Caspian Music Festival

An evening of classical chamber music exploring heritage, French elegance, and modern mysticism. The program guides the audience from a single cello into a dark, passionate piano quartet, a spiritual and deeply comforting conversation between oboe and piano; and culminates with a colossal, sweeping piano quintet. Matt Haimovitz (cello) performing La Kobsa for solo cello by de Hartmann Tanya Bannister (piano) performing in Piano Quartet No.1 in C Minor by Gabriel Faure. Igor Leschishin (oboe) soloing in the moderato movement of Music for Ann-Gel for oboe and piano trio by Ukrainian composer Bohdana FrolyakAnd…Tanya Bannister performing in Piano Quintet in F sharp Minor, Op.67 by Amy Beach Musicians:Igor Leschishin, oboeMatt Haimovitz, celloMatthew Hakkarainen, violinSolomiya Ivakhiv, violinMarcus Thompson, violaTanya Bannister, pianoProgram:La Kobsa (1950) for solo cello - Thomas ‘Khoma’ de Hartmann (1884 - 1956) I. Assez lentII. Allegro vivace, le rythme très précisMatt Haimovitz, celloPiano Quartet No.1 in C Minor, Op.15 - Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) I. Allegro molto moderatoII. Scherzo: Allegro vivoIII. AdagioIV. Allegro moltoMatthew Hakkarainen, violinMarcus Thompson, violaMatt Haimovitz, celloTanya Bannister, pianoIntermissionMusic for Ann-Gel for oboe and piano trio from the concerto for oboe and orchestra (2022) - Bohdana Frolyak (b. 1968) - dedicated to Igor LeschishinII. ModeratoIgor Leschishin, oboeSolomiya Ivakhiv, violinMatt Haimovitz, celloTanya Bannister, pianoPiano Quintet in F sharp Minor, Op.67 - Amy Beach I. Adagio-Allegro moderatoII. Adagio espressivoIII. Allegro agitato - Adagio come prima - PrestoSolomiya Ivakhiv, violinMatthew Hakkarainen, violinMarcus Thompson, violaMatt Haimovitz, celloTanya Bannister, pianoBios:Igor Leschishin, oboeIgor Leschishin has been Principal Oboist of The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra since 1998. From 1996 until 1998 Mr. Leschishin played in The New World Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas in Miami Beach, Florida. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1995 performing the Vivaldi Oboe Concerto with the New York String Orchestra. Igor graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with a master's degree in orchestral performance as a scholarship student of Joseph Robinson, Principal Oboist of The New York Philharmonic. He participated in the Tanglewood Music Festival, Grant Park Music Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, and Spoleto Festival (USA and Italy) . Igor Leschishin, born in Ukraine, won numerous first prize awards including the Belorussian Woodwind Competition and the International Woodwind Competition. Igor is co-Artistic Director of the Caspian Music Festival in Greensboro, VT. Solomiya Ivakhiv, violinUkrainian-American violinist SOLOMIYA IVAKHIV is a highly celebrated soloist, chamber musician and educator. Named one of the “major artists of our time” (Fanfare Magazine) , she has made solo appearances with major orchestras in the United States, China, Turkey and Ukraine, and has performed at world-renowned venues including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, CBC Glenn Gould Studio, Philharmonic Hall in Kyiv, and the Concertgebouw. She has been featured at chamber music festivals worldwide, from Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, San Jose Chamber Music Society, Chatter, Tanglewood and Ottawa Chamberfest to Newport and Nevada Chamber Music Festivals and many in between. Dr. Ivakhiv’s discography includes Ukrainian Masters, Ukraine Christmas and Ukraine: Journey to Freedom (NAXOS) , Mendelssohn Concertos (Brilliant Classics) , Haydn and Hummel Concertos and Poems and Rhapsodies (both on Centaur) . Her recordings have topped classical charts and received international acclaim. A champion of new music, she has premiered works by David Ludwig, Oleksandr Schetynsky, David Dzubay, Yevhen Stankovych and Bohdan Kryvopust, among others. Since 2010, Dr. Ivakhiv has served as Artistic Director of Music at the Institute (MATI) Concert Series in New York City, where she presents chamber programs featuring Ukrainian women composers, young Ukrainians, and newly commissioned works. She is co-Artistic Director of the Caspian Music Festival in Greensboro, VT. A dedicated educator, Dr. Ivakhiv has led master classes and coached chamber music at Yale, Columbia, Boston Conservatory, Curtis SummerFest, Oberlin and others, as well as at conservatories in China and Ukraine. She was named Honored (Merited) Artist of Ukraine in 2021, her native country’s highest cultural honor. She holds degrees from Curtis Institute of Music and Stony Brook University and is Professor of Violin and Viola and Head of Strings at University of Connecticut. Matthew Hakkarainen, violinViolinist Matthew Hakkarainen was appointed Associate Concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra starting in the 2025-26 season. Matthew first rose to international attention in 2018, when he became the first American violinist to win first prize at the Premio Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition. He is also a laureate of the Stuttgart, Mirecourt, Wajnberg, and