At the prestigious competition held in Tel Aviv in early September, MSM alumnus Dmitry Yudin (BM ’23, MM ’25) won the Arthur Rubinstein Award and Gold Medal and $40,000 in prize money. He was also awarded the Chamber Music Prize (donated by Lady Annabelle Weidenfeld in memory of Menachem Pressler) of $6,000, the Israel Philharmonic Players’ Prize of $3,000, the Audience Favorite Prize of $3,000 USD, and the Junior Jury Prize of $3,000.
Founded in 1974, the competition is held every three years for pianists aged 18-32. Dmitry Yudin studied at MSM with Horacio Gutierrez. He won the school’s Eisenberg-Freid Concerto Competition in February 2022. Earlier this year Dimitry was awarded one of four 2026 Avery Fisher Career Grants, and in early September was featured on the respected PBS program Great Performances.
Learn more here.
MSM Classical Piano alumnus Dmitry Yudin (BM ’23, MM ’25), who earlier this year was awarded one of four 2026 Avery Fisher Career Grants, is featured on the respected PBS program Great Performances premiering Friday, September 2 at 9/8c on PBS, pbs.org/gperf, the PBS app and on YouTube.
Playing two pieces by Rachmaninoff in the program, Dimitry Yudin draws comparisons between both his and Rachmaninoff’s journey of American migration.
The episode is part of Great Performances: Taking Note, a digital series spotlighting rising instrumental artists who have received Career Grant Awards from the Avery Fisher Artist Program. Each year, the Program awards up to five grants of $25,000 to instrumentalists and chamber ensembles in support of their emerging careers.
Dr. Yi Wang (MM ’18, PS ’19) released her debut album which shares the title of her doctoral thesis (University of Iowa), Breaking My Silence. The work explores solo piano compositions by female composers Ethel Smyth, Henriëtte Bosmans, Jennifer Higdon, Eve Beglarian, and Annea Lockwood.
Spanning more than a century of musical innovation, Breaking My Silence brings together composers whose works challenge convention, redefine artistic expression, and offer powerful perspectives that have too often remained at the margins of classical music history.
Click here to learn more about Dr. Wang and her project.
Pianist and composer Dr. Hayk Arsenyan (PS ’08) won a Silver Medal in the 2026 Global Music Awards in the “Creativity/Originality” category for his composition Stratum. This work for piano and double bass was commissioned and premiered in 2014, and subsequently published by Zimmerman Publications, but was released as a recording for the first time on the Navona label earlier this year. The Global Music Awards are an annual international celebration of the work of independent artists.
Dr. Arsenyan is also Director of the Armenian General Benevolent Union Arts Department and was interviewed last month by The Armenian Weekly. Click here to read the interview.
Click here to listen to Stratum.
MSM classical piano alumna Elzbieta Bilicka (PS ’23) will launch her and collaborator Mateusz Mikołajczak’s new Classical Piano Salon series at their inaugural gala and concert on April 8 at 7:30 PM at the Kosciuszko Foundation. The evening will feature performances by Nicolas Namoradze, Elsie Lu, and Haowen Deng.
Click here for tickets.
Click here to learn more about Elzbieta.
MSM classical piano alumnus Zheng Yue (MM ’25), a former student of MSM Piano Co-Chair Dr. Inesa Sinkevych (PS ’06, DMA ’10), recently completed a tour of Mainland China cities Tianjin, Quanzhou, Chengdu, and Shanghai (Shanghai Symphony Hall’s Chamber Hall) in collaboration with Shanghai Conservatory Cello Professor Dr. Weiping Chen.
The program, entitled Gallery by Ear, featured a unique cross-genre selection, ranging from classical character pieces to original works by Dr. Bo Li and contemporary transcriptions. This repertoire was curated to reflect the milestones of Dr. Chen’s musical journey.
Current MSM students Seiran Tozlian (BM ’26), piano, and Angelina Tozlyan (BM ’28), violin, as well as alumni Diana Gabrielyan (MM ’23), piano, and Karina Vartanian (PC ’21, BM ’25), soprano, will perform at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall on Friday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m. They are all recent recipients of the Armenian General Benevolent Union Performing Arts scholarship and will join their fellow recipients for a program of traditional Armenian and Western classical music, dance, and poetry readings.
