Competition Jury
Grammy Award-nominated pianist Claudia Knafo has captivated audiences here and abroad with her distinctive programming and her passionate artistry. A winner of the 1993–1994 Artists International Competition, she was presented in her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 1995. She has received critical acclaim for her “fiery and passionate approach to the piano” and “for her luscious sonority and definitive execution of technical complexities.” She is in high demand as an educator and expert in Latin American music.
In the fall of 2019, she was invited as Artist-in-Residence to Ecuador’s Universidad de las Artes in Guayaquil. She performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the combined forces of the University’s orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de la Prefectura del Guayas. She also taught students from the University as well presenting master classes.
In 2018, she was featured at the 10th World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia, where she performed, taught master classes and lectured on Latin American music. She also performed in the tri-State area with French artists Gilles Lefèvre, violin, and Lys Nordet, soprano, in recitals entitled: “Echoes of Nationalism and Folk Music in Concert Works of Eastern Europe and Latin America.” READ MORE...
Claudia Knafo - Piano
From Cincinnati, Ohio, Jennifer Gliere has been described as "a sensitive artist who knows how to turn a phrase while giving urgent meaning to the text.” She has appeared in recital and oratorio in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, and throughout the United States. She has given two recital tours in Mexico, performing in live festivals and events around the country as well as giving masterclasses to several youth choirs and appearing in television and radio studios. Her repertoire runs the gamut from Barbara Strozzi chamber music and cantatas, early Baroque zarzuelas, Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, Bach’s B Minor Mass/Magnificat, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater to Luigi Dallapiccola’s Canti di Prigionia, Poulenc’s Gloria, and several world premieres. She was honored to celebrate Pope Francis’ visit to the US by singing in His Holiness' Mass in Madison Square Garden and soloing in Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace with Camerata New York. In the seasons before and after the Covid pandemic she has performed with the New York Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Zhitomir Chamber Ensemble, Lviv Chamber trio. Summer 2019 found her in Russia, performing recitals in Ekaterinburg and Moscow.
Equally at home on the concert and operatic stages, Gliere has most recently garnered rave reviews for her portrayal of Musetta in La bohème and Violetta in La traviata; OperaWire noted that she was a “delicate powerhouse... displaying vocal effervescence as good as any champagne.” Other acclaimed roles include Suzel in Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz and Gilda in Rigoletto. Recent seasons have included productions with the Bard Opera Theatre, Boston Early Music Festival, dell’Arte Ensemble, Regina Opera, and Amore Opera. Favorite operatic credits at home and abroad include Le nozze di Figaro, Lucia di Lammermoor,/ and The Telephone/Old Maid and the Thief. READ MORE
Jennifer Gliere - Voice
Elena Belli is a versatile concert artist and influential teacher. She is considered by her colleagues to be an extraordinarily effective educator, teaching developing young pianists’ passion, joy, solid musicianship and consummate technique. Her students consistently excel at competitions, and music remains a part of their lives forever. As a performer she has appeared nationally and internationally as both a soloist and chamber musician. In New York she appears regularly with prestigious instrumentalists and vocalists from leading ensembles including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She has also toured throughout Europe with members of the Berlin Philharmonic. New York concert venues have ranged from residencies at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery and the Empire Center for the Performing Arts in Albany, to performances at Merkin Hall, CAMI Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as multiple broadcasts on WQXR and WNYC FM Radio.
Ms. Belli holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Dr. Solomon Mikowsky, performed in master classes with Gina Bacchauer, Rosalyn Tureck, and Gilbert Kalish, and was a concerto competition winner. READ MORE...
Elena Belli - Piano
Manuel Campos, Young conductor, educator and trainer of children's and youth orchestras, of Venezuelan origin, he completed his musical studies, within the State Foundation of the System of Children's and Youth Orchestras of Venezuela, the Simón Bolívar Conservatory, University of the Arts of Venezuela, Conservatory Regional Music of Paris and the Latin American Academy of Violin. Invited and regular conductor in several child-youth and professional groups in Venezuela and Ecuador; He has been the creator of important projects, such as the “Antonio Neumane” Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Guayaquil Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has recently participated as guest conductor of the Ecuadorian Philharmonic Orchestra, Cuenca Symphony Orchestra, Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra, Guayaquil Municipal Philharmonic Orchestra, Loja Symphony Orchestra, University of Cuenca Symphony Orchestra, Strasbourg Symphony Orchestra (France) . As of January 2017, he combines his pedagogical activity in the violin area, with the musical direction of the project, Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de la Prefectura del Guayas, a group, with which he has carried out intense educational, social and cultural work, through the length and breadth of the province. Last August, Maestro Campos, participated as a guest conductor, in the Festival "Les Promenades Musicales de Lalouvesc", in France, invited by the organization of the same name, which every year brings together great musicians from all over Europe, for 2018 his commitments include concerts in Europe, the United States and South America. READ MORE...
Manuel Campos - Strings
Edmund Arkus has performed for many years in the United States, Japan, and England to high critical acclaim. He has been presented in solo recitals, as soloist with orchestras, and he has collaborated in many chamber music concerts, and sonata recitals. Having started the piano at three years old with his first teacher, his mother, Helena Arkus, he then studied at the Juilliard Pre-College program from 8 to 11 years old. After that he studied with Leopold Mittman for six years. Arkus entered the Juilliard College again to earn his BS & MS degrees under the guidance of Mme. Rosina Lhevinne. After graduation, he polished his skills with the great Wolfgang Rosé, nephew of Gustav Mahler. Edmund has performed on radio in New York on WNYC, WQXR, WFUV, as well as live performances broadcast over National Public Radio from the The Phillips Collection in Washington DC, WGBH, Boston, BBC, radio in England, and NHK TV in Japan. Over a 15 year period until 2014, he collaborated regularly with Keisuke Wakao, assistant principal oboist of the Boston symphony. Among the numerous concerts they presented, Mr. Arkus and Mr. Wakao performed together at Jordan Hall in Boston, at Opera City Recital Hall and Hillside Terrace Plaza Hall in Tokyo. Over that time, Edmund performed chamber music concerts with Mr. Wakao, and members of the Boston symphony, NHK orchestra of Tokyo, Berlin Philharmonic, and Orchestre de Paris in Tokyo, Hakodate, Osaka, and Ogaki, Japan and Seoul,Korea, as well as in Cleveland, Ohio, the Berkshires, and Boston, Massachusetts. He also performed a duo concert at Opera City in Tokyo live on NHK TV in 2009 with double-bass player Shigeru Ishikawa, grand nephew of the renowned teacher and founder of the prominent Suzuki Method: Shinichi Suzuki. Mr. Arkus and Mr. Wakao visited the Emperor of Japan, Akihito and the Empress Michiko for a private afternoon repast and concert at their residence in Tokyo in 2008. A very special day! Edmund is also a piano double in “Mozart in the Jungle” from Amazon.