Howard Aibel
Founder and President of New York Concert Review, Inc.
Howard Aibel has won international acclaim as both a performer and teacher. “The New York Times”, reviewing a performance at Carnegie Hall, called him “a very impressive, authoritative artist.” In Russia, where he recently delighted audiences with his performances of the Schumann and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerti No. 1, a top critic in St. Petersburg wrote: “His playing was remarkable, evoking the memory of the golden age of piano playing.” Aibel’s career was launched in 1959, with a highly successful New York debut as the winner of that year’s Naumburg Award. He soon won a Fulbright Award and top prizes in the International Busoni and International Casella Piano Competitions as well, leading to highly successful tours of the United States, Europe and Mexico. He has since made six tours of Asia, where he performed with orchestra and in recital, and gave master classes in Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. In a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Aibel shared the stage with his son, the gifted conductor Anthony Aibel. Howard Aibel graduated from Juilliard as a scholarship student in the class of the eminent Mme. Rosina Lhevinne, later becoming her assistant for 10 years. He is a much sought after juror at many national and international piano competitions and was recently presented with a “Bravo Award” at Carnegie Hall, for “Lifetime Artistic Achievement in the field of Performing Arts” by the Italian Academy Foundation. In November 2009, Aibel celebrated the 50th Anniversary of his New York Town Hall Debut, as the 1959 winner of the Naumburg Award, with a performance of the Schumann Concerto at New York City’s Merkin Concert Hall. Howard Aibel is listed in Benjamin Saver’s book “The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA” , and in “The International Who’s Who in Music”. He has recorded for Capitol Records, TR Records, Sonar Records and Impromptu Classics. Howard Aibel is a Steinway Artist.
Jeffrey Williams
Editor
Mr. Williams joined New York Concert Review in early 2012. He has appeared as a soloist, accompanist, and chamber musician, both as a pianist and as a trumpeter. Equally at home in many musical styles, he has been sought after for Classical, Jazz, and Broadway styles, playing at the Shrine Auditorium three times while still in his teens. Mr. Williams is also a composer, arranger, researcher, and collector. He has taught privately and is currently the Executive Producer and Director of Impromptu Classics, which has released four critically acclaimed CD recordings. In October 2013, Mr. Williams assumed the position of Editor of New York Concert Review, in addition to remaining active as a reviewer.
Mimi Melkonian
Executive Assistant
The highly respected and versatile Lebanese pianist Mimi Melkonian received her post-graduate training from the Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt in Paris as well as pursuing a graduate program in Statistical Studies at London University College. She is a professor emerita of the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music, where she taught for ten years, and currently teaches piano, and Arabic at Brunswick School in Greenwich, Connecticut. Fluent in five languages, she was appointed Good Will Ambassador by the governor of Arkansas. Ms. Melkonian and her husband, Howard Aibel, regularly perform as a piano duo.
Anthony Aibel
Reviewer
Anthony Aibel’s CD was honored with a Grammy Award Nomination and he was the only student to ever graduate from Juilliard with three majors. He has performed in Carnegie Hall seven times, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and on Broadway. He is a judge for competitions like “Your Time to Shine” and the World Piano Competition, where he was the jury chairman. He has been an award-winning teacher for 25 years. His commentary on the arts is published in New York Concert Review and in the New York Times.
Walter Aparicio
Reviewer
Known for the passion and authenticity he brings to his performances, pianist Walter Aparicio has dedicated his career to championing the music of Latin America. He has conducted workshops and delivered recitals nationwide and abroad, introducing audiences to seldom-heard pieces from the Latin American repertoire, with a special focus on his homeland, Bolivia.
Mr. Aparicio is on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, Piano Works in Progress, has adjudicated for NYSSMA and other competitions, and maintains a thriving private studio in New York City. He is the Founder and President of the Foundation for Bolivian Artists, Inc., an organization committed to discovering, promoting, and providing support to musicians of Bolivian heritage through various programs.
Barrett Cobb
Reviewer
Mezzo-soprano Barrett Cobb has performed as soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Chorale, the Sine Nomine Singers and Baroque Orchestra, the AIMS Orchestra, and the Orchester Landesteater Dessau. Opera roles she has performed include Azucena (Il Trovatore), Dryade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Marcellina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Marthe (Faust) and Suzuki (Madama Butterfly). Her singing has been described by Bernard Holland in the New York Times as “deeply moved and moving.” Ms. Cobb has served as principal flutist with numerous orchestras, including The Jupiter Symphony, The American Chamber Orchestra, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet Orchestra, and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Colombia. She was a founding member of the Quintet of the Americas, with whom she performed extensively under the auspices of Columbia Artists. She has appeared as soloist in concerti with the Westchester Chamber Orchestra, The American Chamber Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, and the Orquestra Sinfonica de Colombia, among others. Ms. Cobb holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Master of Musical Arts Degree from Yale University.
