Jury
Pianist Yoheved Kaplinsky was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. She was a prizewinner at the J.S. Bach International Competition in Washington, D.C. She has made numerous appearances in recitals, playing chamber music, and with orchestras, as well as on radio and television in Israel and the U.S. She has given frequent lectures and master classes throughout the U.S., Israel, and Korea. Festivals she has played and taught at include Bowdoin Summer Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Pianofest in Long Island, N.Y., the Cliburn-T.C.U. Institute, and Tel Hai Master Classes in Israel. She has served as an adjudicator for international competitions, including the Van Cliburn, Cleveland, Arthur Rubinstein, Dublin, and Tchaikovsky competitions. She received the Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award in 2003. She was a former faculty member at Philadelphia University of the Arts, Manhattan School of Music, and Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore from 1989-97.
Kaplinsky studied with Ilona Vincze at the Tel Aviv Music Academy. She received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Juilliard, where she studied with Irwin Freundlich. She also studied with Dorothy Taubman.
Kaplinsky has been a faculty member since 1993, chair of the piano department since 1997, and Susan W. Rose Chair since 2000. She has been a Pre-College faculty member since 1993 and artistic director of the division since 2007.
As a performer, educator, and recording artist, pianist Robert Shannon has traveled across the world performing and teaching a diverse repertoire ranging from Bach to John Adams. A double-degree alumnus of Oberlin, Shannon earned a Master of Music at the Juilliard School. He has studied with Klaus Goetze, Arthur Dann, Jack Radunsky, Ania Dorfmann, Dorothy Taubman and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Since 1976, Shannon has been a member of the faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory, where he also is director of the Division of Keyboard Studies. He is founder and director of the Cooper International Competition at Oberlin, an important international youth competition by virtue of the participation of the Cleveland Orchestra.
In recent seasons, he has appeared in Beijing, London, Hamburg, New York, San Francisco, and Caracas. His numerous performances and recordings on the Bridge label of 20th- and 21st-century composers such as George Crumb, Carla Bley, and John Harbison have been meet with critical praise, particularly his penetrating interpretations of such American composers as Charles Ives.
He appears regularly at the Grand Teton, Tibor Varga, and Sacramento American Music festivals; as a guest artist with the Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players; and in duo recitals with his wife, Haewon Song, who also is a piano professor at Oberlin Conservatory.
Lauded for “superb playing” and “poised, alert musicianship” by The Boston Globe and labeled “definitely a man to watch” by London’s The Independent, American pianist SPENCER MYER is one of the most respected and sought-after artists on today’s concert stages.
Adding to his North American credentials, Spencer Myer includes in his current season returns to the Boise and Northeastern Pennsylvania philharmonics and Traverse Symphony Orchestra. His solo recitals and chamber music collaborations take him throughout the United States, and he continues as half of the Daurov/Myer Duo, having teamed up with the award-winning cellist Adrian Daurov in 2012. Of special note is an appearance with Jamie Bernstein at Washington, DC’s National Museum of Women in the Arts for a special performance of Leonard Bernstein’s 13 Anniversaries.
Spencer Myer’s orchestral, recital and chamber music performances have been heard throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has been soloist with, among many others, The Cleveland Orchestra, Boise, Dayton, Evansville, Louisiana, Massapequa, Northeastern Pennsylvania and Rhode Island philharmonic orchestras, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the Altoona, Baton Rouge, Bozeman, Canton, Chattanooga, Duluth Superior, Flagstaff, Grand Junction, Indianapolis, Juneau, Knoxville, Longmont, Macon, Missoula, New Haven, Omaha, Phoenix, Ridgefield, San Juan, Santa Fe, Springfield (MA, MO, OH), Traverse, Tucson and Wyoming symphony orchestras, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Ohio’s ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, New York City’s The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, Canada’s Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Mexico’s Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, South Africa’s Cape Town and Johannesburg philharmonic orchestras and Beijing’s China National Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with, among others, conductors David Bernard, Nicholas Cleobury, Kayoko Dan, David Danzmayr, Robert Franz, Neal Gittleman, Bernhard Gueller, Jacques Lacombe, Jahja Ling, Dirk Meyer, Elliot Moore, Timothy Muffitt, Maurice Peress, Kyle Wiley Pickett, Arthur Post, Kevin Rhodes, Lucas Richman, Matthew Savery, Alfred Savia, Klauspeter Seibel, Steven Smith, Gerald Steichen, Arjan Tien, Peter Stafford Wilson and Victor Yampolsky. His 2005 recital/orchestral tour of South Africa included a performance of the five piano concerti of Beethoven with the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa, followed by return orchestra and recital tours in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2018.
Spencer Myer’s recital appearances have been presented in New York City’s Weill Recital Hall, 92nd Street Y and Steinway Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and London’s Wigmore Hall, while many of his performances have been broadcast on WQXR (New York City), WHYY (Philadelphia), WCLV (Cleveland) and WFMT (Chicago). An in-demand chamber musician, he appeared for five summers at the Lev Aronson Legacy Festival in Dallas with cellists Lynn Harrell, Ralph Kirshbaum, Amit Peled and Brian Thornton, and enjoys a recurring partnership with the Miami String Quartet at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. Other artistic partners include clarinetist David Shifrin, Cardiff Singer of the World winner Nicole Cabell, the Jupiter, Manhattan and Pacifica string quartets and the Dorian Wind Quintet. Festival appearances have included those of the Bard, Blossom, Cape Cod Chamber, Colorado, Mendocino and Skaneateles music festivals, Canada’s Concerts aux Iles du Bic, Spain’s Gijon International Piano Festival and Valencia International Piano Academy, and Indonesia’s Yogyakarta International Music Festival.
Spencer Myer’s career was launched with three important prizes: First Prize in the 2004 UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa, the 2006 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship from the American Pianists Association and the Gold Medal from the 2008 New Orleans International Piano Competition. Additionally, he is a laureate of the 2007 William Kapell, 2005 Cleveland and 2005 Busoni international piano competitions. He also enjoys an expanding reputation as a vocal collaborator since winning the 2000 Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition. Mr. Myer was a member of Astral Artists’ performance roster from 2003-2010.
An enthusiastic supporter of the education of young musicians, Spencer Myer has been a frequent guest artist at workshops for students and teachers, and has served on the faculties of the Baldwin-Wallace University and Oberlin College conservatories of music. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, The Juilliard School and Stony Brook University. In the fall of 2016, he was appointed Artist-Teacher in Piano and Collaborative Piano at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mr. Myer was the subject of the cover interview in the January/February 2019 issue of The Piano Magazine: Clavier Companion, relating his thoughts on practicing, performing, teaching and mentoring the next generation of pianists.
Spencer Myer’s debut CD for harmonia mundi usa - solo music of Busoni, Copland, Debussy and Kohs - was released in the fall of 2007 to critical acclaim by Fanfare and Gramophone magazines. He can also be heard on a composer-conducted Naxos CD in performances of three concerti from Huang Ruo’s Chamber Concerto Cycle and in a performance of Ravel’s Chansons madécasses, included on "Intimate Masterpieces," a 2013 CD featuring faculty and alumni of the Oberlin Conservatory and issued by Oberlin Music. Mr. Myer’s most recent three recordings – "William Bolcom: Piano Rags", the Brahms Cello Sonatas with Brian Thornton, and the Debussy Cello Sonata and Brahms Clarinet Trio with Brian Thornton and Afendi Yusuf – are available on the Steinway & Sons label.
Spencer Myer is a Steinway Artist.
