Artists in Residence
MICHELLE A. CANN
A compelling, sparkling virtuoso” (Boston Music Intelligencer), pianist Michelle Cann made her orchestral debut at age fourteen and has since performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
A champion of the music of Florence Price, Ms. Cann performed the New York City premiere of the composer’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished Orchestra in July 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra in February 2021, which the Philadelphia Inquirer called “exquisite.”
Highlights of her 2021–22 season include debut performances with the Atlanta, Detroit, and St. Louis symphony orchestras, as well as her Canadian concert debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. She also receives the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization, and the 2022 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. Embracing a dual role as both performer and pedagogue, her season includes teaching residencies at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and the National Conference of the Music Teachers National Association.
Ms. Cann regularly appears in solo and chamber recitals throughout the U.S., China, and South Korea. Notable venues include the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), and the Barbican (London). She has also appeared as cohost and collaborative pianist with NPR’s From The Top.
An award winner at top international competitions, in 2019 she served as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s MAC Music Innovator in recognition of her role as an African-American classical musician who embodies artistry, innovation, and a commitment to education and community engagement.
Ms. Cann studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music, where she holds the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies.
Konstantin Soukhovetski
Konstantin Soukhovetski is rapidly earning a reputation as a “young pianist who captivates” with his “distinctive lyricism”, “immaculate technique” and “vigor…refinement… and drama”.
Following the premiere of his transcription of R. Strauss’ Four Last Songs at L'Esprit du Piano Festival in Bordeaux, France Konstantin has featured it on his South African Tour as well as many US venues including NYC's Lyric Chamber Music Society, Nevada City's Music In The Mountains, Sacramento's Crocker Museum and Pianofest in The Hamptons where Konstantin is Artist In Residence for the past 8 years.
This season Konstantin returns to New Orleans where he won First and Audience Prizes a decade ago at New Orleans International Piano Competition, with one-night only solo performance featuring his own transcriptions. He will also open the inaugural season of Eurasia Festival in New York City, appear with Musimelange and New World School of Music in Miami, FL as well as Mother’s Day Gala with Auburn Symphony in Auburn, CA.
Konstantin will also give a world premiere of a new ballet “Nostalgia” by russian-american composer Polina Nazaykinskaya choreographed by Pascal Rioult of Rioult Dance at the Joyce Theater in New York City.
Konstantin will do his first Vegas-style residency with his one-man-show “In His Shoes” at Southampton Inn’s Claude’s Restaurant this summer in Southampton, NY presenting a set of popular hits of Madonna, Celine Dion and other iconic pop artists in his own arrangements.
Konstantin also returns to Hong Kong to serve on the jury of Hong Kong Music Schools Festival.
In 2013 Konstantin made his directorial debut as Assistant Music Director of the new opera Magic Mirror in Boston. Konstantin’s work as and actor includes bother theater and film: narrator with Miami Symphony's Musimelange performance Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale, Forbidden Juilliard as multiple characters at Juilliard School and Club Makkor in NYC and Victor or Children in Power as Young Victor at Moscow State Satire Theatre, Moscow, Russia.
Konstantin stars as Pavel Sidorov in 2014 feature film Dishonorable Vendetta directed by Andre Josef. His other film credits are NYU shorts Decent Men, Ossetia and Hansel and Gretel Purchase Film School shorts Carbon Based and Pictures.
Konstantin is a producer and host of "Real pianists of The Hamptons" - the first ever classical music webisodes made at Pianofest in The Hamptons where Konstantin is Artist in Residence since 2011. He appeared on many television and radio interviews including NPR’s “Performance Today” with Fred Child.
Highlights if Konstantin’s career include appearances with Johannesburg Philharmonic and Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra as part of his South African tour as well as Miami Symphony Orchestra, Richmond, Austin, Auburn, Westmoreland, Virginia and Asheville Symphony Orchestras.
His solo performances took him to London's Wigmore Hall, New York’s Weill Recital and Zankel Halls at Carnegie Hall, Phillips Collection in Washington, DC and Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland to name a few. Following his 2006 William Petschek Debut Recital Award performance at Alice Tully Hall, in New York’s Lincoln Center, The New York Times headlined its review: “Romanticism so intense it warms up Philip Glass.”
