Considered by Martha Argerich an “extraordinary musician” and by the international critic a “phenomenon,” “a master of contrasts” and “a stunning pianist with a symbiotic relationship with the instrument,” Steinway Artist Alexandre Dossin keeps an active performing, recording, and teaching careers.
Alexandre Dossin is a graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Russia) and holds a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin (USA). He was assistant of Sergei Dorensky at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and Willliam Race and Gregory Allen at UT-Austin.
A prizewinner in several international piano competitions, Dossin received the First Prize and the Special Prize at the 2003 Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other international awards include the Silver Medal and second Honorable Mention in the Maria Callas Grand Prix, and the Third Prize and Special Prize in the Mozart International Piano Competition, in addition to several prizes in Brazil.
An active recording artist, his performances are featured in over 15 recordings released with several labels, including 7 CDs with Naxos and 6 editions/recordings for Schirmer. Dossin’s edition and recording of complete piano sonatas by W. A. Mozart (2-volume edition and recordings, Schirmer Performance Editions) will be released in December of 2023. Upcoming releases in 2024 include the complete piano works by George Walker in 2 CDs with Naxos. This will be included in the label’s prestigious American Classics Series and will present the world premiere of Bauble in addition to the first recording of the piano concerto in more than ten years. This release will be followed by a performance edition of the same works published by Keiser Southern Music. Soloist appearances in 2023-2024 include the Eugene Symphony, the Austin Symphony, and the West Coast premiere of George Walker’s piano concerto with the University of Oregon Philharmonia.
Dossin’s work was praised in reviews by Diapason, The Financial Times, Fanfare Magazine, American Record Guide, Clavier, and other international publications.
Conductors with whom Dossin has performed include Charles Dutoit, Isaac Karabtchevsky, and Michael Gielen, with orchestras such as the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Brazilian National Symphony, Mozarteum University Symphony, and Tchaikovsky Conservatory Symphony. Dossin performed numerous live recitals for public radio in Wisconsin and Illinois, including repeated appearances at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. Dossin has performed in international festivals in Japan, Canada, the United States, and Argentina, on some occasions sharing the stage with Martha Argerich.
Dossin is the Vice-President of the American Liszt Society and president of its Oregon Chapter and is one of the recipients of the prestigious Faculty Fund for Excellence at the University of Oregon. Currently the chair of the keyboard area at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, he keeps a studio of advanced pianists from several countries and is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.
Since his concerto debut at the age of 16 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Taiwanese-American pianist Brian Hsu has gone on to establish himself a pianist of great energy and unusual communicative ability. Critics have described his performances in surperlatives, noting his “breadth of expression and technical ability.”
An experienced performer, Dr. Hsu has performed throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa. US performances include Boston, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Dallas, as well as many others. He has appeared as concerto soloist with such ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, Haddonfield Symphony, Sendai Philharmonic, and University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra. He has also been a guest on WQXR radio station in New York several times. Dr. Hsu has performed in various music festivals including Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy; Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan; Gijon International Piano Festival in Spain; Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina; Banff Festival of the Arts in Canada; PianoFest in The Hamptons in Long Island, New York. His US debut solo recording, Night at the opera: Part I, which consist of opera transcriptions for solo piano, was released in the fall of 2018. In addition to his competition successes, Dr. Hsu was the recipient of numerous awards while attending Juilliard, Yale, and Michigan.
Dr. Hsu frequently appears as a guest artist/teacher, presenter, and jury member in various Music Teachers National Association contests and other major competitions, such as the New Orleans International Piano Competition, Nanyang Academy of the Arts in Singapore. He often performs and has taught masterclasses at various colleges and universities throughout the United States and Asia. An avid chamber musician and collaborator, Dr. Hsu continuously performs with colleagues throughout the music world. Dr. Hsu participated in the world premiere of Paul Schoenfeld’s Piano Quintet with members of the Pro Arte’s Quartet, and in the spring of 2014, a recording was released by Albany Records. Along with voice alumni of Loyola University New Orleans, Dr. Hsu participated in the debut of Logan Skeleton’s Letters to Santa in 2016. As a member of the piano trio, Ensemble Peri, he participated in its inaugural tour which took place in Korea during the summer of 2019. Dr. Hsu is also a founding member of Key 2 Inclusion, an intercollegiate initiative to promote and teach piano music written by African-American and other minority composers.
Dr. Hsu served as a staff accompanist at Yale University and University of Michigan, staff accompanist and chamber music coach at Eastern Music Festival, piano faculty at the McAlester Institute in Oklahoma, piano faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. He has served as schedule coordinator, staff pianist, faculty, and assistant to the director at Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy. He was also an adjunct professor at Siena Heights University and taught at the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts.