Tickets are currently available on the Carnegie Hall website as well as the box office at (212) 247-7800.
Photo collage: Diana Gabrielyan (top left), Seiran Tozlian (bottom left), Angelina Tozlyan (bottom middle), Karina Vartanian (bottom right)
MSM classical piano alumnus Dmitry Yudin (BM ’23, MM ’25) was awarded one of four 2026 Avery Fisher Career Grants. This highly prestigious $25,000 award recognizes four young artists whose careers exhibit significant accomplishment and exceptional promise. Awardees do not apply and do not know that they are under consideration. They are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
From St. Petersburg, Dmitry moved to New York City in 2019 to study at MSM. He is a prizewinner of competitions including the 15th International Scriabin Piano Competition, the International Classical Music Festival and Competition for Young Pianists, Astana Piano Passion, and the Vladimir Krainev Moscow International Piano Competition.
Click here to read The Strad announcement.
Church Street School for Music and Art’s Director of Programs and longtime faculty member Dr. Tereza Lee (BM ’05, MM ’07, PS ’10, DMA ’20) will be honored at the school’s upcoming annual gala, “THE EVENT,” on Monday, March 9, at the Roxy Hotel in Manhattan’s Tribeca area.
Born in Brazil to parents displaced by the Korean War, Lee grew up undocumented and impoverished in inner-city Chicago. After earning a full scholarship to the Merit School of Music as a teenager, she won notable regional competitions but was initially barred from college due to her status. With the advocacy of Merit Director Ann Monaco and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, Lee became the namesake of the “Tereza Lee Bill,” which enabled her to attend college (at MSM) and later informed the DREAM Act. Dr. Lee is now an esteemed musician, educator, and immigration activist, as well as a U.S. Citizen and mother of three.
Click here to view the event flyer and to learn more about Dr. Lee.
Vladimir Petrov (PPD ‘26) a student at MSM of Horacio Gutierrez and who has received high praise from critics internationally, won Second Prize as well as the Commissioned Work Prize at the prestigious 2025 Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition that took place on December 13 to 19, 2025.
Vladimir Petrov has won top prizes at numerous international competitions, including first prizes at events the Lotar Shevchenko Competition (Russia), Ciudad de Vigo (Spain), Jose Jacinto Cuevas–Yamaha Competition (Mexico), NTD Piano Competition (New York, USA), and the Neapolitan Masters Competition (Italy).
Petrov has released four solo albums, including Encores (2021, Mans label, Spain). His 2019 release, featuring Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes, was recorded in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. His latest album recorded in New York will be released soon.
With roots in Russia, Petrov was raised from the age of three in Mexico, which he affectionately considers his homeland.
More information on the winners here.
MSM alumnus Seth Schultheis has won first prize at the 2025 Deutsche Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn.
Seth studied at the Manhattan School of Music for many years. He completed his precollege training and began his undergraduate studies under the guidance of Philip Kawin, and later completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees with Dr. Solomon Mikowsky. He is currently based in London.
“He is regarded as one of the most outstanding piano students to have emerged from MSM, and his recent international success is a powerful reflection of both his artistry and his training at the school,” says MSM faculty member Jiayin Li.
More about Seth Schultheis here.
Classical piano alumna Isabel Dobarro (PS ’13) is the winner of a 2025 Latin Grammy award in the Best Classical Album category: Her solo album Kaleidoscope – Contemporary Piano Music By Female Composers From Around The World, was produced by Javier Monteverde and released on the Grand Piano label (Naxos subsidiary) in October 2024. Isabel studied with Solomon Mikowsky at MSM.
The 26th Latin Grammy Awards were held on November 13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Click here to view Kaleidoscope and to learn more about Isabel. Click here for the full list of nominees.
