21st Annual Benno Rubinyi Piano Undergraduate Student Competition

Acclaimed Canadian pianist Micah Yui has appeared with orchestras, in recital, and as a chamber musician on three continents. She has performed for dignitaries of Japan and Canada and has been awarded three Canada Council Grants, the Edmonton Civic Award, and the Alberta Achievement Award. A winner of numerous competitions and prizes, her recording of the Bloch Concerto Symphonique with the London Symphony was awarded Record of the Year by Stereophile Magazine.

Ms. Yui has performed recitals in cities including Zurich, Tokyo, New York and Copenhagen, and has collaborated with artists including Matt Haimovitz, Daniel Heifetz, James Buswell, Paul Coletti, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. With Matt Haimovitz and Andy Simionescu, she has performed numerous piano trio concerts, including the Beethoven Triple Concerto.

Ms. Yui received the Bachelor of Music degree at The Juilliard School where she was one of three students of the pianist, Bella Davidovich. She received her Artist Diploma at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and a Master of Music at the University of Toronto. She received a Graduate Performance degree from the Peabody Conservatory where she was one of six students in the studio of Leon Fleisher. She received her earliest training from Boris and Inna Zarankin and has worked with Marietta Orlov, Giovanni Valentini in Pesaro, Italy as well as solo and chamber music with Menahem Pressler.

Equally committed to mentoring the next generations of artists, Ms. Yui has served on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Peabody Preparatory, Heifetz International Music Institute, and the Music Institute of Chicago. Ms. Yui currently teaches piano at the Colburn School’s Community School of Performing Arts and the Music Academy.

Pianist Dmitry Rachmanov has garnered much acclaim for his passionate performances, refined musicianship and brilliant pianism. Hailed as an “indisputable musician” by the Brussels’ Le Soir and “suave and gifted pianist’ by the New York Times, Rachmanov has been heard at venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, London’s Barbican and South Bank Centres, and Beijing Concert Hall, and his tours brought him to Canada, Mexico, Europe, Russia, Turkey and the Far East. He has recorded for Naxos, Navona, Omniclassic, Master Musicians and Vista Vera labels, and collaborated as a soloist with Manhattan Philharmonia, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Orlando Symphony, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Ukraine National Symphony, National Orchestra of Porto, Portugal, among others. A strong proponent of the Russian repertoire, he gave the US premiere of Boris Pasternak’s Piano Sonata, broadcast nationwide by the NPR, and his recital The Art of the 19th Century Russian Character Piece was noted by the New York Times for considerable color and focus he brought to each work. A founding member of the Scriabin Society of America, Rachmanov has been giving recital tours featuring the music of Scriabin in commemoration of the composer’s memorial centennial (1915-2015), including appearances in Moscow, Paris, Budapest, Beijing & Shanghai and numerous venues in the US. His recital at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall was called indeed a ‘poem of ecstasy’ in every sense: giant in conception, quantity, quality, execution, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity by the New York Concert Review. He has recently embarked on a project of creating a video anthology of Scriabin’s major piano works.

Dr. Rachmanov’s interest in historical performance practice has brought him to the Massachusetts’ Frederick Historic Piano Collection, where he has made regular appearances performing recital series on period instruments. His album Beethoven and His Teachers, recorded in collaboration with the pianist Cullan Bryant on the collection’s period instruments and released by Naxos in 2011, has received critical accolades

An active member of the American Liszt Society, Dmitry Rachmanov has served as the Artistic Director of the American Liszt Society Festival Liszt and Russia hosted by California State University Northridge in June of 2016 (www.als2016.org). He is a founding member of the ALS’s Southern California Chapter.

Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov is Professor of Piano at CSU Northridge, where he serves as Chair of Keyboard Studies. A sought-after master class clinician and lecturer, Dr. Rachmanov has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and has appeared as a guest artist/teacher at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Indiana University at Bloomington, University of Michigan, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Beijing Central, Shanghai and Harbin Conservatories as well as East China Normal and Shanghai Normal Universities, among others. Dr. Rachmanov has been a frequent competition adjudicator in the US and abroad.

Rachmanov is a graduate of The Juilliard School (BM & MM) and he holds DMA from Manhattan School of Music. His teachers include Nadia Reisenberg, Arkady Aronov, and he coached with Yvonne Lefebure, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Menahem Pressler, Vitaly Margulis and John Browning. A prizewinner of international competitions, he was awarded a fellowship from the American Pianists Association and received the George Schick Award for Outstanding Musicianship at Manhattan School of Music. In 2008 Dr. Rachmanov was named the Jerome Richfield Memorial Scholar of the Year at California State University, Northridge. In 2015 he became an honoree of the Outstanding Faculty Award presented by the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars for his dedicated service to the International Community at CSUN, and he was a recipient of the Outstanding CAPMT (California Music Teachers National Association) Member, State Recognition Award.

Dmitry Rachmanov is a Steinway Artist.