Pianist Christopher Harding maintains an international presence as a noted teacher and performer. He has given solo, concerto, and chamber music performances in venues as far flung as the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the IBK and Recital Halls of the Seoul Art Center, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the National Theater Concert Hall in Taipei, the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, and halls and festival appearances in Newfoundland, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia, and China. His concerto performances have included concerts with the National Symphony and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras, the San Angelo and Santa Barbara Symphonies, and the Tokyo City Philharmonic, working with such conductors as Andrew Sewell, Eric Zhou, Taijiro Iimori, Gisele Ben-Dor, Fabio Machetti, Randall Craig Fleisher, John DeMain, Ron Spiegelman, Daniel Alcott, and Darryl One, among others.
Mr. Harding’s chamber music and duo collaborations have included internationally renowned artists such as clarinetist Karl Leister, flautist Andras Adorjan, and members of the St. Lawrence and Ying String Quartets, in addition to frequent projects with his distinguished faculty colleagues at the University of Michigan. He has recorded solo and chamber music CDs for the Equilibrium and Brevard Classics labels. He has additionally edited and published critical editions and recordings of works by Claude Debussy (Children's Corner, Suite Bergamasque, the Arabesques and shorter works) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Viennese Sonatinas) for the Schirmer Performance Editions published by Hal Leonard.
Professor Harding has presented master classes and lecture recitals in universities across the United States and Asia, as well as in Israel and Canada. He is a Permanent Guest Professor at the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China, where he holds the privilege of presenting yearly masterclasses; he has additionally served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the both the Sichuan Conservatory (2008) and Seoul National University (2011). While teaching at SNU, he simultaneously held a Special Chair in Piano at Ewha Womans' University. He has taught masterclasses and performed lecture recitals at all the major universities and schools of music in South Korea.
In addition to serving as Chair of Piano and teaching undergraduate and graduate piano performance and chamber music at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Mr. Harding also serves on the faculty of the Sicily International Piano Festival and is a frequent guest artist and teacher at the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in Tampa, Florida.
Harding was born of American parents in Munich, Germany and raised in Northern Virginia. His collegiate studies were with Menahem Pressler and Nelita True. Prior to college, he worked for 10 years with Milton Kidd at the American University Department of Performing Arts Preparatory Division, where he was trained in the traditions of Tobias Matthay. He has taken 25 first prizes in national and international competitions and in 1999 was awarded the special "Mozart Prize" at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, given for the best performance of a composition by Mozart.
Praised by critics as “a diva of the piano” (The Salt Lake City Tribune), “a mesmerizing risk-taker” (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), and “simply spectacular” (Chicago International Music Foundation) Ukrainian-American pianist Marina Lomazov has established herself as one of the most passionate and charismatic performers on the concert scene today. New York Times chief music critic Anthony Tommasini describes a recent New York performance as “dazzling” and Talk Magazine Shanghai describes her performances as “a dramatic blend of boldness and wit”.
Having won silver medal at the Cleveland International Piano Competition and first prizes at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition and National Federation of Music Clubs, with additional prizes at William Kapell and Gina Bachauer International Piano Competitions, Ms. Lomazov has given major debuts in New York (Weill-Carnegie Hall) Boston (Symphony Hall), Chicago (Dame Myra Hess Concert Series), Los Angeles (Museum of Art), Shanghai (City Theater) and Kiev (Kiev International Music Festival).
She has performed as soloist with the Boston Pops, Rochester Philharmonic, Eastman Philharmonia, Chernigov Philharmonic (Ukraine), KUG Orchester Graz (Austria), Bollington Festival Orchestra (England), Piccolo Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Wuhan Symphony Orchestra (China), Brevard Festival Orchestra and South Carolina Philharmonic, to name a few. In recent seasons, Lomazov has performed extensively in China, South Africa, Italy, Spain, and in the United States. She is a frequent guest at music festivals in the U.S. and abroad, including Atlantic, Amalfi (Italy), Brevard, Chautauqua, Interlochen, Miami, Perugia (Italy), Texas State International, Varna (Bulgaria) and Vivace among others. She has recorded for the Albany, Centaur and Innova labels and American Record Guide praised her recent recording of piano works by Rodion Shchedrin for its “breathtaking virtuosity”.
