2025 FESTIVAL GUESTS
Pianist Fei-Fei
Praised for her “bountiful gifts and passionate immersion into the music she touches” (The Plain Dealer), pianist Fei-Fei is a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition and a top finalist at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. She continues to build a reputation for her poetic interpretations, charming audiences with her “passion, piquancy and tenderness” and “winning stage presence” (Dallas Morning News), both in the US and internationally, including her native China.
Fei-Fei’s concert tours have taken her across the globe in concerto performances, recitals and chamber music collaborations alike. Recent projects include artist-in-residence with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic touring in Germany, a Carnegie Hall performance and tour of Spain with the New York Youth Symphony, a 19-city tour of China with her Aletheia Piano Trio, as well as concerto engagements with the Costa Rica National Symphony, Shenzhen Symphony, Pacific Symphony, and Amarillo Symphony orchestras. Her 2022-23 season highlights included performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at Lincoln Center with the Pegasus Symphony as well as performances of lesser-represented repertoire such as concertos by Leroy Anderson, Florence Price, Clara Schumann, and Xiaogang Ye.
Fei-Fei was showcased prominently as a Cliburn finalist in the documentary
film, Virtuosity, about the 2013 Cliburn Competition, which premiered on PBS in August 2015. Deeply committed to sharing her joy for music and connecting with communities, Fei-Fei also engages students and community audiences through frequent school and outreach concerts and masterclasses. Born in Shenzhen, Fei-Fei began piano lessons at the age of 5. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she studied with Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky, and is currently pursuing a Doctoral of Musical Arts degree with pianist Yefim Bronfman at Manhattan School of Music.
Esteban Castro
Gilmore 2026 Bell Young Artist Jazz Award and 23 Yr-Old Prizewinning Steinway Artist
Esteban Castro s a 22-year-old pianist and composer based in New York City. He
performs internationally with his own band and as an in-demand sideman. Among others, he has played with Billy Drummond, Francesco Cafiso, Gilad Hekselman, Giveton Gelin, Joe Farnsworth, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Marcus Miller, Mark Whitfield, Russell Hall, Ted Nash, and Wayne Escoffery. As a leader and a sideman, has performed at venues such as The Blue Note, The Montreux Jazz Festival, NPR Tiny Desk, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, The Jazz Gallery, and Smalls. He has also toured around the US and in Australia, Canada, France, Indonesia, Italy, Hong Kong, Peru, Singapore, and Switzerland. Esteban is currently a junior at the Juilliard School on a full scholarship, and he studies privately with Fred Hersch.
Esteban started playing the piano at age 4, and quickly found himself improvising and
composing at a very young age. This led to the beginning of his jazz journey at age 6. At age 9, he began his studies at Jazz House Kids, and a year afterwards he attended the Manhattan School of Music precollege as a double major in jazz and classical piano. At age 13, Esteban was the First Prize Winner in the Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition in 2016, making him the youngest ever to receive this award. Then, at 14, he was the youngest First Prize recipient at the 2017 Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. He entered various high school programs such as the Grammy Band in 2017 and 2018, the 2019 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, and was selected as a 2019 YoungArts Finalist. He also won a variety of classical piano competitions, including the 2019 MSM Precollege Philharmonic Concerto Competition, playing Prokofiev’s 1st Piano Concerto. After graduating from high school, he won the Grand Bohemian Prize at the 2022 American Jazz Pianist Competition, and was selected among five finalists for the prestigious 2023 American Pianist Association Competition.
Dr. Lisa Yui
Concert Artist, Lecturer, Yamaha Artist
Described as “a musical phenomenon” (Pianiste magazine), Yamaha Artist Lisa Yui enjoys a multifaceted musical career as pianist, lecturer, teacher, author, and musical director. Since making her concerto debut at the age of seven, Lisa Yui has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a recitalist and soloist with orchestra. She is the top prizewinner of the Senigallia International Piano Competition in Italy, the Super Classics International Auditions in Tokyo, and has twice been the recipient of a Canada Council Scholarship.
Lisa Yui has performed as soloist with prominent orchestras such as the Tokyo Symphony, Polish National Radio, Toronto Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, the Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, and the Krakow State Philharmonic. Her performances have been broadcast on WQXR (New York), CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation), CJRT-FM (Ontario, Canada), and STV (Sapporo, Japan). She has performed in Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum in Budapest, among other major concert venues around the world.
