required. https://events.miami.edu/event/workshop_on_chopins_etudes_with_prof_john_rink_1455
Wednesday, June 22, 2022, 7:00pm
An Evening of Ukrainian and Polish Song
Olga Pasichnyk, soprano
Ewa Pobłocka, piano
Kevin Kenner, piano
Malvyn Lai, piano
Katherine Liu, piano
Saaya Hara, piano
Join us for an evening of song with Ukrainian-Polish soprano Olga Pasichnyk, winner of the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels accompanied by pianists Kevin Kenner and Ewa Pobłocka in a selection of works by Ukrainian composers, Chopin and Poland’s operatic master Stanisław Moniuszko. We will also highlight some of our talented academy students, American pianist Malvyn Lai and Katherine Liu, who are scholarship recipients of the Chopin Foundation of the U.S., and pianist Saaya Hara, who has traveled all the way from Japan. She was a semifinalist at the XVIII International Chopin Competition in Warsaw.
Thursday, June 23, 2022, 7:00pm
Distinguished Artist Recital: Dina Yoffe
Works of Beethoven and Schumann
Dina Yoffe, piano
Katie Liu, piano
Angeline Ma, piano
Hyeonuk Park, piano
Top-prize winner at the International Chopin and Schumann Competitions, pianist Dina Yoffe, who is also a renowned pedagogue and juror of many of the most prestigious piano competitions, performs works of Beethoven and Schumann. She will be joined by three of our talented academy students, all scholarship recipients of the Chopin Foundation of the U.S. Katie and Angeline have attended every edition of the academy since its inception in 2018. Hyeonuk was awarded 1st prize at the 2021 Claudette Sorel International Piano Competition and is currently studying at the Juilliard School.
Friday, June 24, 2022, 7:00pm
Young Virtuosos
Khrystyna Mykailichenko, piano
Isadora Rezende, piano
Evelina Kleczek,piano
Antoni Kleczek, piano
William Ge, piano
Tonight we feature the Frost Chopin Academy’s youngest talents, including 13-year-old Evelina Kleczek, her 15-year-old brother Antoni, and 15-year-old William Ge, recipient of a Chopin Foundation scholarship. We are also featuring the winner of The First Parnassus International Music Competition, of the Music International Competition and full-scholarship recipient Isadora Rezende, 16, of Brazil. The evening concludes with 16-year-old Ukrainian refugee Khrystyna Mykhailichenko, whom we have also brought here on a full scholarship. Included in Khrystyna’s program are works from her native Ukraine.
Saturday, June 25, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
The Art of Preluding: a workshop by Dmitry Ablogin
Dmitry Ablogin is one of today's most brilliant and innovative keyboard artists and will be offering a workshop and group sessions on the execution of “preluding,” common performance practice of the Classical and Romantic eras. This workshop is free and open to the public. Reservation is not required.
Sunday, June 26, 2022, 7:00 p.m.
Distinguished Artist Recital: Garrick Ohlsson
Works of Brahms, Chopin, and More!
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Athena Deng, piano
Madison Yan, piano
Christopher Shin, piano
The Festival concludes with a rare South Florida appearance of one of America’s piano legends, Garrick Ohlsson, whose career was catapulted after winning the Chopin, Busoni, and Montreal International Competitions. His recital includes works of Brahms and Chopin and will be preceded by three of our talented Academy students: Canadian pianist Athena Deng, prize winner of the 2021 William Knabe International Piano Competition, American Christopher Shin, prize winner of the MTNA 2021-2022 Senior Piano Competition, and South Florida’s own Madison Yan, prize winner of the 2019 William Knabe International Piano Competition.