Before immigrating to the United States in 1990, Marina studied at the Kiev Conservatory where she became the youngest First Prize Winner at the all-Kiev Piano Competition. Ms. Lomazov holds degrees from the Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music, the latter bestowing upon her the highly coveted Artist’s Certificate – an honor the institution had not given a pianist for nearly two decades. Her principal teachers include Leonid Lazarevich Fundiler, Varlery Sagaidachny, Barry Snyder, Jerome Lowenthal and Natalya Antonova.
Also active as a chamber musician, Lomazov has performed widely as a member of the Lomazov/Rackers Piano Duo. Praised for “demon precision and complete dedication” (Audio Society), the duo garnered significant attention as Second Prize winners at the Sixth Biennial Ellis Competition for Duo Pianists (2005), the only national duo piano competition in the United States at that time.
Ms. Lomazov is a Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music. She has served as jury member for the Cleveland International Piano Competition, Hilton Head International Piano Competition, American Piano Association, Minnesota International Piano e-Competition, Oberlin, and National Federation Biennial Young Artist Auditions. For over a decade, she served on and chaired the Classical Music Panel for the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts, the only organization in the United States that nominates Presidential Scholars in the Arts. Prior to her appointment at Eastman, she served on the faculty of the University of South Carolina School of Music, where she held the chair of Ira McKissick Koger Professor of Fine Arts Music. Her students are now serving as faculty members at elite music programs in the country, including University of Michigan, concertize under top classical music agencies, such as Opus 3, and serve in music industry executive leadership positions, such at Seattle Chamber Music Society. They win national and international music competitions and get accepted into premier music programs and festivals in US and abroad.
Together with her husband and piano duo partner Joseph Rackers, Ms. Lomazov co-founded and served as Artistic Director of the Southeastern Piano Festival in Columbia, SC for 20 years, and they now serve as Artistic Directors of the Vivace Music Foundation.
Ms. Lomazov is a Steinway Artist.
For over three decades, pianist Luis Sanchez has maintained an active career as soloist, collaborative artist, and teacher. He has appeared in concerts in the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia. He is currently Professor of Piano and Director of Keyboard Studies at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Dr. Sanchez joined the Steinway Artist Roster in 2012. In May 2021, he joined the Frances Clark Center for Piano Pedagogy as Director of International Initiatives.
Praised for his artistry, dazzling technique, and inspiring performances, Luis Sanchez has presented recitals and master classes at Steinway Hall in London, Birmingham Conservatoire (UK), Sala delle Muse at the Teatro Petruzzelli (Bari, Italy), Chiesa di Sant’Agnese in Agnone (Rome, Italy), National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan), the Grieg Academy (Bergen, Norway), the Norwegian Academy of Music (Oslo, Norway), Hangyang University (Seoul, South Korea), the Piano Concert Series International (Louisiana), and throughout the United States. He has also been featured soloist with the Orchestra of New Spain (Dallas), The Texarkana Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ball State Symphony Orchestra, and the Texas A&M University-Commerce Wind Ensemble.
Luis Sanchez enjoys a successful teaching career. Current and former students have been recipient of prizes at national and state competitions including the Texas Music Teachers Association Performance Contest, the National Young Musicians Showcase Competition, the Muncie Symphony Junior Concerto Competition, the Tuesday Musical Club Young Artist Competition in San Antonio, The UT Arlington Competition Festival, among others. Additionally, his students have been accepted at numerous summer programs including Piano Texas, Chautauqua Piano Program, Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival, International Masterclasses and Festival in Moulin d’Ande (France). He thoroughly enjoys teaching a diverse group of students from different corners of the United States as well as from Venezuela, Colombia, China, Bulgaria, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Colombia, and South Korea. Since 2014, he has frequently joined the faculty of InterHarmony International Music Festival in Germany and Italy.
