INTRODUCING THE WNJPC 2018 ADJUDICATORS

Professor Douglas Humpherys

Chair, Piano Department  |  Eastman School of Music
www.esm.rochester.edu

Since winning the gold medal at the first Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, Douglas Humpherys' concert career has spanned four decades across four continents. During recent years, he has concertized in many of the major cities of Asia. A frequent guest artist in Beijing, he has performed at the National Center for the Performing Arts, the Beijing Concert Hall, and the Forbidden City Concert Hall. He has presented concerts and lecture-recitals throughout the Chinese conservatory and university system, including the Central, Shanghai, China, Wuhan, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Cheng-Du, Xian, Dalian, and Xiamen Conservatories, as well as Beijing, Qinghua, Renmin Universities, and the Shenzhen School of the Arts.  In 2002 he made his Korean debut in Seoul at the Kumho Art Hall, and during a 2007 tour of Taiwan, he performed in the cities of Taipei, Tainan, and Kaohsiung.

Currently listed on the Artists roster of Steinway and Sons, Mr. Humpherys often performs in Europe,  with solo concerts in Moscow, Novgorod, Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, Venice, and Dublin, with additional engagements in Germany, Spain, Armenia, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, and Serbia. He has performed throughout the United States and Canada at numerous universities and festivals, and is frequently a guest artist at conferences of the Music Teachers National Association. He has recorded for the Gina Bachauer Piano Foundation, American Public Radio, and has been featured in live performances on affiliates of NPR and PBS.  Most recently, he was a guest artist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and performed on the DiMenna Center Piano Series in New York City. He concertizes in Argentina with Teachers del Norte-Pianists del Sur, a project sponsored in part by the United States Embassy in Buenos Aires.

Mr. Humpherys completed graduate degrees at the Juilliard School (MM) and the Eastman School of Music (DMA), where he is currently Professor and Chair of the Piano Department.

During his student days he studied with Nelita True, Martin Canin, and Robert Smith. In high demand as a teacher, he has been appointed to visiting residencies or professorships at the Middle School of the Central Conservatory in Beijing, Yonsei University in Seoul, and the University of Michigan.  His students have won numerous honors in competitions, including prizes at the Honens, Cleveland, Virginia Waring, Hilton Head, Washington DC, and Poulenc International Piano Competitions; the Osaka, Pacific, Seattle, San Jose, and Wideman Competitions, as well as four national first-prize winners of MTNA Competitions.  

He has taught hundreds of master classes at universities and conservatories including the Central Music School of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, most of the major conservatories in China, the Hong Kong Academy of the Performing Arts, the Korean National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Spanning the last three summers, he has been a faculty member at Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Beijing International Piano Festival, the Shanghai International Piano Festival and Institute, the Gijon International Piano Festival in Spain, the Philadelphia Young Pianists Academy at Curtis, the Washington DC International Piano Festival, the Interlochen Piano Festival, the Miami Music Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, the North Coast International Piano Festival in California, the Northern Lights Music Festival, and the Dakota Sky Piano Festival.

Before his recent appointment as Artistic Director of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation, Mr. Humpherys served on the jury of the Bachauer Competition numerous times, and has also adjudicated the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the Rachmaninoff International Young Artists’ Piano Competition in Novgorod, Russia, the Ricardo Viñes International Piano Competition in Spain, the 1st Korea International Competition for Young Artists, the PTNA National Piano Competition in Tokyo, and the Hilton Head International Piano Competition.

Marta Zabaleta

Pianist / Pedagogue
www.martazabaletapiano.com/en

At the age of 16, Marta completed her musical studies in San Sebastian where she was awarded First Prize in piano. She then went on to continue her studies at some of the most prestigious European academies: the National Superior Conservatory of Music in Paris under Dominique Merlet, the Reina Sofía College of Music in Madrid with Dmitri Bashkirov, and the Marshall Academy in Barcelona with Alicia de Larrocha. She received many prizes at international competitions such as the Santander ‘Paloma O’Shea’, Darmstadt, Premio Jaén and the Pilar Bayona International Piano Competition in Zaragoza.

In her long career as a concert pianist, Marta has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra (Berlin), the Basque National Orchestra, and the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra (RTVE), as well as the symphony orchestras of Bilbao, Extremadura, Castile and León, Murcia, Community of Madrid, Galicia, Málaga, Granada, Valencia and Reina Sofía, amongst others. She has performed under the baton of outstanding conductors including Sir Colin Davis, Daniele Gatti, Harry Christophers, S. Comissiona, C. Mandeal, M. Venzago, G. Varga, G. Neuhold, J.C Spinossi, G. Pehlivanian, J. Mena, D. Wilson, L. Pfaff, J.M. Encinar, J. Amigo, M. Bragado, G. I. Ramos, and C. Wilkins. Marta has been invited to significant international festivals and concert halls, debuting in the Carnegie Hall with cellist Asier Polo.

Marta has made a number of recordings, which include the works of Joaquín Rodrigo, recorded by EMI; F. Escudero, with the label CLAVES; chamber works with Asier Polo under the label BBK; and M. Pompey’s Concerto for Two Pianos with the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra (RTVE). She has also recorded an album “Pecados de juventud” (“Sins of youth”) of compositions by Alicia de Larrocha, and has recently released two new albums: “Goyescas and El Pelele” by Granados, edited by La má de Guido, and works for cello and piano by Rachmaninov and Franck with IBS Classical.

In addition to her performing career, Marta has a great deal of experience and recognition in piano pedagogy. She has given masterclasses at Trinity Laban College of London and at universities in Bogota and Medellin, among many others. Marta is currently professor of piano at Musikene (the Higher Academy of Music of the Basque Country), and, at the wish of her predecessor Alicia de Larrocha, she is the current director of the Marshall Academy in Barcelona.

Marta recently won the Albéniz Medal granted by the Fundación Pública Isaac Albéniz.