Classical pianist Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (DMA ’08) recently became the recipient of the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Arts and Music Award from the Pilsudski Institute of America. Its namesake was a pianist, composer, and statesman who was a champion of Poland’s Independence and signatory of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I.
To Magdalena, the award represents “the passing of the torch of our great ancestors…The award expresses a shared pride in our heritage, rich history, and beautiful culture which builds bridges of communication and mutual understanding.”
This Thursday (November 6), she will perform The Banquet Concerto and The Triple Resurrection by the Oscar-winning Chinese-American composer Tan Dun in Greece with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of the composer. In addition to her performance career, Magdalena is both Director of the Music Performance Program and a Senior Lecturer in Music at Columbia University. She was a student of Constance Keene at MSM.
Click here to learn more about Magdalena and the upcoming concerto performance. Click here to view the Pilsudski Institute’s 2025 Awards Gala program.
During the Covid 19 lockdown, MSM alumna Harriet Stubbs (MM ‘13) gave 250 daily concerts in London and was subsequently awarded a British Empire Medal by Her Majesty The Queen in the Queen’s Honours list of 2022 in recognition of her service to the country. She was also named Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals In the Arts for their Resilient Warriors Special of 2022.
In 2024, after releasing her most recent CD, Life on Mars, she developed a form of carpal tunnel syndrome—ulnar nerve compression—which threatened to jeopardize her ability to play the piano. Successful surgery in fall of 2025 has restored her ability to play: “I feel like a completely different human being now,” she tells American Songwriter magazine. “I’ve been given everything anyone could ever want because I’ve been given my hands back, and I know that all I needed was to be able to do everything that I’m meant to do.”
Read the full interview here. Information about Life on Mars here.
Classical piano alumna Héloïse Pieaud (BM ’20), a student at MSM of Jeffrey Cohen, founded her own successful music school La Maison several years ago, located in a reconverted mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She is the subject of a recent feature article in The Spirit, an Upper West Side news publication. The educator and entrepreneur discusses her beginnings in music, her path from France to New York, and cultivating her vision and securing funding for her own school, all while earning a visa to live and work in the US.
Click here to read the article.
Click here to learn more about Héloïse and La Maison.
MSM piano doctoral degree student Annie Yu Cao (MM ‘24) this summer founded and directed the inaugural Pacific Opus Music Festival in her hometown of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.
Featured at the event were three distinguished MSM faculty members, Jeffrey Cohen (in photo on right) with whom Annie studies at MSM, Lucie Robert (second from right), and Olga Kern (second from left) who joined the festival’s faculty. They pose in the photo above with Annie Yu Cao, on left.
Learn more about the festival here.
On Friday, September 19 from 12:30–2:30 PM, 95-year-old MSM piano alumnus Roy Eaton (BM ’50, MM ’52) is playing in Bryant Park’s “Piano in Bryant Park” series. Roy was the inaugural winner of the 1950 Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition, was featured as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1951, and debuted at NYC Town Hall in 1952. His performance career was interrupted by compulsory military service, which led him to embark on a barrier-breaking career as a renowned advertising executive on Madison Avenue. He returned to performance in 1986 at Alice Tully Hall, followed by international tours and the release of several albums.
Read more about the free concert here.
Learn more about Roy here.
Nian-Yi Huang, third-year DMA candidate and long-time MSM piano student of MSM faculty member Jeffrey Cohen, won third prize at the respected Weatherford College International Piano Competition held in Texas last month.
“Nian-Yi was one of the 12 finalists selected from 207 pianists representing 25 countries. He gave a brilliant performance in the final round, and he represented our school with great distinction. Bravo to Nian-Yi!” says Jeffrey Cohen.
Nian-Yi’s previous awards include winning the Grand Prize at the 2019 International Academy of Music competition in Italy, and First Prize at the 2022 G. Gershwin International Music Competition. He became the youngest classical pianist signed by the leading Chinese piano company Hailun Pianos in 2020
Watch Nian-Yi’s performance at the competition here. More information on the competition here. Watch an interview with Nian-Yi after the competition results were announced here.