He has been a frequent presenter at the Texas Music Teachers Association Convention, Music Teachers National Association, the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society Conclaves, the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, and national and regional College Music Society conferences. Dr. Sanchez has served as an adjudicator for numerous competitions and festivals, throughout the United States and internationally.
Equally at home with the fortepiano and the modern piano, Dr. Sanchez pursued further studies in fortepiano and XVIII century performance practice with Malcolm Bilson, Andrew Willis, and Liv Glaser (Oslo, Norway). In 2012, he was commissioned to write an article on Phil Belt (American builder of fortepianos) for the New Grove Dictionary of American Music and Early Music America.
Born in Argentina, Dr. Sanchez holds degrees from the National Conservatory of Music “Carlos López Buchardo” and Ball State University. His teachers include Ana Litovsky-Grunwald, Graciela Beretervide, Robert Palmer, and Rebecca Penneys.
Utar Artun was born in Ankara, Turkey. In 2006, he arranged musical pieces for the theater play The 7 Women. He has since arranged numerous movie soundtracks and oldies/jazz music for symphonic orchestras, including the Bursa Regional Symphony Orchestra, Antalya State Symphony, Cukurova State Symphony, Presidential Symphony Orchestra, and Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, all of which have performed his arrangements and compositions in live concerts. Artun performed at notable festivals in Turkey, such as the 19th Istanbul Jazz Festival, 12th Side Culture Art Festival, 7th Eskisehir Jazz Festival, 12th International Ankara Jazz Festival, 6th International Mersin Music Festival, and 25th International Ankara Music Festival.
In 2008, he graduated from the Percussion Department of Hacettepe Conservatory with a 2nd Rank (runner-up) Degree of School Placement Award. He then participated in the European Scholarship Tours of Berklee College of Music, graduating in 2.5 years with summa cum laude honors. Artun received numerous accolades at Berklee, including: Honorable Mention in the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition, Barnes & Noble Award, 5 Dean’s List Awards, Outstanding Pianist Award, Arif Mardin Scholarship Award, and Brian Oliver Memorial Award He was a finalist in ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composers Competition (2010) and the Young Jazz Composers Competition (2011). In 2010 and 2012, one of his compositions was selected to appear on Jazz Revaluation Records CDs. In 2011, Artun performed with Kevin Eubanks in a studio recording session at WGBH Studios in Boston, MA.
Artun has collaborated with world-renowned artists including Bobby McFerrin, Dave Weckl, Jojo Mayer, Antonio Sanchez, Mark Guiliana, Rudresh Mahanthappa, A. R. Rahman, Vijay Prakash, Simon Shaheen, Dave Holland, Larry Finn, Eddie Gomez, Jason Moran, Fred Hersch, Kati Agocs, Hankus Netsky, Ken Schaphorst, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, Erkan Ogur, Anat Cohen, Yazhi Guo, Luis Conte, Kenwood Dennard, Jason Linder, Ledisi, Omar Hakim, Chuck Rainey, Jack DeJonnethe, Grace Kelly and David Fiuczynski. He has participated in workshops, clinics, concert performances, and album recordings. Artun was involved in significant projects such as the Rhythm of the Universe and Berklee Yo-Team Projects as an arranger, performer, conductor, and orchestrator. He was also a part of the Planet MicroJam Institute at Berklee College of Music. Artun won some prestigious awards such as 18th HALICI MIDI Composition Contest (2011), 2nd place in the Berklee Film Scoring Contest 7 (2011), Highest Award in the SCAMV 1st National Symphonic Composition Contest (2013), 3rd place in the 9th Eczacibasi National Composition Contest for his symphonic lied Hiclik (2016) Artun has been awarded by the Foundation of Modern Education (CEV) and the Ankara Jazz Society (ACD) in Turkey.