Konstantin has worked with an array of distinguished conductors, among them: Daniel Meyer, Gérard Korsten, Eduardo Marturet, Rebecca Miller, James DePreist, Emmanuel Siffert, Jahja Ling, François-Xavier Roth, Doron Salomon, Timothy Muffitt, Conrad von Alphen, Michael Goodwin, Stephen Ramsey, Mary Woodmansee Green, Enrique Bátiz Campbell, Allan Stephenson, David Scarr, Omri Hadari, Andrew Grams, and Emil Tabakov.
Konstantin is a board member of Southampton Cultural Center, NY, Advisory board member of Hamptons Music Sessions, NY and Pegasus Orchestra, NJ and has adjudicated competitions such as Piano Ohio, Hong Kong Music Association and Connecticut Piano Teacher’s Association.
Konstantin is an alumnus of The Juilliard School where he has earned his BM, MM, and AD degrees under the tutelage of Jerome Lowenthal. Born in Moscow to a family of artists he studied at the Moscow Central Special Music School, under the auspices of the Moscow State Conservatory, with Anatoly Ryabov.
Konstantin is a recipient of over 15 awards, including: Second Prize, 2011 Iowa International Piano Competition; Third Prize, 2011 Bosendorfer International Piano Competition; Second Prize and Audience Prize, 2010 Ima Hogg International Competition; First Prize and Audience Prize, 2007 New Orleans International Piano Competition; William Petschek Debut Recital Award; Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans; Second Prize, 2004 UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa; Third Prize, 2003 Cleveland International Piano Competition; The Juilliard School’s Arthur Rubinstein Award; The Juilliard School’s 2003 Gina Bachauer Competition; First Prize, 2002 Hilton Head International Piano Competition; Second Prize, 2002 Walter W. Naumburg International Piano Competition.
Alexey Pudinov
“…emotional, lively, technically sovereign and an ecstasy of virtuosity…” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“…one of the most interesting young pianists in recent years!” Pizzicato Luxembourg (2021)
Alexey Pudinov is a multi-talented musician whose creative vision encompasses a performance career as well as arts leadership. CD “New Bahnen” (2021) is Alexey‘s second release on the KALEIDOS Musikeditionen label following his critically acclaimed piano duo debut “Evocation of Dance” (2019) with pianist Katerina Moskaleva.
Founder of ‘AD festival Days’, a chamber music festival in Manchester UK, Alexey is also a co-founder of Europe’s leading chamber music initiatives including prizewinning Piano Duo TWO4PIANO and the Frankfurt Piano Trio. “I can’t fathom musical life without chamber music”, he says.
Alexey’s artistic diversity finds its expression in love of design and photography
Alexey’s commitment to the value of music education is reflected in a number of music degrees he holds: Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt (Germany), Royal College of Music London, Royal Northern College of Music Mancheser (UK). He began his early music education in his native Russia.
Among his many mentors are Norma Fisher, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Herbert Seidel, Angelika Merkle, Bernhard Wetz, Leon Fleisher, Paul Schenly, Kelly-Marie Murphy and Jörg Widmann. Joining orchestras like the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Simfonicni Orkester RTV Slovenija, and the Sinfonie Orchester Gießen, as soloist has been a significant experience for him, too. Alexey has collaborated with some of the world’s leading musicians such as Lara Boschkor, Jonathan Crow, Benedict Klöckner, Johannes Moser, Konstantin Soukhovetski and the Eliot Quartet.
Alexey is a cosmopolitan who appreciates traveling. In recent seasons he performed on 3 continents. Mr. Pudinov attended numerous prominent festivals, like the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Pianofest in the Hamptons, the Toronto Summer Music Festival, and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. Competition awards led him to Canada, the United States, Finland, Germany, Austria, Italy, and to the Czech Republic. He won the “Gershwin Best Performance Prize” 2015 in New York, the Steinway Prize 2014, the First LMN Menuhin Prize 2016 in Frankfurt and the First Prize of the North West International Piano Ensemble Competition 2018 in Vancouver, Canada.