Bio Sketches

Mr. Tengstrand commences the 2002‑3 season with a six‑city tour through Scandinavia and China with EsaPekka Salonen and the Nordic Symphony Orchestra in performances of Wilhelm Stenhammer's Concerto #2. He also tours Sweden in performances of Chopin's Piano Concerto #1 with the Musica Vitae Chamber Orchestra and continues his performances and recording of all the Mozart Piano Concertos with Camerata Roman in Sweden. He also performs Stenhammer's Concerto#2 in Helsinki and Tallinn, Estonia under EsaPekka Salonen. In the United States, he plays with the Fargo‑Moorhead Symphony, gives a ten‑recital tour throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Iowa as well as at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC and Weill Recital Hall in New York. In October 2002 he has concerts in Japan including the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Japan Philharmonic in Suginama and Suntory Halls in Tokyo.

Tengstrand performs often with the leading symphony orchestras in Scandinavia such as Gothenberg, Malmo, Helsingborg, Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Tapiola Symphony and the Huarod Chamber Orchestra among others. He has appeared as soloist with the Orchestre National de France, French Radio Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra National de Lille, National Symphony of Taiwan, Singapore Symphony, New Japan and Osaka Philharmonic Orchestras. He has given recitals in Europe in such prestigious venues as Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Zurich's Tonhalle, Paris' Salle Gaveau and the Nice Opera House, as well as in Geneva, Bordeaux, Bergen, Norway, Montpellier Festival, Poland's Chopin Festival and Tokyo's Suntory Hall. He performed the Dvorak Piano Quintet in Wigmore Hall with the Chilingirian String Quartet and this was repeated in Chicago and at Michigan State University.

In the United States, he has performed with the Detroit Symphony under Neeme Jarvi and the Cincinnati Symphony under Lopez‑Cobos. He also played with the Alabama, Flint and Waterbury Symphony Orchestras. He enjoyed great critical acclaim for his New York recital debut at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and for his Kennedy Center recital debut in 2000. He returned in spring 2001 to Cleveland, the city of his 1997 triumph, for a recital under the auspices of the Cleveland Chamber music Society.

Mr. Tengstrand's latest recording is a solo CD for ProPiano Records of Glazunov's The Seasons Op. 67 and Konzertwalzer Op. 47 in a world premiere recording due for release in spring of 2003

Mr. Tengstrand won the Geneva competition in 1996 and was a Laureate of the Paris International LongThibaud Competition in 1995. He was a recipient of the Anders Wall Foundation Scholarship in 1997. Most recently, he was awarded the 1999 Musician Award by The Swedish Arts Grants Committee. The Swedishbom pianist studied in Geneva, Paris and Malmb, where his teachers included Dominique Weber, Romuald Sztern, Dominique Merlet and Hans PAAISSOn. While at the Paris Conservatory he received the Premier Prix and the Prix Special du Jury, and at the Geneva Conservatory he was awarded the Prix de Virtuosite.

Mr. Tengstrand received his first lessons from his mother and made his first public appearance when he was seven years old. Since then he has acquired a repertoire that spans from Bach to contemporary music and has become the dedicatee of a number of new pieces.

The world renowned Swiss pianist Hanni Schmid Wyss has performed as a soloist with major orchestras in the United States, Switzerland, Holland and Romania. She has recorded and appeared on TV and radio broadcasts in Italy, Germany, Austria, the United States, Switzerland, Holland and Romania. She is acclaimed for her “masterful performance” in recitals and chamber music.

Ms. Schmid Wyss began taking lessons at the age of 5 and graduated from the Zürich Music Academy and the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany. Her teachers include Heinz Schroter, Geza Anda and Guido Agosti.

She is the prizewinner of many International Piano Competitions, among others, a Medal Laureate at the Geneva International Piano Competition.

Hanni Schmid Wyss’ repertoire ranges from early Baroque to the late 20th Century’s contemporary music. Several composers have dedicated concertos and piano works to her, which she premiered.

She tours extensively, gives Master Classes, and has an outstanding reputation for her lecture recitals, which have been praised as “comments and interpretation in complete harmony.” Among her most successful themes are:

· “Switzerland, an inspiration upon both the famous and lesser known composers.”

The press, as well as the public, praises her magnificent playing, her exceptional sound, as well as her perfect technique.