MSM student Xinchen Jia (BM ‘27) studies piano at MSM with Inesa Sinkevych, the Co-Head of the MSM Piano Department. At the inaugural Shanghai International Forte Yearly Music Festival and Competition held at Harvard University in Boston, on May 11, Xinchen Jia was awarded the Gold Prize in the piano category after performing at the festival opening concert at Lehman Hall. He also won a Grand Prize.
“Professor José Ramos Santana, piano professor at NYU Steinhardt and Chair of the Piano Department at The Hartt School, University of Hartford, as well as Professor Boaz Sharon, piano professor at Boston University and Director of the Piano Department at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, gave me high praise and took commemorative photos with me,” reports Xinchen Jia about performing at the event.
More information about the festival here.
On May 23, MSM piano faculty member Wael Farouk will be performing Rachmaninoff’s 3rd piano concerto with the renowned Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the top orchestras in China, and the only non-state-owned and self-financing orchestra in the country. The image above is the promotional poster for the event.
Egyptian-American pianist Wael Farouk has performed internationally in such venues as the White Hall in St. Petersburg, Schumann’s House in Leipzig, and Carnegie Hall in New York, where his solo debut in 2013 was described as “absolutely masterful.” He has been a faculty member at MSM since 2021.
Learn more about Wael Farouk here.
Calder Failla (BM ’28) (in photo above on left) has been named the Regional Winner for the collegiate division of the NANM 2025 Scholarship Competition for Piano, and will be competing at the NANM National Convention that will be held in Detroit from July 12—17. Calder first won the local division in New York City, then went on to win the regional division on April 24.
The keynote speaker for the National Convention this year is piano alumnus Leah Claiborne (BM ‘12) (in photo on right) who studied at MSM with Marc Silverman.
The National Association of Negro Musicians, founded in 1919, is considered a significant organization for African American musicians. It has played a key role in supporting black musicians through scholarships, performance opportunities, and a focus on both classical and jazz traditions. NANM also aimed to preserve and encourage the music of the African Diaspora.
More information about the National Convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians here. Information about the NANM competition here.
The prestigious Miami International Piano Festival is calling MSM piano student Dmitry Yudin (MM ‘25) “a master and astonishing virtuoso” in their online reviews. The article comes after his appearance at the Miami International Piano Festival.
“Dmitry Yudin’s debut surpassed all expectations. He tackled a terrifyingly virtuosic program with authority and musicality,” writes reviewer Giselle Brodsky. “His imagination and sensitivity were on display throughout the whole concert, creating one of the most memorable debuts in the festival’s history… His concert was unforgettable, and we eagerly await his return.”
Read the full review here.
MSM Trustee and classical piano alumnus Dr. Scott Dunn (MM ’97) will perform in three concerts in January 2025:
On January 10 at the Hollywood Bowl, Dr. Dunn will be conducting a concert of covers and original works by the Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Cody Fry. Concert details here.
January 18 at The Wallis Annenberg Centre for the Performing Arts (known as The Wallis) in Beverly Hills, he is conducting the inaugural concert of his ensemble, the Scott Dunn Orchestra, in a program called The Hollywood Modernists —the Second Golden Age of Film Scoring, celebrating the influence of American and European modernism on composers such as Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Alex North, and Leonard Rosenman, and featuring music from the iconic films Psycho, Jaws, A Streetcar Named Desire To Kill A Mockingbird, and more; most of the arrangements are by Scott Dunn. Concert details here.
On January 28, Dr. Dunn will appear at the Soka Performing Arts Center with the award-winning young pianist Shunta Morimoto and the Four Seasons Orchestra. Mezzo Kayleigh Decker will sing three Malher Ruckert Songs and they will present the west coast premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett’s Partita. Concert details here.
The recording by pianist Kirill Gerstein (BM ’99, MM ’00), Music in Time of War (Platoon), was selected as one of the 25 best classical recordings of 2024 by The New York Times. Kirill Gerstein’s photograph was featured at the top of the article.