Frank Daykin
Reviewer
Frank Daykin is equally known as soloist, collaborative pianist, teacher, writer, and musicologist. His “The Encyclopedia of French Art Song: Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc” was published by the prestigious Pendragon Press in May 2013. Since then, it has been acquired by over ninety institutions of higher learning worldwide, including Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Juilliard, and the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Daykin has also had three volumes of poetry published, numerous selections having been set to music by contemporary composers. “Questions Remain: New Poems 2012/2013” (2014, CreateSpace), “Words Without Songs” (1992, Silver Hill Press), and “Islands” (1991, Silver Hill Press). Mr. Daykin’s bi-weekly arts blog “Before and After Silence” is an Internet destination for multi-disciplinary short commentary and reviews on many topics (www.innovativemusicprograms.com/blogs). Mr. Daykin is particularly identified with the French piano and chamber music repertoire. His thirty-four year duo partnership with Millette Alexander has produced two award-winning recordings and a host of performances in the US and abroad, always to rave reviews. The Toronto Citizen named them “surely the finest duo in the world today” and the New York Times proclaimed, “they make music as one.” He continues with numerous chamber groups including the Ambrosia Trio and Gotham Trio. Currently, he is on the faculty of the Chamber Music Conference/Composers Forum of the East at Bennington, VT.
Edith Eisler
Deceased Reviewer
Ms. Eisler wrote reviews for Stereophile Magazine and wrote articles and reviews for Strings Magazine; her interviews with string quartets have been collected and published. In her youth, she studied violin in Vienna, Prague, London and New York, and she has performed in solo and chamber music concerts in Europe and America.
Timothy Gilligan
Reviewer
As a music journalist and critic, Timothy Gilligan has been published in The Piano Quarterly, Piano Magazine, New York Concert Review and The International Piano Archive. He was the principal reviewer of the 2012 William Kapell Piano Competition and covered the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011. He is a pianist himself, and was a founding member of the Rosamunde Chamber Players with whom he toured internationally from 1980 to 1989. He has served on the faculties of both Boston University and The Harid Conservatory (now part of Lynn University) and been an Artistic Administrator of both symphony orchestras and opera. In 1993 he started Timothy Gilligan Artists Management, Inc., a booking and public relations agency for classical musicians in New York.
Harris Goldsmith
Deceased Reviewer
Mr. Goldsmith is a pianist, author and musicologist, and has written for numerous major publications such as The New York Post, Musical America, High-Fidelity, Opus, Strad, The Musical Times (London), and Keynote. He has contributed to New York Concert Review, Inc. since its very first issue, Vol. 1 No. 1. He is presently on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music and has several acclaimed recordings to his credit
Richard Holbrook
Reviewer
Born in New York City, Richard Holbrook grew up in the small town of Congers, New York, as the middle child in a family of nine — just enough players for a baseball game. However, Richard found a different game to play — show business. At an early age he became addicted to watching old films, especially the great Hollywood musicals. He dreamed of becoming a movie star as well as a singer. After high school, he studied music and drama at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts. In 1985, Richard started performing in cabaret venues throughout Manhattan, which he continues to do to this day. His sold-out shows Richard Holbrook: The Untapped Fred Astaire, Richard Sings Burton – The Songs of Burton Lane, and Richard Holbrook: Richard Sings Rodgers With A Lot Of Heart all received rave reviews. Richard is a four-time MAC award nominee for Best Male Vocalist. Richard released his first CD entitled Richard Holbrook Steps Out in 2004. In addition to being an accomplished singer, Richard has enjoyed success as an actor, with appearances on The Sopranos, Spin City, All My Children, and One Life to Live. Richard currently lives in Manhattan and loves being a New Yorker.
Donald Isler
Reviewer
Pianist Donald Isler is the founder of KASP Records (www.kasprecords.com), which has produced recordings of his performances of music by Schnabel and Spohr, as well as music of Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Schumann, music of the American composer, Louis Pelosi, and performances by great pianists of the past. The New York Times has written of him, “His ability to keep momentum alive through long movements makes him a most satisfying sonata player” and, “Listening to Donald Isler in Schubert’s rarely-heard B Major Sonata, one thinks ‘What a marvelous piece!’” The Classical Music Guide wrote “Donald Isler brings forward the traditions of great piano playing.” A graduate of New York’s High School of Music and Art, he received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, and his teachers included Bruce Hungerford, Constance Keene, Lilian Kallir, Eleanor Hancock, Zenon Fishbein, and Sina Berlinski. Donald Isler teaches at the Hackley School Music Institute and has served on the faculties of the Brooklyn College Preparatory Center and many other schools. He has been an adjudicator for the Pre-College Concerto Competition at the Juilliard School and a member of the Bruce Hungerford Award committee at the Young Concert Artists Competition. He has written many reviews for the Classical Music Guide and regularly writes articles about teaching and music on his Facebook page, entitled Isler’s Insights.
David LaMarche
Reviewer
Mr. LaMarche is a conductor and music administrator for American Ballet Theatre, Music Director of the Limon Dance Company, and a frequent guest conductor in the United States, Canada, and Japan. In addition to his work as a conductor, he maintains an active career as a chamber music pianist.
