Piano Section
| Section Secretary: | Andrea Hutter |
| Date: | 17/18 March 2012 |
| Venue: | The Red Maids' School, Westbury Road, Westbury-on-Trym, BRISTOL, BS9 3AW |
Adjudicators For 2012
Nadia Lasserson
NADIA LASSERSON was a student at the Royal Academy of Music and while there, was appointed a Sub-Professor and was awarded the Manns Memorial Prize. She studied piano with Robin Wood and Max Pirani, clarinet with Alan Hacker, harpsichord with Geraint Jones and prepared for the B.Mus degree with Dr. Eric Thiman.
Nadia is an experienced performer with a wide repertoire of Concertos and Chamber Music and has played in the Purcell Room, Music Clubs and Festivals in Great Britain and abroad, having made her debut in the Festival Hall at the age of sixteen. She has recorded the rarely-heard Mendelssohn Concerto for Violin and Piano and the Schubert Notturno with violinist Peter Fisher with whom she gave many concerts in 1997, to mark the various centenaries of Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Korngold in Festivals at home and in Germany, Cyprus and Croatia where they also gave a recital of British music at the 19th International EPTA Congress. As an accompanist, she is in much demand for Masterclasses and Workshops. She has recently performed Beethoven's Triple, Emperor Concertos and Mozart's K467. and most recently, played Beethoven Piano Concerto no 2 in Bb with the European Doctors' Orchestra in the Cadogan Hall and Bangalore, India.
She has also produced a CD which includes all new works composed especially for "PIANO 40" (an ensemble for 8 hands on 2 pianos) of which Nadia is the Founder. The ensemble's main objective is to extend the repertoire for this neglected medium and to date, no less than 27 works have been composed and performed in Piano 40's sold-out South Bank Concerts having given one of their first concerts at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. They recently performed in Cyprus and in St John's Smith Square, London, and Slovenia.
Nadia has a wide experience of piano teaching and believes it is important that all her pupils are exposed to ensemble playing (both piano ensembles and chamber music) from the very early stages and these topics have led her to present workshops on the subject in the UK and abroad - including the International Kodály Festival at Kecskemét, Hungary, Cyprus, Malta, Croatia, Belgium, Sweden, Canada, and at the NKPC Conference in Chicago. She has toured India with masterclasses, and lecture/recitals. Her publication "Piano Needn't be Lonely" - a guide to over 600 pieces of Chamber Music and Multipiano Repertoire – is now in its third edition. As well as running a private teaching practice in South London she is currently on the teaching staff of Trinity College of Music and the Royal College of Music Junior Departments; she was Head of Keyboard and Chamber Music at James Allens Girls' School, Dulwich for 15 years, and still teaches there. She is a Festival Adjudicator, and examined for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music for over 20 years.
Since 1991, she has been the Organising Secretary of EPTA - European Piano teachers' Association - which her mother, Carola Grindea founded 33 years ago.
Michael Young BA MMUS ARCM
Michael Young was brought up in the West Midlands and studied piano with Lilian Niblette and composition with Charles Hutchings. Following academic studies at university he continued his piano studies with David Parkhouse at the Royal College of Music, where he was a double prizewinner, and he was also a prizewinner in the National Piano Concerto Competition in Dudley in 1977.
He has performed regularly as recitalist, concerto soloist and in chamber music in Europe, USA and SE Asia, giving many first performances and broadcasts of contemporary music as well as making a special study of the works of Korngold. He has recently worked in duo partnerships with Christopher Horner (violin) and Ioan Davies (cello).
Michael has been active as a piano teacher for 40 years and has given masterclasses and lectures all over the world. He was Head of Keyboard at Wells Cathedral School for 20 years, developing a department with an international reputation for excellence, and is now Professor of Piano at both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He has lectured at both institutions on the Art of Piano Teaching.
Many of his former students have gone on to international success and careers as performers and teachers. He is much in demand as a festival adjudicator and is on the Examining, Diploma and Presenting panels of the ABRSM.