MEET THE JURY MEMBERS
John Mayhood
Pianist John Mayhood enjoys a busy performance schedule that in recent seasons has taken him across the North America and Europe in a wide variety of solo and collaborative settings and in repertoire that spans from the English virginalists to music of the present day. His concerts often explore the works of a single composer, combining solo piano and chamber music – he has dedicated complete evenings to the works of Poulenc, Hindemith, Feldman, and Schubert, and to new works by emerging composers. He has recently given world premieres of works by Matthew Burtner, Daniel Kessner, and James Sochinski, and the US premiere of Bruce Mather’s Doisy Daëne III. His performances are often featured on NPR, CBC, and SRC radio, and his recordings can be heard on Ravello Records and the EcoSono label.
Also a scholar, he has presented work on ‘transformational theory’ and ‘theory and performance’ at the University of Chicago and at the annual meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie. His main interest is the philosophy of music, particularly meaning in abstract music and the philosophy of performance.
John holds the Master of Music degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied with Ian Hobson; his other major teachers are Caio Pagano and Jean-Paul Sévilla. He has taught piano at the University of Illinois and philosophy at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. He currently resides in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he is head of the piano faculty at the University of Virginia.
Jerome Reed
Jerome A. Reed is the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Piano at Lipscomb University. He has performed extensively in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America, giving recitals and masterclasses in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, China, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, England, Hungary, and Uruguay. He has recorded works for piano and tape for Capstone Records and in 2009 released a recording of sonatas for flute and piano with Deanna Little. In August of 2014 Navona Records released his recording of Elizabeth Austin’s Rose Sonata. He has given over fifty performances in the U.S. and abroad of Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata, which incorporates a multimedia presentation and readings from Ives's writings. In 2003 he was awarded the Avalon Award for Creative Excellence, in 2006 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Tennessee Music Teachers Association and in 2010 he was named Teacher of the Year by the same organization. In 2019 he was inducted into the Steinway Teachers Hall of Fame in New York.
His students have won many competitions, including first place in Tennessee Music Teachers Association competitions, the first Nashville International Piano Competition, the Tennessee Tech Young Artist Competition, and Clavierfest at MTSU. His student piano trio placed third at the Music Teachers National Association Competition in New York in 2012. He has served on the faculty of the InterHarmony Music Festival in Italy and the East/West International Piano Festival in China. He is also chair of the music division of the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts.
He holds the D.M.A. and M.M. in piano performance from The Catholic University of America, where he was a student of Béla Börzörményi-Nagy. He also studied with Jeanne-Marie Darré at the Conservatoire de Musique de Nice.
Russell Ryan
Russell Ryan was born in North Dakota, USA, and received his first piano lessons at the age of six. He performed as a soloist at the San Francisco Junior Bach Festival for four consecutive years. After his studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Paul Hersh, he participated in masterclasses at the Juilliard School in New York, and subsequently moved to Austria, where he studied piano chamber music under Professor Georg Ebert at Vienna’s University for Music and the Performing Arts, graduating with honors. During his piano studies, he has worked with Irwin Freundlich, Adele Marcus, Thomas Schumacher, and Ingrid Haebler.
In 1985, he became a member of staff of the vocal department at Vienna’s University for Music and Performing Arts, where, as of 1991, he worked as assistant in the lied-class of Edith Mathis. For several years he was also accompanist of the Wiener Singverein and frequently gave master classes for opera and musical theatre at international festivals, such as the Jugendfestival Bayreuth, the Wiener Meisterkurse, the Gino Bechi Festival in Florence and the Oslo Music Academy. In 2008, he received a professorship of practice for collaborative piano at Arizona State University and is guest instructor at the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES) in Vienna, where he is in charge of the Vocal Performance Class. He also has been a guest artist at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and Middlebury Summer program.
He performs regularly as a soloist and collaborative artist throughout Europe, the USA, Israel, Japan, and China. He has appeared in many radio and television broadcasts and has recorded several CDs, including the most recent recording of Schulhoff’s Concerto Doppio with Ulrike Anton and David Parry with the English Chamber Orchestra. Through the years, he has concertized extensively with the Austrian baritone,Wolfgang Holzmair, with whom he has recorded the Mahler Lieder cycles, Hugo Wolf, Schubert and Krenek, Music from Theresianstadt, and many live radio broadcasts. Chamber Music CDs include the Complete Flute Trios of J. Haydn, Austrian Flute Music through the Centuries (Zeitsprünge), and works by Hans Gal with the Austrian Flutist, Ulrike Anton. Mr. Ryan has concertized at the Wiener Festwochen, Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, the Grieg Festival Oslo, Bergenser Festspillene, the Wiener Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus, the Lincoln and Kennedy Center Series, the Berlin Konzerthaus and the Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival in Germany, to mention only but a few venues. In addition, he performed in the Weill Recital Hall at New York's Carnegie Hall, accompanying Hugo Wolf’s major song-cycles on several evenings.
Education
Piano Chamber Music (Honors), Vienna’s University for Music and the Performing Arts, 1984
Bachelor of Music (Piano Performance), San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 1977
CLÁUDIO SOARES
Prof. Cláudio J. Lisbôa Soares (pianist)
Music studies in Brazil with Dr.Prof.Miguel Proenca and et Escola Nacional de Musica (Rio de Janeiro)
After he won prizes at “Nato Henn” and “Giomar Novais Piano Competition”, he got a scholarship from The German DAAD program to continue his studies in 1977 and 78 in Hanover, Hochschule fur Music und Darstelende Kunst with Prof. Hans Leygraf. Another scholarship from the Hamburg University in 1979 to 1981 and studied in Hamburg Hochschule fur Musik with Prof. Yara Bernette.
Since 1983 living in Japan, Claudio Soares appeared as soloist with Osaka Chamber Orchestra and Prague Soloists and has made radio, television appearances, recitals and concertos in Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Syria, Italy, USA and Japan. He is also playing duos and accompaniment for singers.
Mr. Soares is author of the book “the World of Sound –Soares’ Piano Instruction” (YAMAHA Music Media Corporation) and “Bach Piano Works – Guide Book for Studding and Teaching” by the same publisher.
He is heavily involved in music education and piano pedagogy. His students have won many prizes in all-important competitions in Japan ( PTNA, Tokyo Music Competition, Mainichi Competition etc) and many international competitions in Japan and abroad (1991 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, 2007 International Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibeaud Competition, 2000 ,2002,2004 Ettlingen Piano Competition, 2014 Concurso International de Piano Premio Jaén, 2010 Geneva International Music Competition, 2016 Robert Schumann International Competition and others. He was many times awarded the “Teachers Price “ and the “Toyota Price” by JPTA for his pedagogy engagement and was warded the Culture Merit Diploma from Sakai City (2015) and Osaka Government (2018).
Mr. Soares is at present Professor at the Piano Performance department of Osaka College of Music, Doshisha Woman’s University. He is also the founder and president of the Sakai Piano Association.