Artun has performed at prestigious festivals including the Undead Jazz Festival, Burlington Jazz Festival, Europalia Arts Festival in Belgium, Musicacoustica Festival in China, Abu Dhabi Festival, Boston Jazz Fest, and many others. His discography includes the neotolia EP Rose Lace (2014), which won a Bronze Medal from Global Music Awards, and the album Neotolian Song (2017). In 2015, he received the Boston Microtonal Society Award and released his solo music video Cajonversations. He later composed new ballet music for the Ankara State Opera & Ballet's Modern Dance projects (2017-2018) and premiered the world’s first Piano & Cajón Concertant at Zorlu PSM, Istanbul, with the Istanbul Symphony Orchestra.
He served as the Honorary Chairman/Judge of the Global Outstanding Chinese Artists Association’s 6th and 7th International Piano Competition. In 2018, Artun won the JCI - TOYP "10 Outstanding Young Persons of the World" Culture Award in Istanbul, Turkey. Recently, he received grants from the Cambridge Community Foundation and the Massachusetts Arts Council. The Award-Winning Nemeth String Quartet commissioned Artun to compose the String Quartet Concert with the Symphony. The Bursa Regional Symphony, Eskisehir Symphony, and Wisconsin Green Bay Symphony performed the premieres of the piece. In 2019, he got a commission from Taipei Chinese Symphony Orchestra to compose From West To East - Limosa's Journey Book.
In 2021, Artun created orchestral arrangements for the new symphonic project “DORE-MIMI” with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara. He is the Assistant Chair of the Boston International Music Competition and the Boston International Composition Competition.Since 2021, Artun has been on tour with saxophonist Grace Kelly. In 2022, he acted as an arranger and composed symphonic music for the Hollywood movie About Fate, featuring renowned actors such as Emma Roberts and Lewis Tan. In 2023, Artun arranged music for the Honorary Doctorate concert of renowned Gambian artist Sona Jobarteh in Boston. Recently, he composed “Yüz Yılın Yıldızı”, an official anthem piece for the 100th Anniversary of Turkish Republic for 100-piece choir and symphonic orchestra. He was also invited to perform at the Newton Piano Summit 2023 with his Utar Artun Trio.In 2024, Artun won the 26th Yapi Kredi Afife Jale – Best Musical Theatre Award. He is the composer-in-residence for the Turkish American Orchestra in New York and released his first symphonic album, Scope. In 2024, Berklee dedicated a concert to the Microtonal Music of Utar Artun, and he served as music director and conductor for the DDG4 Quartet & Big Band.
Artun holds a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory (2015), earning Academic Honors. He has composed and arranged over 160 works for symphony orchestras and more than 300 pieces for brass bands and big bands. His music has been performed internationally in the United States, Switzerland, Turkey, Netherlands, China, Canada, Taiwan, Singapore, Czech Republic, and Russia. Artun served as an arranger for the Ankara Kent Big Band and Musical Director for the Classical Oasis Ensemble. He is also a voting member of The Recording Academy for the Grammy Awards and a member of SCI, NACUSA, Çağdaş Türk Bestecileri, and BMI. Artun is a faculty member at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School.
Photo by Adrien H. Tillmann
Pianist, composer, and educator Dave Meder is one of the prominent artists of his generation, known for a broad musical palette and interdisciplinary approach recognized in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, the American Pianists Awards, and the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commissioning program. His defining aesthetic is a strikingly postmodern sense of stylistic adventure, incorporating what All About Jazz describes as “a vibrant hybrid of the whole American spectrum.”
In his 2019 debut, Passage, Meder established himself as a uniquely versatile artist, traversing his way through an affecting gospel standard, a bold deconstruction of Thelonious Monk, a title track inspired by American minimalists Philip Glass and John Adams, a dramatic elegy inspired by Baroque-era operatic harmonies, as well as select pieces featuring generation-defining saxophonists Miguel Zenón and Chris Potter. The Ottawa Citizen counted Passage among its top five jazz debuts, and All Music Guide included the album in its “Favorite Jazz Albums” list, noting the balance of “post-bop harmonies with soulful gospel warmth and contemporary classical sophistication.”