Harry Saltzman
Reviewer
Mr. Saltzman is one of those rare native New Yorkers who has spent his entire creative life in the city of his birth. In 1962, after earning his MA in musicology from the University of California at Berkeley, he returned to New York and joined the faculty of Brooklyn College. During his 37 years at the college, Professor Saltzman conducted the College Chorus, Chorale, Chamber Chorus, Collegium Musicum, and the Conservatory Orchestra. In 1968 he founded the Sine Nomine Singers, a chamber chorus that was in the forefront of the early music movement. Allen Hughes of the NY Times said” “If there is any chorus New York that can sing renaissance music as well as the Sine Nomine Singers, this listener is not aware of it.” Their recordings appear on the Turnabout and Newport Classic labels. With the Sine Nomine Singers Baroque Orchestra, they presented the first U.S. performance with period instruments of Handel’s oratorios Jephtha, Theodora, Hercules, The Choice of Hercules, Alexander’s Feast, and Israel in Egypt (complete three part version.) In 2009 he made his operatic debut, conducting Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with the Brooklyn Repertory Opera.
Rorianne Schrade
Reviewer
Dr. Schrade has reviewed concerts for New York Concert Review since 2006. She has performed as a pianist since age five with the celebrated Schrade family of pianists (the first family to be included on Steinway’s global artist roster), including at the Sevenars Music Festival in Massachusetts (cited as “one of the best small music festivals in the USA” by Time Magazine) and in critically acclaimed concerts at Lincoln Center in New York. As one of the outstanding soloists of her generation, Rorianne has been highly praised for her live performances in the U.S. and Europe, and for her recordings of a wide range of virtuoso masterpieces and novelties. Winner of an impressive array of prizes (from Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Washington International Competition, the Liederkranz Foundation, the National Arts Club, Artists International, N.Y. Chopin Foundation Council, and others), Rorianne has been likened to “a whirlwind unleashed” (Gannett Press). Her numerous performances at Carnegie’s Weill Hall in New York City have inspired glowing reviews from the press and her three CDs (released by Centaur and, in 2008, by Impromptu Classics) have garnered rave reviews from the American Record Guide, the All Music Guide, and others. An avid researcher with a doctorate from Temple University, as well as her Master and Bachelor degrees from Juilliard, she teaches and performs regularly as a Steinway Artist.
Emily White
Reviewer
Emily White’s career as piano soloist has taken her to London’s Wigmore Hall and South Bank Centre, New York’s Carnegie Hall (Isaac Stern Auditorium), and to countries in Western and Eastern Europe and Asia, as well as the U.S. and Canada. A top prizewinner at the International Young Concert Artists Competition of Royal Tunbridge Wells (U.K.), the International Mozart Competition (Austria), and the Chopin Competition of Greater New York, Dr. White has taught at The Juilliard School and has appeared as teaching artist in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Romania, and American institutions including SMU and the Universities of Washington and Oregon. Broadcasts include spots on the RAI in Italy, Strasbourg’s ACCENT-4, New York’s WQXR and WNYC radio, and stations in Philadelphia, Omaha, and Knoxville. Her Grammy-nominated all-Szymanowski recording on Arabesque is available through Amazon.com along with a new digital mini-release of American works. Dr. White, ARAM, holds degrees from the University of Maryland, Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music. As adjudicator, she has chaired the Undergraduate Performance Scholarships for Sigma Alpha Iota, an organization which recently awarded her Member Laureate status, and has served on the jury of the Mannes International Keyboard Institute and Festival. Her writing can be found at the International Piano Archives and on CD liner notes for Arbiter Records.
Mark N. Grant
Reviewer
Mark N. Grant is a composer and writer. In 2006 he became the first composer to receive the Friedheim Award since the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award program ended in 1993. A pianist and organist, he has composed music for instruments and voice in all forms and is frequently his own librettist for his theater pieces. He is the author of two ASCAP-Deems Taylor award-winning books: Maestros of the Pen: A History of Classical Music Criticism in North America and The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical.
Mr. Grant has also written and lectured extensively on the legacies of the composers Percy Grainger and Kurt Weill. He is a frequent writer on musical and other cultural topics for various publications and has been a guest speaker at various venues and a commentator on radio programs and podcasts.
Matei Varga
Reviewer
A top prizewinner at the Maria Canals and George Enescu piano competitions, Mr. Varga has appeared as a soloist and recitalist in many of the world’s leading concert halls. His artistry has garnered superlative reviews from critics around the world, who have found his performances “magical” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), “colorful, vivacious [and] engaging” (Le Diapason). He was invited by Gian Carlo Menotti to appear at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, and was awarded the Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant in New York. He has performed with the George Enescu Philharmonic, the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony, Orchestre des Nations, and many others, and has frequently accompanied the great Romanian soprano Mariana Nicolesco.
Mr. Varga holds degrees from the Romanian National University of Music and the Mannes School of Music. He studied with Ana Pitis, Ioana Minei, Sandu Sandrin, and Pavlina Dokovska. He now lives in New York City and is Artistic Director of the Alexis Gregory Vendome Prize, a piano competition presented by Mannes School and the College of Performing Arts (The New School).