Hyun Jeong Laura Lee was born in 1981 in Seoul, South Korea. She started to play the piano at the age of 5, and received education from Young Mok Ju, Dmitry Kosmachev. She tried to develop the ability of stage and participated many competitions, and received award from Jang-Hak competition 2nd prize in Seoul Korea, 2000 and Eumak chunchoo piano competition 3rd prize in Seoul Korea, 2003. The year of 2003, at the Mozarteum Summer music Academy, she has been chosen from pianist Alfons Kontarsky
and right after year, she went to Austria, Salzburg. She was admitted to University of Salzburg Mozarteum and under Professor Peter Lang, Gereon Kleiner, and George Kern, received her Bachelor’s, Master, Post graduate degree. There, She found that performers themselves were allowed to be artists and that they were given a degree of artistic liberty and the freedom to exercise creativity. Her years spent as an undergraduate in Austria were definitely formative; its faculty helped guide her through various obstacles that she faced both as a student and as a performer, and the university’s ideal location allowed her to frequently travel to and perform in various parts of Europe, such as Germany, Bulgaria, the
Netherlands, France and Italy. During staying in Europe, she received the opportunity to be an artist in several places. She worked as an artist at the Europa Kulturverein Wien agency and Seoul artists’ agency in Vienna between 2007 and 2011. Her education and professional training as well as performance repertoire have shaped her into a versatile student of music who is prepared and eager to expand her musical expertise and knowledge. Since 2016 until 2018 she eager to develop her musicality at University
of Southern California, Thornton School of Music, persuaded Graduate Certificate degree under Professor Daniel Pollack. 2016 November, she became a winner of Los Angeles International Liszt competition, Concerto competition 2017at USC 2nd prize winner, and Alion Batic International music competition Grand Prize in Estonia. 2018, May, she graduated with Honor from Thornton School of Music, and this summer, She performed MacDowell Concerto in d minor with Shumen Orchestra in Bulgaria, performed in Nice, France for “The 100 years of Anniversary for Claude Debussy”. She was invited from the mayor of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and gave a recital with singer this summer.
Greek American concert pianist Spyros Karavias started to play the piano when he was 9 years old, performing his first solo recital a year later with works of Bach, Mozart and Chopin. Early musical training includes the violin, french horn, and conducting. Spyros is the recipient of many scholarships, prizes and awards from around the world. He has performed solo and collaborative recitals in Austria, Germany, Italy, France, England, Czech Republic and Spain. Recent American performances in Texas, Kentucky and Antigua, Guatemala. Spyros has taken lessons and participated in masterclasses and piano festivals around the world with famous pianists and renowned pedagogues such as Misha Dichter, Eliso Virsaladze, Leonid Margarius, Pavel Gililov, Andrej Jasinski, Rolf Plagge, and Alan Feinberg among others. He earned his Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Piano Performance & Pedagogy (summa cum laude), at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria studying with Prof. George Kern, distinguished pianist and student of the legendary Rosina Lhevinne. Currently he pursues a Doctoral degree in Piano Performance at the University of North Texas. Recently, pianist Spyros Karavias won first prize from 31st Annual International Chopin Piano Competition in 2023 January and will perform in various places as solo recitals, and concertos in advance.
Hailed as “poetic and colorful,” pianist Yuta Sugano is rapidly gaining international recognition for his performances that not only display great facility of the hands, but come straight from the heart. He is known for interpretations that integrate his experience in historical performance practice and piano technology. An avid performer, he has appeared as soloist in Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Spain, and the United States, among others.
Yuta began his piano studies at the age of five, and by age eleven he made his concerto debut performing with the Kansai Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Japan. He has since been a recipient of numerous prizes and scholarships including Meiko Miyazawa Award, Yamaha President’s Award (Japan), Glenn E. LeClair Graduate Piano Award (USA), and Zodiac Music Academy’s Chamber Musician Award (France). An active chamber musician, Yuta Sugano has collaborated with notable clarinetists Boris Allakhverdyan, Stanislav Golovin, and Emil Khudyev, cellists Emanuel Gruber and Kenji Sasaki, and violinist-conductor Farhkhad Khudyev. His recently released solo CD Romanticism in 1828, published by Rose Planet label in Japan, has won glowing reviews from multiple critics and media outlets. Yuta Sugano is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy. As a recipient of the Conservatory Dean Scholarship Yuta attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music and received his Bachelor of Music degree. He earned his Master’s degree in Music from the University of Michigan on a full merit scholarship, and Doctor of Music Art degree with a cognate field in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Kansas, where he served as a graduate teaching assistant. Former teachers and mentors include Kazuko Akiya, Yoshikazu Nagai, Arthur Greene, Steven Spooner, and Meiko Miyazawa. While at the University of Michigan, Yuta also studied historical performance practice and the fortepiano extensively with renowned fortepianist, Penelope Crawford. When he is not performing, Yuta enjoys all things piano. He apprenticed with the piano technology department while at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. There he was trained to tune, service, and rebuild keyboard instruments including the harpsichord, fortepiano, as well as the modern piano. At the University of Michigan, he worked as an assistant piano technician, overseeing the practice room pianos. He has served as guest artist and speaker at the yearly C. F. Theodore Steinway Technical Academy at Oberlin Conservatory since 2009.
As a member of the Music Teachers National Association, Yuta has appeared as presenter and performer at both state and national conferences. He is currently on the faculty at the Arts Academy at the Steinway Gallery of Detroit and is a visiting lecturer of piano and music theory at the Illumine Star Academy in Ontario, Canada.
