The UF School of Music is inviting some of the world’s elite student and professional pianists for a weeklong workshop for the 2015 International Piano Festival, creating a melting pot of artists from across the globe.
The event, which starts Saturday and ends June 20, consists of master classes and daily recitals in Room 101 of the UF School of Music building. The recitals will begin at 7:30 p.m. The master classes, which start at 3:30 p.m., are free and open to the public.
Thirty students from seven countries including China, Canada and Russia were selected to attend the weeklong workshop to study and perform under the guidance of some of the greatest teachers in the profession, said event director Kevin Orr.
This year, world-renowned pianist of the China Conservatory, Xiaofeng Zhang, is traveling from Beijing to join the UFIPF teaching faculty along with three of his students, one of which will be the youngest student at the festival at just 15 years old.
Other noted faculty members include Natalya Antonova of the Eastman School of Music, Robert Roux of Rice University, Roberta Rust of Lynn University and UF’s Kevin Robert Orr, who is also a professor of piano.
“We’re very proud of our music program at the UF School of Music and the level of study that we have,” Orr said. “It’s exciting for me to bring these high-level teachers and students to our school and kind of showcase what we do to them.”
Audiences can expect to hear household classics like Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin, as well modern compositions by living composers performed by students. Orr said the master classes will be small, but hands-on and interactive with audience members. Students will rotate professors each day.
UF has co-presented the piano festival since 2007, when it began in China as the Chinese-American International Piano Institute. Since 2010, the event has been hosted directly on UF’s campus.
UF hospitality sophomore Holley Harbuck is among the students looking forward to attending the master classes.
“It’s a great learning opportunity for anyone — players or not,” Harbuck said.
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 6/11/15]
