2023 FESTIVAL GUESTS
Ann Schein
Ann Schein’s amazing career has earned her praise in major American and European cities and in more than 50 countries around the world. Since her debut in Mexico City in 1957 when she performed both the Rachmaninoff 3rd Concerto and the Tchaikovsky B-flat Concerto, she has performed thousands of concerts on every continent. The Washington Post has written, “Thank heaven for Ann Schein…what a relief it is to hear a pianist who, with no muss or fuss, simply reaches right into the heart of whatever she is playing – and creates music so powerful you cannot tear yourself away”.
Ann Schein has received many distinguished honors for her Chopin performances. In a special survey of outstanding Chopin recorded performances during the bicentennial of Chopin’s birth in 2010, entitled “A Century of Romantic Music”, Gregor Benko and Ward Marston cited her performances of Chopin stating, “Ann Schein was trained in her native United States, where she studied with both Mieczyslaw Munz and Arthur Rubinstein. Her first recordings, made when she was 18 and 19, established her as one of the premiere Chopin pianists of our time.”
Recently, she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement in the Performing Arts by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. In 2019 she performed and gave master classes in the Tobias Matthay Festival at the University of Alabama, the IKIF Festival in New York at Hunter College, and the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Presently, Ann Schein is on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory and the Mannes School of Music.
[Franz Liszt - Tarantella - live performance at the 2012 Aspen Music Festival]
Tiffany Poon
Hong-Kong born pianist, Tiffany Poon has appeared with orchestras and in recital throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and China since she was first accepted to the Juilliard pre-college program at the age of eight. In addition to live performances, she is also dedicated to building an audience for classical music (317,000+ on YouTube) and demystifying classical music.
This season, Tiffany Poon will perform debut recitals at the Dresden Music Festival, Monheimer Kulturwerke and Mänttä Music Festival. Last seasons, she debuted in Herbst Theatre presented by Chamber Music San Francisco, Washington Performing Arts' Hayes Piano Series at the Kennedy Center, Gilmore Keyboard Festival’s Rising Star Series, and abroad in Munich’s Herkulessaal, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Rheingau Musikfestival’s KlassikMarathon, Zurich’s Tonhalle-Orchester and the NeueNamen series in Münster and Bielefeld, as well as a concerto debut in Salzburg with the Philharmonie Salzburg and conductor Elisabeth Fuchs.
She also collaborated with acclaimed cellist Jan Vogler for a series of recitals celebrating Beethoven including a performance of Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas at the Rheingau Music Festival. In collaboration with Moritzburg Festival, her critically acclaimed recording of Antonín Dvořák’s solo and chamber music works with cellist Jan Vogler and violinist Chad Hoopes were released by SONY Classical in summer 2022.
Tiffany received a full scholarship from the Columbia University/Juilliard School exchange program and studied piano with Emanuel Ax and the late Joseph Kalichstein. She was named a John Jay Scholar by Columbia University for her outstanding academic and artistic achievements and in May 2018, she graduated from Columbia University with a degree in philosophy.
Her recital at the Taubman Festival this year will serve as a fundraiser for her charity Together with Classical - a nonprofit she founded in 2020, dedicated to empowering people of diverse musical backgrounds to learn and share their experiences with classical music, through online community engagement, grant-giving, interviews and educational videos.
Rachmaninoff/Kreisler - Liebesleid (Love's Sorrow) | Tiffany Poon (Live at Gilmore Festival) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6MjjfIHA1M&ab_channel=TiffanyPoon