Originality, strength of interpretation and perfect mastery of his instrument are some of the qualities ascribed to one of today's most formidable and exciting pianists, Kemal Gekic, whose playing has been praised worldwide by public and critics alike.

What makes him so unique is his artistic 'credo' that encompasses both knowledge of all facts essential to reconstructing the original idea behind the works he plays and the power to bring it alive for today's audiences. He presents fascinating, uncompromising and ever‑changing interpretations. He graduated in 1982 from The Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, with the highest mark ever granted a diploma exam recital, and was immediately given a faculty appointment by the piano department. He earned his Masters degree in 1985, the same year he created a sensation at the Chapin competition in Warsaw.

Since 1985 he has had an extensive concert activity throughout Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, South America, Africa, USSR, Middle East and Far East. His performances have been broadcast by RAJ Italy, TV Portugal, TV Yugoslavia, NHK Japan, POLTEL Poland, Egyptian TV, NDR Germany, RTV USSR, Intrervision, PBS USA and CBS Canada.

As a recording artist, Kemal Gekic has won accolades in Europe, America and Japan for insightful, and original views of the music of Handel, Mozart, Chapin, Scriabin and Liszt. His outstanding Naxos CD of Rossini‑Liszt Transcriptions has won 'The Rosette' of the Penguin Guide for music, while his JVC CD of Liszt's Twelve Transcendental Etudes is generally considered to the best recording of the set in history.

Born in Split, Croatia, Kemal Gekic lives in the United States and he is The Artist in Residence at the Florida International University. He performs worldwide.

Since his orchestral debut at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall at the , pianist Thomas Pandolfi has garnered consistent praise from both critics and audiences alike for his dramatic, yet sensitive style of playing. The late great conductor/composer Morton Gould, who was in attendance at that debut appearance, raved about Pandolfi's exciting playing: "This was the greatest interpretation of the Rhapsody I have heard since Gershwin played it himself!!" Pandolfi has since gone on to receive wide acclaim for his passionate and brilliant performances, most notably those of the great romantic masterworks of the 19th century. The Washington Post declares him to be "a pianist who will clearly bear watching.....an artist who is master of both the grand gesture and the sensual line.....Pandolfi possesses first-rate technical skills, an unerring command of phrasing, a quicksilver touch and cunning legerdemain when it comes to pedaling........a performance etched with calm and crystal clarity.....outstanding." Writing for New York Concert Review, Harris Goldsmith has described his performances to contain "high level pianism and tasteful, diversified musical ideas......crystalline textures and deft coloration.....charm and bracing elan." The Virginian Pilot proclaimed his interpretation of Gershwin's Concerto in F to be "stunning...he plays as if he possessed 21 fingers!....an interpretation filled with passion and fire!" Following a recital in New Orleans, The Times-Picayune raved about his "intense and elegantly colorful" piano playing. "A pianist of considerable flair" declares The New York Times.

Thomas Pandolfi's growing reputation as one of the finest young pianists of his generation has taken him all over the United States where he has given recitals throughout Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC, Georgia, North Carolina, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, Florida, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas, and West Virginia. He has appeared on such acclaimed recital series as Chicago's Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, New York's ProPiano Recital Series, Washington DC's Phillips Collection Series, and Western Florida's Rolfs' Piano Series.

Having collaborated with such conductors as Andreas Delfs, Crafton Beck, Ron Spigelman and William Hudson, Pandolfi has also appeared as guest soloist with numerous symphony orchestras. This season, he has performed Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 at the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra's Opening Gala Night Concert. Other highlights, will include an appearance with the Lima Symphony, as well as recitals at Strathmore Hall Arts Center and for the Coolfont Foundation. Last season (2000-01) included recitals on the National Chamber Orchestra Recital Series, the San Angelo Chamber Music Series, and the Alexandria Recital Series, as well as appearances with the San Angelo Symphony, the Fairfax Symphony, and the Ohio Valley Symphony.

A native of Washington, DC, Thomas Pandolfi studied with Sascha Gorodnitzki, Gyorgy Sandor and Herbert Stessin at the legendary Juilliard School as a scholarship student. After completing both his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees there, he furthered his studies with the great American pianist, Russell Sherman.

Thomas Pandolfi has taken top prizes in numerous international piano competitions both here and abroad. He is a Steinway Artist, and is exclusively represented by CHL Artists, Inc. of Beverly Hills.