TIHMS 1994
Nicholas Angelich, piano
Nicholas Angelich was born in the United States in 1970, and began learning the piano with his mother when he was five years old. He gave his first concert at the age of seven, performing Mozart's concerto K467 in C Major with a chamber orchestra in the United States.
At 13, he entered the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris, where his tutors were Aldo Ciccolini, Yvonne Loriod and Michel Beroff. After winning three First Prizes (First Prize for the Piano in 1987, First Prize for Chamber Music in 1988 and First Prize for Piano Accompaniment in 1989), he spend three years following proficiency courses in the piano, and then went on to work with Marie-Francoise Bucquet.
Nicholas Angelich has taken part in numerous master-classes and been guided by such notables as Leon Fleischer, Dmitri Bashkirov, Maria Joao Pires etc. Their advice benefited Nicholas Angelich, who also devotes himself to contemporary music and includes such composers as Messiaen and Stockhausen in his repertoire.
Subsequently, Nicholas Angelich was awarded the 2nd Prize at the R. Casadesus International Competition (Cleveland, 1989), 5th Prize at the Tokyo International Competition, First Prize at the Gina Bachauer International Competition (1994) and 2nd Prize at the Umberto Micheli Competition (1997).
He has been a Laureat of the Credit National / Natexis Foundation since 1996 and, that same year, was invited to become resident pianist of the 'Fondation Internationale per il Pianoforte' in Cadennabia (Italy). He is regularly invited to perform in recital and as a soloist, both in Europe and the United States.
He also often plays in chamber music events with such partners as Alain Meunier, Paul Meyer, Augustin Dumay, Anne Gastinel or Laurent Korcia, to name but a few.
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TIHMS 1993-1994, 1998
Libby Yu, piano
At the age of twenty-four, Vancouver pianist Libby Yu has graced the stages of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, the National Philmarmonic Hall in Warsaw, the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts in Montreal, and the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver. A favourite with audiences, Libby has also performed as soloist with the major symphony orchestras in Canada such as Montreal, Toronto, National Arts Centre, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Vancouver, CBC Vancouver, and Victoria. She was The First-Prize winner of the 27th CBC Radio National Competition for Young Performers, and in 1995, she was awarded a Diploma of Honour at the 13th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition held in Warsaw. Her Chopin performances can be heard on the Holland Music Sessions World Tour 1995 compact disc, and the Chopin International Competition compact disc. She can be heard frequently on CBC Radio, and she recently recorded a CD of Chopin's works. Libby gave a recital in the 'Chopin chez George Sand' Festival in Nohant, France to critical acclaim and also gave a sold-out performance in the Beurs van Berlages Hall in Amsterdam. She also performed Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra to celebrate the Holland Music Session's 10 th anniversary last summer.
She has studied with Lee Kum-Sing at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Columbia for eight years. She currently resides in Boston, pursuing an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music.
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