On his 2021 album, Unamuno Songs and Stories, Meder again leveraged these diverse musical influences in a stunning response to recent sociopolitical turmoil in the United States. Using the writings of Spanish Civil War-era philosopher Miguel de Unamuno as a historical analogy, Meder and his trio (with featured guests Philip Dizack and Miguel Zenón), embark on an intensely emotive set that explores the tensions between democracy and authoritarianism, internationalism and nationalism, and religious faith and non-belief. His 2023 album New American Hymnal served as a worthy follow-up, further exploring connections and metaphors between American religion and civic culture.
His original compositions have garnered various awards and commissions, including the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commissioning grant, the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award, prizes in the International Songwriting Competition, and the First Music Commission of the New York Youth Symphony. Meder has headlined at a host of prominent performance venues and educational residencies around the world, including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smalls Jazz Club, The Kennedy Center, Beijing Normal University’s International Music Festival, and a US State Department sponsored performance residency in Honduras. He is a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright US Scholar Award for Visual and Performing Awards, which brought him to Egypt as a guest lecturer of jazz improvisation.
Remarkably, the beginnings of Meder’s jazz education were mostly self-guided. Born, raised and classically trained in Tampa, Florida, he was still a teenager when he began teaching professionally at a local music shop, while also building his own private teaching practice. While ensconced in his classical studies, he was persuaded by friends to help them form an after-school jazz band in their middle school, whose music department lacked a formal jazz program. With oversight from a generous band director, the jazz ensemble became a reality and Meder became enamored of the art form, working at it largely on his own until college.
During his undergraduate studies at Florida State University — from which Meder graduated summa cum laude with degrees in jazz studies, Spanish and political science, along with a certificate in sacred music — tutelage under Marcus Roberts bolstered his authentic handle on historical jazz piano styles, while his broad-based academic studies would set the stage for the far-reaching and sometimes counterintuitive influences seen in Unamuno Songs and Stories, New American Hymnal and other recent projects. During his college years, Meder was also fortunate to immerse himself in the jazz lineage firsthand through participation in two of the most crucial incubators in jazz education: the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at The Kennedy Center and the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival (led at the time by the late David Baker). Upon his graduation in 2013, Meder won the esteemed Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition, formerly known as the Great American Jazz Piano Competition.
A later move to New York afforded Meder a chance to study with the leading edge of jazz: Fred Hersch, Mark Turner, Ari Hoenig, Dave Douglas, and a full year under the mentorship of the legendary Kenny Barron — while also studying classical piano with Julian Martin as well as advanced counterpoint and harmony with Philip Lasser, a leading disciple of the famous Nadia Boulanger school of composition. He now holds a professorship at the University of North Texas, one of the most renowned jazz studies programs in the world, where he continues the tradition of direct mentorship that has sustained the legacy of jazz to this day.
Meder holds an MM from New York University and an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where he taught and toured as part of the premier ensemble of the school. Concurrent to his graduate studies, Meder worked for three years as the music director of Fordham Lutheran Church in the Bronx, furthering another creative through-line in his life. “I was raised in the church, and I’ve always played in it too,” Meder says. “In the context of all the other ‘brainy’ stuff I’ve studied in music school, [the church] forced me to make a soulful connection to it—to try and make what I was absorbing more personal and musical.” Indeed, his music conveys a tremendous depth, yet remains eminently soulful, an aspiration not often achieved in modern jazz.
Dave Meder is a Yamaha Artist.
Photo by Adriana Mateo
Born in the province of Pinar del Río, Cuba, Steinway Artist and cultural activist, author, pianist, and composer Elio Villafranca is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient; a two-time Grammy nominee; 2019 Downbeat Critic’s Poll Rising Stars Pianist; winner of the 2018 Downbeat Critic’s Poll Rising Stars Keyboard; first Cuban born recipient of the Sunshine Award (2017), founded to recognize excellence in the performing arts, education, science, and sports of the various Caribbean countries, South America, Centro America, and Africa; and a recipient of the first Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) Millennium Swing Award in 2014.