Dr. Hsu’s primary piano professors include Logan Skelton, Peter Frankl, Jerome Lowenthal, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Wha-Kyung Byun, and John Kuo. He has won awards in numerous competitions, both in the US and Asia, including Wideman Competition, Corpus Christi International Young Artists’ Competition, Juilliard’s Gina Bachauer, National Piano Competition in Taiwan. Additional studies have been with Da-Ming Zhu, Paul Schenly, Marc Durand, Arthur Greene. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, Artist Diploma from Yale University, Doctoral of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan. He is currently associate professor of piano at the University of Oregon. Prior to Oregon, he was associate professor at Loyola University New Orleans.
David Riley is Professor and Director of Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music at the University of Oregon, where he joined the music faculty in 2004. He holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Jean Barr and Anne Epperson, respectively.
Dr. Riley has received rave reviews throughout the U.S. and Canada, including “Absolutely exquisite technique” (New York Concert Review), “A soloist’s dream, star quality, gifted and sensitive …” (Billings Gazette), “a superb collaborator” (Strad Magazine). He has extensive experience as a professional recitalist, frequently performing at many of North America’s most prestigious venues such as Merkin Hall with the New York Philharmonic Chamber Players, the National Art Gallery in Washington D.C., Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, Bargemusic (NYC), the Gardner Museum in Boston, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the 92nd St. Y in New York City, Bellas Artes in San Juan P.R., National Sawdust (Brooklyn, NYC), the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, and Salle de Concert Pollack in Montreal, among others.
Previously a vocal coach at the Manhattan School of Music, he has performed at the Kammermusikfest Kloster Kamp in Linfort, Germany with principal string players from throughout Europe (Frankfurt Opera Concertmaster, NDR Symphony Orchestra Principal Cello (Hamburg), etc.) chamber music concerts at the Oregon Bach Festival (including with legendary baritone Thomas Quasthoff & tenor Nicholas Phan), Lake Tahoe with Kronos Quartet cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, and was a guest artist at Stanford University as a member of the new music ensemble Beta Collide. Dr. Riley has been featured on dozens of radio broadcasts including BBC Radio with renowned pianist Jeffrey Kahane (Mendelssohn 4-hands), NPR Performance Today & Morning Edition, CBC National Radio, and WQXR and WNYC in New York City.
Dr. Riley’s awards include the 2008 Canadian Independent Music Awards ‘Favorite Classical CD’ and ‘Best Music’ at the 2007 Silver Wave Film Festival for performances of Beethoven, Ives, and Kroll on CBC Television. Along with violinist Jasper Wood, he received the 2004 East Coast Music Award ‘Best Classical Recording’ for a CD of works for violin and piano of Igor Stravinsky. Other artists with whom he has concertized include violinsts Juyoung Baek, Jennifer Frautschi, Ilya Gringolts, Phillipe Quint, Giora Schmidt, and Zvi Zeitlin, violist Lawrence Dutton (Emerson Quartet), cellists Denise Djokic and Jesus Morales, and clarinetists Carey Bell, Alex Fiterstein, and Ricardo Morales.
Acclaimed for her expressive playing and engaging teaching, pianist Grace Ho is “an artist who makes music from the heart and touches her audience with her wonderful sensitivity.”
Dr. Ho has been recognized as “an ideal performer and lecturer, having developed piano performance and pedagogy at the highest level, in combination with a deep scholarly sense and brilliant skills for engaging audiences and students into her passion for the music she is dealing with.” She has presented lecture-recitals for the Oregon Bach Festival and at regional conferences in the Pacific Northwest and Canada.
As a teacher, she is sought after for her “wonderful communication with her students,” as well as her ability to “tailor her teaching to each student’s skill proficiency and learning curve.” For over twenty years she has taught piano students of all ages and levels. At the collegiate level, she has nine years of experience as the instructor for courses in piano literature, piano pedagogy, applied piano, class piano, and music theory. Dr. Ho has frequently served as adjudicator for the Oregon Music Teachers Association and the National Federation of Music Clubs.
Dr. Ho holds a D.M.A. in piano performance and arts administration from the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, a Professional Studies Diploma in piano performance from San Francisco Conservatory, a M.M. in piano performance from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a B.M. in piano performance from Biola University Conservatory of Music. Her primary teachers include Dean Kramer, Paul Hersh, Menahem Pressler, Jennie K. Wong, and Marilyn Thompson.
Dr. Ho is on the faculty at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance as Instructor of Secondary Piano and Piano Pedagogy.