Professors
Yekaterina Lebedeva-Piano (Russia, UK)
Back Yekaterina Lebedeva is a concert pianist and professor of piano at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. “Yekaterina Lebedeva: the most empassioned and expressive pianist of her generation: Russian, beautiful, outspoken, breathtaking.” – International Herald Tribune Yekaterina made her performance debut in an extensive national concert series in her native Russia. In 1988 she entered the Kiev State Conservatoire in the Ukraine. There she became in constant demand as a recitalist, performing solo and chamber concerts and appearing at major festivals in both the Ukraine and Russia. She graduated from the Conservatoire with Distinction in 1993. Yekaterina moved to London to establish a European base from which to develop her solo career further. In March 1998 she made a debut in the Purcell Room, invited to play as part of the SBC Young Musician’s Platform “FRESH”. Since then she has appeared regularly at the South Bank Centre and abroad. Highlights of past seasons included Schnittke’s concerto for Piano and String Orchestra (Cairo Symphony Orchestra), sell-out return performances in the Purcell Room (South Bank Centre), Stravinsky’s Concert for Piano and Winds at the Athens Megaron (Orchestra of Colours, Athens). […]
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Joanna MacGregor ( United Kingdom)
BackJoanna MacGregor CBE is one of the world’s most innovative and exciting musicians, and much in demand as a professor and competition jury member. As a solo pianist she has appeared with leading orchestras, performing in over eighty countries, with eminent conductors including Pierre Boulez, Colin Davis, Simon Rattle and Michael Tilson Thomas Joanna is Dame Myra Hess Chair of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music and a Professor of the University of London, and runs two annual piano festivals for young musicians; she has been Artistic Director of Dartington International Summer School, Bath International Festival, and Deloitte Ignite at the Royal Opera House, as well as a curator for festivals around the world. She has released over forty solo recordings – many of them on her own award-winning record label SoundCircus – ranging from Chopin and Piazzolla to Bach and John Cage. Joanna has commissioned and premiered many landmark works, and is a regular broadcaster on TV and radio. Her collaborative and composition projects encompass jazz, film, visual art, contemporary dance and electronica. From 2015-2021 she chaired the Paul Hamlyn Composers Awards and has been a Booker Prize […]
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Janice Baird-soprano (United States/Germany)
Back Janice Baird is an American dramatic soprano , one of the most powerful and intensely expressive performers on the operatic stage today. She made her sensational United States debut as the title role of Tristan und Isolde in 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York under the baton of James Levine. She gave her highly praised role debuts as the Dyer’s Wife (Färberin) in Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten (in Toulouse autumn 2006) and as Marie in Wozzeck in Rome (October 2007). Critically acclaimed as a charismatic singer and actor, Janice Baird enjoyed great successes as Brünnhilde in major opera houses of Europe and has received numerous nominations for singer of the year from the prestigious opera magazine Opernwelt for her interpretations of this role. Equally at home in the Italian dramatic soprano repertoire Janice Baird’s most recently successes have been as Turandot in Rome, Athens, Berlin and Seville; Minne in La Fanciulla del West in Rome and Sevilla; Verdi’s Lady Macbeth at the Staatsoper Berlin and in Mexico. Other roles of her widely spread repertoire are the title roles of Ariadne auf Naxos, Tosca, Fidelio as well as Ortrud, Senta, Venus, Violanta (Korngold), Abigaille in Nabucco, and Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera. Janice Baird is a regular guest of most major opera companies around the world and has […]
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Manolis Papasifakis- Accompanist (Greece)
Back Manolis Papasifakis was born in Athens, Greece, but his musical schooling began in the United States, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his family had relocated and remained through his early school years. Here, while still at pre-school age he was enrolled at the Drexel Hill Conservatory of Music and began piano lessons with the school’s director, Elijah Yardumian, brother of noted composer Richard Yardumian and a highly respected musical pedagogue in his own right. Mr. Papasifakis remained at this school under Mr. Yardumian’s tutelage for four years, after which his family returned to Athens. There followed a period of private musical study in Athens, and then formal study at the Athens Conservatory (piano with Aliki Vatikioti). Mr. Papasifakis returned to the United States as a student at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, from which he received his Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance (piano study with Wilbur Price). A ten-year residence in New York City followed completion of his college studies, during which he pursued a wide range of musical activity, reflective of his own varied interests. A member of the piano faculty at the Brooklyn School of […]
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