Toradze Institute brings musical luminaries to IUSB

Audience opportunities abound at Piano Festival

By Steven Heim

The first institute, in November 1998, drew nine of the nation’s most promising students from piano programs across the country, many of whom already had won international music competitions.

Institute faculty veteran Valery Gergiev, principal conductor of the Kirov Ballet Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, will return. The festival will open Sunday, Nov. 12, as Gergiev conducts the South Bend S ymphony Orchestra with Alexander Toradze, IUSB’s Martin Professor of piano. The performance will take place in the newly renovated Morris Performing Arts Center.

Susan Starr, one of America’s most celebrated pianists; David Stevens, music correspondent for the International Herald Tribune; and John Ardoin, former music critic for the Dallas Morning News, are among instructors. The institute’s coaching faculty also will include Toradze and studio masters Alexander “Sasha” Korsantiya and George Vatchnadze. In addition, Richard Rodzinski, executive director of the Van Cliburn Foundation and a charter member of the institute faculty, will return as a member of the sta ff.

The Toradze Piano Institute was conceived by Toradze and Robert Demaree, former dean of the IUSB Division of the Arts, as a seminar experience that explores both the on- and off-stage challenges of the performance life. In addition to daytime career semin ars and master classes in concerti technique, each fellow will give a solo performance accompanied by the regional Elkhart County Symphony at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, at the IUSB campus auditorium.

For additional performance opportunities, go to this site:

http://www.iusb.edu/~artevent/Enter_2/Music/Piano_Festival/piano_festival.html