Ysaÿe International Competitions, and he won the Prix Ravel, Adelphi Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Aspen Music Festival Violin Competition, and New World Symphony Concerto Competition. Matthew has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras in North America and Europe, including the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Orchestra Sinfonica Bulgaria Classic di Plovdiv, Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Lorraine, Karol Szymanowski Academic Symphony Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Great Falls Symphony, Adelphi Orchestra, Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, New River Orchestra, Orchestra Delray, and others. Also an avid chamber musician, Matthew has been a returning guest artist at Caspian Music and Viridian Strings, and was part of the inaugural Rising Artists Program hosted by the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach. He completed his musical studies at the Curtis Institute of Music (B. M. ‘22) and the Juilliard School (M. M. ‘24) , where he studied with Pamela Frank, Sylvia Rosenberg, and Ronald Copes. Matthew is also an alumnus of the Rebanks Fellowship Program (‘25) at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School. His additional teachers and mentors include Barry Shiffman, Charles Castleman, Mauricio Fuks, Borislava Iltcheva, Huifang Chen, and Maree Sawhney. Matthew is very grateful to perform on a 1790 Giuseppe Guadagnini violin and an Étienne Pajeot bow graciously provided by the company CANIMEX INC., from Drummondville (Québec) , Canada. Matt Haimovitz, cello:Renowned as a musical pioneer, multi-Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz is praised by The New York Times as a “ferociously talented cellist who brings his megawatt sound and uncommon expressive gifts to a vast variety of styles” and by The New Yorker as “remarkable virtuoso” who “never turns in a predictable performance.” He brings a fresh ear to familiar repertoire, champions new music, and initiates groundbreaking collaborations, as well as creating innovative recording projects. In addition to his touring schedule, Haimovitz mentors an award-winning studio of young cellists at the Department of Music at the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities and is the first-ever John Cage Fellow at The New School's Mannes School of Music in New York City. Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. He has gone on to perform on the world’s most esteemed stages, with such orchestras and conductors as the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, the English Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Kent Nagano. His latest endeavor, THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT, encompasses 81 new commissions from a diverse intersection of North American communities and has been featured in the most recent 59th Venice Biennale Arte. Making his first recording at 17 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Haimovitz’s recording career encompasses more than 30 years of award-winning work on Deutsche Grammophon (Universal) , Oxingale Records, and the PENTATONE Oxingale Series. His honors include the Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Grand Prix du Disque, and the Premio Internazionale “Accademia Musicale Chigiana.” He studied with Leonard Rose at The Juilliard School and graduated magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University. Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller. Marcus Thompson, violaThompson has earned critical acclaim since his New York recital debut in 1968 as winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He has since performed as soloist with the Boston Pops, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a recitalist, he has appeared in series throughout the Americas, including New York’s Carnegie Recital Hall and Metropolitan Museum, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Minneapolis’s Orchestra Hall, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, Teatro Nacional in the Dominican Republic, Terrace Theater at The Kennedy Center, and the National Gallery in Washington, D. C. An artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society since 1984, Thompson became BCMS’s second artistic director beginning with the 2009/2010 concert season, succeeding cofounder and NEC alumnus, cellist Ronald Thomas ’74. In fall 2009 Thompson also launched a blog in which he discusses repertoire performed by BCMS. Thompson has been a frequent guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Vermeer, Muir, Emerson, Orion, and Audubon string quartets, and chamber music festivals in Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Marlboro, Santa Fe, Seattle, Sitka, Spoleto, and Vail. Mr. Thompson’s repertoire includes Boston Premieres of György Ligeti’s Loop, John Harbison’s Sonata for Viola and Piano, and Harbison’s Viola Concerto, recorded last season with BMOP in celebration of the composer’s eightieth birthday. Mr. Thompson has also commissioned and premiered Viola Concerto by Olly Wilson with the Rochester Philharmonic. His recordings include Paul Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher, Ernest