Lisa Yui is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard Extension, where she teaches piano and a new lecture/performance course, Keyboard Literature in Concert. Previous appointments include piano faculty at John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, Associate Dean of Assessment and Academic Programs at Manhattan School of Music, department chair of the Music Advancement Program at the Juilliard School, and director of Ensemble 212’s Young Artist Competition Series. She also taught a course on the social history of the piano at Marymount Manhattan College for many years. Lisa Yui has served as a member of numerous competition juries including the National Finals of the Canadian Music Competition and the Canadian Chopin Competition.
Danette Whelan
Danette Whelan is an independent piano teacher, composer, and a mindfulness and meditation instructor. She has over 30 years of experience teaching piano, composition and improvisation. Her students have performed in winners’ recitals in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and received awards in many composition competitions including the New Jersey Music Teachers Association, Music Educators Association of New Jersey’s Eric Steiner Composition Competition, Piano Teacher’s Society of America and the National Guild of PIano Teachers.
In 2013, she was selected to be the commissioned composer for the Piano Teachers Society of America’s annual Carnegie Festival. She was also the recipient of the Genia Robinor Pedagogy Award for Outstanding Solo Teaching and the Alllison R. and Maria Drake Pedagogy Award for Outstanding Ensemble Teaching presented by the Piano Teachers Society of America. Danette incorporates mindfulness and meditation in her piano studio to help students work through stress and anxiety, improve concentration, gain confidence and play with ease. She specializes in full-embodiment playing - which is the practice of being aware of the body (such as thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, and the breath), relaxing areas of tension, and bringing full attention to the music with acceptance and non-judgement.
Danette received her B.A. in piano performance at Douglass College (Rutgers University). She is a MNDFL Certified Mindfulness instructor and a certified Meditation instructor through the Sri Amit Ray Meditation Center. She has presented mindfulness based sessions at national conferences (MTNA and NCKP) and at state music teachers organizations (MEA-NJ, Piano Teachers Forum of NJ, NJMTA, PPSI). Danette is President of the Music Educators Association of New Jersey, Chairperson of the MEA-NJ’s Eric Steiner Composition Competition and adjudicator for the New Jersey Federation of Music Clubs. She maintains a private piano studio in Warren, NJ. Her numerous piano compositions can be found on Sheet Music Plus. To learn more about Danette, go to: danettewhelanmusic.com.
Benjamin Steinhardt
Pianist Benjamin Steinhardt enjoys an international reputation for his innovative
teaching and regularly performs in the New York metro area. Placing an emphasis on
creativity and exploration his teaching incorporates concepts from the Taubman
Approach, Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory, Dalcroze, and somatic education to
give students the tools to reach their highest potential.
His writings and webinars have been featured on the MTNA, American Music
Teacher, Clavier Companion, TheCuriousPianoTeachers.org, and iPianoTeacher.com.
An artist of great versatility, Steinhardt is equally at home as pianist in the concert hall,
and as conductor in the orchestra pit. Recital and chamber performances as a pianist
include Zankel and Weill Recital Halls at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and Greenwich
Music House. Work as a musical director includes Queens Theater in the Park, the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the New York Musical Theater Festival, Bravo television and
cabaret spaces throughout NYC including The Metropolitan Room, Studio 54, and
Birdland. Mr. Steinhardt served as musical director for the Emmy award winning, “News
in Revue.”
Steinhardt is on the board of the Fairfield County Music Teachers Association
and co-administers “The Art of Piano Pedagogy,” an online community for professional
piano teachers with over 20,000 members.
www.benjaminsteinhardt.com
Nancy Modell
Nancy Modell, Suzuki Teacher Trainer with Taubman Approach
Nancy Modell, an Ithaca College School of Music graduate in both piano
performance and music education, is very passionate about teaching music. In the 1980s, as a Teacher Trainer, she pioneered the Suzuki Piano Approach in Israel where she taught students and trained local piano teachers in Jerusalem.
Since 1992 she has been teaching in Springfield, NJ, inspiring students to reach their potential through innovative learning opportunities, including original composition, music events and field trips. Nancy continues to train teachers in the Suzuki Approach at Suzuki Summer Institutes throughout the USA. She has explored ways to introduce composition to students of all levels and has presented her approach at various teachers’ forums, including NAfME, NJMEA, NJMTA, MEA-NJ, PTC of NY, PTF, The Taubman Festival, the SAA, and most recently at 1era Convención Suzuki de las Américas in Cancun, Mexico. She has trained piano teachers at institutes, college courses and privately, and frequently teaches ECC!©. She is Piano Coordinator of the NJ Suzuki Workshop and is the Immediate Past President of MEA-NJ.