“This year, no album was as ambitious and intelligent as Music in Time of War, a imagined conversation between Claude Debussy and Komitas Vardapet, witnesses to 20th-century horrors,” writes Joshua Borone in The New York Times. “The recording’s physical edition includes a book of essays and photography, but the highlight is the often revelatory music, not least Komitas’s achingly beautiful folk songs.”
For the recording, Kirill is joined by the Armenian soprano Ruzan Mantashyan, and pianists Thomas Adès and Katia Skanavi to perform a selection of works for solo piano, voice and piano, piano four hands and two pianos
Read the list of the full selection of recordings here. Learn more about the album here.
MSM piano alumna Magdalena Stern-Baczewska (DMA ’08) was interviewed by NBC-TV News recently about the previously unknown Chopin Waltz that was recently unearthed in the files of the Morgan Library.
It was the first time in over a century that such a discovery was made.
Magdalena is the Director of the Music Performance Program at Columbia University, as well as a Senior Lecturer in Music in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Watch the NBC-TV story here.
An online course by MSM faculty member and alumna Lisa Yui (DMA ‘05) on J.S. Bach’s Italian Concerto launched recently on Tonebase Piano, a popular platform for classical music education with over 25,000 active members worldwide.
In the series, Dr. Yui delves into the history and style of this immensely popular piece, offering technical guidance on ornamentation, pedalling, and more.
Watch an excerpt of the course on YouTube shorts here. Find the full course here.
MSM Trustee and classical piano alumnus Dr. Scott Dunn (MM ’97) will perform two concerts in 2025 at The Wallis Annenberg Centre for the Performing Arts (known as The Wallis) in Beverly Hills, California.
On January 18, he is conducting the inaugural concert of his ensemble, the Scott Dunn Orchestra, in a program called The Hollywood Modernists —the Second Golden Age of Film Scoring, celebrating the influence of American and European modernism on composers such as Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Alex North, and Leonard Rosenman, and featuring music from the iconic films Psycho, Jaws, A Streetcar Named Desire To Kill A Mockingbird, and more; most of the arrangements are by Scott Dunn.
The Scott Dunn Orchestra will perform a second program at The Wallis in May 2025 called Henry Mancini at 100—a Celebration of the Man and his Music.
Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.
On October 13 in Auburn, Washington, the Auburn Symphony Orchestra (ASO) will perform the world premiere of MSM Viola faculty member Jessica Meyer’s composition Turbulent Flames, commissioned by the ASO.
The concert will also feature classical piano alumnus Dominic Cheli (BM ’14) performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the ASO.
Read more about the concert here. Read more about Jessica Meyer here. Read more about Dominic Cheli here.
Acclaimed concert pianist Dr. Avan Yu (DMA ’22) was appointed the new Artistic and Executive Director of Müzewest Concerts Society. Yu has appeared as a soloist and recitalist worldwide with the National Arts Center Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and Dresden Philharmonic among others, and in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, and Sydney Opera House, to name a few. Yu’s early achievements include being the youngest ever Canadian Chopin Piano Competition winner at 17, as well as winning the Sydney International Piano Competition with multiple special awards.
Müzewest Concert Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting classical music to Canadians in the Lower Mainland at an affordable price. The organization is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, an area in which Dr. Yu has lived for some time.
To learn more about Dr. Yu, click here.
To learn more about Müzewest Concerts Society, click here.
Classical piano alumna Leila Cobo (BM ’91), Billboard’s chief content officer of its Latin/Español division, was honored with the Ícono Máximo Award at the Ícono & Ícono Influencer Awards in Medellín, Colombia. Cobo received the award in recognition of “her outstanding contribution to the Latin music industry, achievements and impeccable career.”
She is noted for her coverage of Latin music for Billboard where she is currently the Chief Content Officer for Latin Music and Español, overseeing the brand’s coverage and development of Latin music across all its platforms. “As a Colombian, receiving an award in Colombia, from the Colombian music industry, is emotional but also carries a lot of professional weight,” Cobo said in a statement. “I’m proud to have dedicated my career to shining a light on Latin music, and the fact that Premios Ícono recognizes this is very exciting and fills me with joy. I truly feel the best is yet to come!”
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