International Keyboard Institute & Festival To Feature Yamaha and Bösendorfer Pianos Exclusively

NEW YORK (July 3, 2015) — Yamaha Artist Services New York is pleased to announce that Yamaha and Bösendorfer instruments will take center stage at the 2015 International Keyboard Institute & Festival (IKIF).

The Seventeenth Season of IKIF, running from July 18 through August 2 at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in New York City, will feature two exquisite handcrafted concert grand pianos, the Yamaha CFX, and the North American debut of the new Bösendorfer 280 VC. An exciting new development for IKIF in 2015 will be streaming the evening concerts from the Kaye. Live webcasts will be airing every night from July 18 through August 1, starting at 7PM, including interviews with the performing artists and 7:15 pre-concert lectures by David Dubal.

Since its inception in 1999, IKIF has afforded students the opportunity to attend the Festival to study with Faculty Artists, participate in master classes, and attend concerts and lectures given by some of the world's most renowned pianists and scholars.

"Yamaha is proud of its long association with the International Keyboard Institute and Festival," said Bonnie Barrett, director of Yamaha Artist Services New York. "IKIF attracts the highest caliber of faculty and students from around the globe. We are delighted to provide world-class concert instruments and unsurpassed technical service, to support artistry and musicianship at the highest level."  

About IKIF
The Guest Artist Faculty at the 15th Annual International Keyboard Institute and Festival includes distinguished pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Alessio Bax, and Arnaldo Cohen, for selected masterclasses and recitals.  Founder/Director Jerome Rose will perform the opening concert.  Making Festival concert debuts are two Hunter College Faculty members Geoffrey Burleson (Director of Piano Studies at Hunter College), and Quynh Nguyen. Returning to give a recital and masterclasses are Magdalena Baczewska (performing Bach's "Goldberg Variations" on both harpsichord and piano), Jeffrey Swann, Xiayin Wang, Alon Goldstein, Nina Tichman, Arnaldo Cohen, Victor Rosenbaum, and Alexander Kobrin.

Starting this year, IKIF will present a concerto evening featuring the Jäger Meisters Chamber Orchestra with conductor Eduard Zilberkant and concerto soloists Massimiliano Ferrati, Matei Varga, and Claire Huangci. In addition, IKIF will present a Gala Prestige Concert featuring three young artists presented on our Prestige Series in past years:  Mei-Ting Sun, Adam Golka, and Stanislav Khristenko.  Throughout the series, David Dubal will present Pre-Concert Program Notes each evening at 7:15pm in the Kaye.

Lectures in Lang Recital Hall will be held at 4:00pm on selected Saturdays and Sundays during the Festival.  Topics will include a lecture by Stuart Isacoff: "Van Cliburn – The Price of Success"; a lecture by David Dubal celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Sviatoslav Richter and Earl Wild; plus "Homage to Alexander Scriabin", with Dmitry Rachmanov and David Dubal. These three weekend events will be Free to the public. 

The Dorothy MacKenzie Artists Recognition Scholarship Award Finals will be held on the final Sunday of the Festival in Lang Recital Hall from 11am – 1pm and from 2 – 4pm.

IKIF will be live streaming the evening concerts from The Kaye Playhouse with webcasts airing every night July 18 through August 1, starting at 7PM, featuring interviews and the 7:15pm pre-concert lectures by David Dubal. For the live streaming schedule, please visit  http://ikif.org/live.

Faculty Artists who will teach and perform include Emanuel Krasovsky, Nina Lelchuk, Mykola Suk, Steven Mayer, Yuan Sheng, José Ramos Santana, Michael Oelbaum, Gabriele Leporatti, Gesa Luecker, and Asaf Blasberg. Student participants who attend the Festival for two weeks are eligible to compete for $10,000 in the Dorothy MacKenzie Artist Recognition Scholarship Awards.

This year, IKIF will also award a performance opportunity at the Accademia Europea Villa Bossi (Italy) and a recording for the Sheva Collection label.

About the Yamaha CFX
Introduced in 2010, the Yamaha CFX concert grand is the result of nearly 20 years of refinement and development, together with subjective feedback from the most discriminating performing artists throughout the world. It has become the piano of choice of renowned concert artists everywhere, as well as for recordings, concert venues, opera houses, international competitions, and music festivals.

About the Bösendorfer 280 VC
The new Bösendorfer 280 VC is a groundbreaking 21st Century instrument that builds on the rich Austrian music tradition associated with the Bösendorfer brand for nearly 200 years. When Yamaha purchased Bösendorfer in 2008, the company pledged to take the quality craftsmanship, sought-after sound and storied Austrian tradition of Bösendorfer pianos to even great heights, and the new 280 Vienna Concert grand reflects the success of that commitment. 

The Bösendorfer 280 VC is hand-crafted to be the ultimate dynamically responsive, versatile and powerful concert stage instrument that represents both the distinctive and unique Viennese sound, strongly based on the Bösendorfer tradition, but also focuses on meeting all the expectations and needs of today's performances and venues, leveraging new technology.

For more information:
www.ikif.org
www.yamaha.com/yasi
http://www.boesendorfer.com/