Elio Villafranca, born a painter, was classically trained in piano, percussion, and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba. Since his arrival to the U.S., he’s been at the forefront of today’s pianists and composers, fusing classical and jazz with music from the African diaspora. His debut album Incantations/Encantaciones (Universal Latin, 2003), was named 50 Best Jazz Albums of the Year by JazzTimes Magazine and this year his album Standing by the Crossroads was named among the Best Jazz Albums by Downbeat Magazine.
Since then, Villafranca has released nine more acclaimed albums as a leader and performed with jazz and Latin jazz luminaries such as Chick Corea, Cecile Mc Loran Salvant, Lewis Nash, Pat Martino, Joe Lovano, Paquito D’Rivera, Vincent Herring, Steve Turre, Johnny Pacheco, and Wynton Marsalis among others. In 2001, while living in Philadelphia, Villafranca was commissioned by Philadelphia’s own WHYY-TV to compose the music for their documentary series, "Murals.” This work, released by PBS, was based on the life and work of those five local muralists. In 2009, Elio received his first Grammy Nomination at the 52nd Grammy Awards in the Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year category. His 2014 recording, Caribbean Tinge (Motema Records), received a Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik Nomination by the German Records Critics Award and was selected as their Editor’s Pick by JazzTimes and DownBeat magazines. That year, Villafranca was also among the five pianists hand-picked by pianist Chick Corea to perform at the first Chick Corea Jazz Festival, curated by Corea himself at Jazz at Lincoln Center, NYC. In 2018, Villafranca’s double album CINQUE (ArtistShare) received a Grammy Nomination at the 61st Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. Elio Villafranca became Artist-In-Residence later that year with the Miami Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Eduardo Marturete.
In 2019, Villafranca released his first children’s book entitled “Who Ate The Pie” (AuthorHouse). His latest album “Standing by the Crossroads” (Artistshare) was selected by Downbeat among the Best Albums of 2023, and was commision by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to premier his suite TRES AGUAS at the Rose Theater. Currently living in NYC, Villafranca is a jazz faculty member at The Juilliard School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Princeton University, and Temple University in Philadelphia.
QUOTES
“Pianist and composer Elio Villafranca is an inspired and visionary musician. With his band, The Jass Syncopators, Elio expands what Jelly Roll Morton called The Spanish Tinge to what Elio calls The Caribbean Tinge. The band swings hard and brings a traditional yet innovative style to the roots of jazz and Afro Caribbean music. I am profoundly moved by Elio's vision and musicianship. He is a treasured member of the family here at Jazz at Lincoln Center.”
- Wynton Marsalis
“Elio’s music is passionate. A brand new application of ancient ways.”
- Chick Corea
[Elio Villafranca] writes and plays with passion and a deep understanding of musical nuance,
with chops equal to some of the greatest pianists Cuba has ever produced.
- DownBeat Magazine
“The musical history of Cuba is full of extraordinary pianists. Elio Villafranca is amongst the best representatives of the new generation of Cuban pianists and composers…”
- Paquito D'Rivera
Elio Villafranca-West
https://eliovillafranca.com/
The Rubato International Piano Competition proudly presents a distinguished panel of six internationally acclaimed judges, representing both Classical and Jazz categories. These esteemed pianists, educators, and industry leaders bring a wealth of expertise, artistic insight, and a commitment to excellence, ensuring a fair, inspiring, and enriching evaluation process.
Our past and present jury members include renowned figures from the Van Cliburn Competition, The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Berklee College of Music, the University of North Texas, East Texas A&M University, and the University of Michigan, among other prestigious institutions. Additionally, many of our jurors have served on the panels of internationally recognized piano competitions, further elevating the standard of RUBATO 2025.
Learn more about our esteemed jury panel.
Classical & Jazz