Bloch’s Suite, Joseph Jongen’s Suite, Jean Francaix’s Rhapsodie, Shadow/ Light by Elena Ruehr, Viola Concertos by Béla Bartók and Tibor Serly, and Frank Martin’s Sonata da Chiesa for Viola d’Amore and Strings. Recordings on Vox/Turnabout, Centaur, and with the Boston Chamber Music Society on Northeastern. Former faculty of the Juilliard School Pre-College Division, Oakwood College, Wesleyan University, Mount Holyoke College. Mr. Thompson served as MIT’s first Robert R. Taylor Professor of Music from 1995 until 2015 when he was appointed one of MIT’s ten Institute Professors. Tanya Bannister, pianoLauded by The Washington Post for playing “…with intelligence, poetry and proportion,” pianist Tanya Bannister has made a versatile career that is immersed in tradition combined with an entrepreneurship that seeks to create projects that inspire genuine connections between music and the world we live in. Ms. Bannister has been a winner of Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the New Orleans International Piano Competition confirming her status among the leading pianists of her generation. Ms. Bannister’s career has already brought her to many of the world’s great concert halls, with recitals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salle Cortot in Paris, Teatro Communale in Bologna, Tokyo’s Nikkei Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In addition to mastering the traditional repertoire, she has a deep affinity for contemporary music and has premiered numerous works written for her, including Christopher Theofanidis, David del Tredici, Suzanne Farrin, Harold Meltzer and Sidney Corbett. She has released several CDs, including piano concerti of Mozart, Chopin and Schubert arranged with string quintet, which was selected for special mention by the New York Times. Tanya is currently president of Concert Artists Guild and co-founder and Artistic Director of AlpenKammerMusik Festival in Austria. Ms. Bannister has also co-founded Roadmaps Festival in New York City, an artistic, humanitarian and cultural venture. Recent festivals have centered around the crisis in Syria and climate change. Born to an English father and Japanese mother, Ms. Bannister started her musical education in Hong Kong and continued in London, Italy, Germany and the USA. Ms. Bannister holds degrees from the Royal Academy of Music in London under Christopher Elton and Hamish Milne, Yale University, where she studied with Claude Frank, and New York’s Mannes School of Music, where she received an Artist Diploma as one of a handful of pianists selected to study with Richard Goode. An evening of classical chamber music exploring heritage, French elegance, and modern mysticism. The program guides the audience from a single cello into a dark, passionate piano quartet, a spiritual and deeply comforting conversation between oboe and piano; and culminates with a colossal, sweeping piano quintet. Matt Haimovitz (cello) performing La Kobsa for solo cello by de Hartmann Tanya Bannister (piano) performing in Piano Quartet No.1 in C Minor by Gabriel Faure. Igor Leschishin (oboe) soloing in the moderato movement of Music for Ann-Gel for oboe and piano trio by Ukrainian composer Bohdana FrolyakAnd…Tanya Bannister performing in Piano Quintet in F sharp Minor, Op.67 by Amy Beach Musicians:Igor Leschishin, oboeMatt Haimovitz, celloMatthew Hakkarainen, violinSolomiya Ivakhiv, violinMarcus Thompson, violaTanya Bannister, pianoProgram:La Kobsa (1950) for solo cello - Thomas ‘Khoma’ de Hartmann (1884 - 1956) I. Assez lentII. Allegro vivace, le rythme très précisMatt Haimovitz, celloPiano Quartet No.1 in C Minor, Op.15 - Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) I. Allegro molto moderatoII. Scherzo: Allegro vivoIII. AdagioIV. Allegro moltoMatthew Hakkarainen, violinMarcus Thompson, violaMatt Haimovitz, celloTanya Bannister, pianoIntermissionMusic for Ann-Gel for oboe and piano trio from the concerto for oboe and orchestra (2022) - Bohdana Frolyak (b. 1968) - dedicated to Igor LeschishinII. ModeratoIgor Leschishin, oboeSolomiya Ivakhiv, violinMatt Haimovitz, celloTanya Bannister, pianoPiano Quintet in F sharp Minor, Op.67 - Amy Beach I. Adagio-Allegro moderatoII. Adagio espressivoIII. Allegro agitato - Adagio come prima - PrestoSolomiya Ivakhiv, violinMatthew Hakkarainen, violinMarcus Thompson, violaMatt Haimovitz, celloTanya Bannister, pianoBios:Igor Leschishin, oboeIgor Leschishin has been Principal Oboist of The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra since 1998. From 1996 until 1998 Mr. Leschishin played in The New World Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas in Miami Beach, Florida. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1995 performing the Vivaldi Oboe Concerto with the New York String Orchestra. Igor graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with a master's degree in orchestral performance as a scholarship student of Joseph Robinson, Principal Oboist of The New York Philharmonic. He participated in the Tanglewood Music Festival, Grant Park Music Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, and Spoleto Festival (USA and Italy) . Igor Leschishin, born in Ukraine, won numerous first prize awards including the Belorussian Woodwind Competition and the International Woodwind Competition. Igor is co-Artistic Director of the Caspian Music Festival in Greensboro, VT. Solomiya Ivakhiv, violinUkrainian-American violinist SOLOMIYA IVAKHIV is a highly celebrated soloist, chamber musician and educator. Named one of the “major artists of our time” (Fanfare Magazine) , she has made solo appearances with major orchestras in the United States, China, Turkey and Ukraine, and has performed at world-renowned venues including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, CBC Glenn Gould Studio, Philharmonic Hall in Kyiv, and the Concertgebouw. She has been featured at chamber music festivals worldwide, from Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, San Jose Chamber Music Society, Chatter, Tanglewood and Ottawa Chamberfest to Newport and Nevada Chamber Music Festivals and many in between. Dr. Ivakhiv’s discography includes Ukrainian Masters, Ukraine Christmas and Ukraine: Journey to Freedom (NAXOS) , Mendelssohn Concertos (Brilliant Classics) , Haydn and Hummel Concertos and Poems and Rhapsodies (both on Centaur) . Her recordings have topped classical charts and received international acclaim. A champion of new music, she has premiered works by David Ludwig, Oleksandr Schetynsky, David Dzubay, Yevhen Stankovych and Bohdan Kryvopust, among others. Since 2010, Dr. Ivakhiv has served as Artistic Director of Music at the Institute (MATI) Concert Series in New York City, where she presents chamber programs featuring Ukrainian women composers, young Ukrainians, and newly commissioned works. She is co-Artistic Director of the Caspian Music Festival in Greensboro, VT. A dedicated educator, Dr. Ivakhiv has led master classes and coached chamber music at Yale, Columbia, Boston Conservatory, Curtis SummerFest, Oberlin and others, as well as at conservatories in China and Ukraine. She was named Honored (Merited) Artist of Ukraine in 2021, her native country’s highest cultural honor. She holds degrees from Curtis Institute of Music and Stony Brook University and is Professor of Violin and Viola and Head of Strings at University of Connecticut. Matthew Hakkarainen, violinViolinist Matthew Hakkarainen was appointed Associate Concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra starting in the 2025-26 season. Matthew first rose to international attention in 2018, when he became the first American violinist to win first prize at the Premio Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition. He is also a laureate of the Stuttgart, Mirecourt, Wajnberg, and Ysaÿe International Competitions, and he won the Prix Ravel, Adelphi Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Aspen Music Festival Violin Competition, and New World Symphony Concerto Competition. Matthew has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras in North America and Europe, including the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Orchestra Sinfonica Bulgaria Classic di Plovdiv, Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Lorraine, Karol Szymanowski Academic Symphony Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Great Falls Symphony, Adelphi Orchestra, Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, New River Orchestra, Orchestra Delray, and others. Also an avid chamber musician, Matthew has been a returning guest artist at Caspian Music and Viridian Strings, and was part of the inaugural Rising Artists Program hosted by the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach. He completed his musical studies at the Curtis Institute of Music (B. M. ‘22) and the Juilliard School (M. M. ‘24) , where he studied with Pamela Frank, Sylvia Rosenberg, and Ronald Copes. Matthew is also an alumnus of the Rebanks Fellowship Program (‘25) at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School. His additional teachers and mentors include Barry Shiffman, Charles Castleman, Mauricio Fuks, Borislava Iltcheva, Huifang Chen, and Maree Sawhney. Matthew is very grateful to perform on a 1790 Giuseppe Guadagnini violin and an Étienne Pajeot bow graciously provided by the company CANIMEX INC., from Drummondville (Québec) , Canada. Matt Haimovitz, cello:Renowned as a musical pioneer, multi-Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz is praised by The New York Times as a “ferociously talented cellist who brings his megawatt sound and uncommon expressive gifts to a vast variety of styles” and by The New Yorker as “remarkable virtuoso” who “never turns in a predictable performance.” He brings a fresh ear to familiar repertoire, champions new music, and initiates groundbreaking collaborations, as well as creating innovative recording projects. In addition to his touring schedule, Haimovitz mentors an award-winning studio of young cellists at the Department of Music at the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities and is the first-ever John Cage Fellow at The New School's Mannes School of Music in New York City. Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. He has gone on to perform on the world’s most esteemed stages, with such orchestras and conductors as the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, the English Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Kent Nagano. His latest endeavor, THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT, encompasses 81 new commissions from a diverse intersection of North American communities and has been featured in the most recent 59th Venice Biennale Arte. Making his first recording at 17 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Haimovitz’s recording career encompasses more than 30 years of award-winning work on Deutsche Grammophon (Universal) , Oxingale Records, and the PENTATONE Oxingale Series. His honors include the Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Grand Prix du Disque, and the Premio Internazionale “Accademia Musicale Chigiana.” He studied with Leonard Rose at The Juilliard School and graduated magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University. Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller. Marcus Thompson, violaThompson has earned critical acclaim since his New York recital debut in 1968 as winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He has since performed as soloist with the Boston Pops, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a recitalist, he has appeared in series throughout the Americas, including New York’s Carnegie Recital Hall and Metropolitan Museum, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Minneapolis’s Orchestra Hall, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, Teatro Nacional in the Dominican Republic, Terrace Theater at The Kennedy Center, and the National Gallery in Washington, D. C. An artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society since 1984, Thompson became BCMS’s second artistic director beginning with the 2009/2010 concert season, succeeding cofounder and NEC alumnus, cellist Ronald Thomas ’74. In fall 2009 Thompson also launched a blog in which he discusses repertoire performed by BCMS. Thompson has been a frequent guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Vermeer, Muir, Emerson, Orion, and Audubon string quartets, and chamber music festivals in Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Marlboro, Santa Fe, Seattle, Sitka, Spoleto, and Vail. Mr. Thompson’s repertoire includes Boston Premieres of György Ligeti’s Loop, John Harbison’s Sonata for Viola and Piano, and Harbison’s Viola Concerto, recorded last season with BMOP in celebration of the composer’s eightieth birthday. Mr. Thompson has also commissioned and premiered Viola Concerto by Olly Wilson with the Rochester Philharmonic. His recordings include Paul Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher, Ernest Bloch’s Suite, Joseph Jongen’s Suite, Jean Francaix’s Rhapsodie, Shadow/ Light by Elena Ruehr, Viola Concertos by Béla Bartók and Tibor Serly, and Frank Martin’s Sonata da Chiesa for Viola d’Amore and Strings. Recordings on Vox/Turnabout, Centaur, and with the Boston Chamber Music Society on Northeastern. Former faculty of the Juilliard School Pre-College Division, Oakwood College, Wesleyan University, Mount Holyoke College. Mr. Thompson served as MIT’s first Robert R. Taylor Professor of Music from 1995 until 2015 when he was appointed one of MIT’s ten Institute Professors. Tanya Bannister, pianoLauded by The Washington Post for playing “…with intelligence, poetry and proportion,” pianist Tanya Bannister has made a versatile career that is immersed in tradition combined with an entrepreneurship that seeks to create projects that inspire genuine connections between music and the world we live in. Ms. Bannister has been a winner of Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the New Orleans International Piano Competition confirming her status among the leading pianists of her generation. Ms. Bannister’s career has already brought her to many of the world’s great concert halls, with recitals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salle Cortot in Paris, Teatro Communale in Bologna, Tokyo’s Nikkei Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In addition to mastering the traditional repertoire, she has a deep affinity for contemporary music and has premiered numerous works written for her, including Christopher Theofanidis, David del Tredici, Suzanne Farrin, Harold Meltzer and Sidney Corbett. She has released several CDs, including piano concerti of Mozart, Chopin and Schubert arranged with string quintet, which was selected for special mention by the New York Times. Tanya is currently president of Concert Artists Guild and co-founder and Artistic Director of AlpenKammerMusik Festival in Austria. Ms. Bannister has also co-founded Roadmaps Festival in New York City, an artistic, humanitarian and cultural venture. Recent festivals have centered around the crisis in Syria and climate change. Born to an English father and Japanese mother, Ms. Bannister started her musical education in Hong Kong and continued in London, Italy, Germany and the USA. Ms. Bannister holds degrees from the Royal Academy of Music in London under Christopher Elton and Hamish Milne, Yale University, where she studied with Claude Frank, and New York’s Mannes School of Music, where she received an Artist Diploma as one of a handful of pianists selected to study with Richard Goode. Show More