William Grant Naboré is the Founder and Artistic Director of the International Piano Academy Lake Como, as well as Artistic Director and Visiting Teacher-in-Residence of the newly-formed Oberlin-Como Program. He spoke with Jacquline Gerber about the program's inaugural event.
Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Lake Como Academy Pianists
Sunday, September 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Finney Chapel
Three outstanding pianists representing the International Piano Academy Lake Como will make their way to Oberlin for the initial concert of the 2015-16 Artist Recital Series.
The Lake Como pianists take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, September 27, at Oberlin’s historic Finney Chapel.
The performance serves as the official launch of a groundbreaking partnership that makes Oberlin the North American home of the esteemed piano academy. Following the concert, a reception will be held in Peters Hall, adjacent to Finney Chapel.
A professor at the Niccolò Piccinni Conservatory of Bari, Italy, Alessandro Deljavan was one of the youngest students in Lake Como history; he has been a top prize winner at the Gina Bachauer Young Artist Competition and the Van Cliburn Competition, among numerous other honors. Deljavan will play Chopin’s 12 Études, Op. 25.
A student of maestro William Naboré at Lake Como, Ran Jia of China has drawn effusive praise for her performances around the world over the past decade. She will perform Schubert’s Sonata in C Minor, Op. Post. D958.
Marcos Madrigal of Cuba has performed in many of the world’s most renowned recital halls and in 2012 was awarded the International Award Gold Medal "Maison des Artistes," granted by the Association for Culture, Arts, Science and Social Commitment of Rome. He will perform selections from Scriabin’s Preludes, Op. 11 and Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 83.
The International Piano Academy Lake Como is located in an historic waterfront palazzo amid Italy’s breathtaking Lake Como region. Beginning this fall, three students worldwide will be selected each year to undertake studies toward an artist diploma at Oberlin. For more information about the Oberlin-Como program, please visit oberlin.edu.
About the Artistic Director
William Grant Naboré, a native of Roanoke, Virginia, began his formal piano studies at the age of eight with Kathleen Kelly Coxe. Two years later, he was accepted at Hollins College as a special student of the noted musicologist Anne McClenny. At 17 he won a scholarship from the Italian government and continued his piano studies with Carlo Zecchi (a pupil of Busoni and Schnabel) at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He also studied with the eminent pianist and pedagogue Renata Borgatti. Later he was coached privately by Rudolf Serkin, George Szell, and Alicia de Larrocha. He studied chamber music with Pierre Fournier in Geneva and won the Premier Prix de la Virtuosité and the Prix Paderewski from the Geneva Conservatory.
For more than 20 years, in collaboration with the City of Geneva, he performed the complete chamber works of Brahms, Schumann, Dvorak, Beethoven and Schubert, plus the essential works of the French and Russian repertoire, with ensembles including the Amadeus, Talich, Gabrieli and Brindisi quartets. He was also active as a member of the Studio de Musique Contemporaine where he performed European premieres of several important American works. In 1988 he founded the Amadeus Festival, just outside of Geneva.
Mr. Naboré has received critical recognition on the international concert circuit as Cultural Ambassador for the United States, and has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. His distinguished discography is broad and eclectic.
An outstanding teacher, William Grant Naboré has shaped some of the finest young artists of this generation. In 1993 he became founding director of the International Piano Foundation "Theo Lieven," created and financed by the German businessman, Theo Lieven, who is himself a pianist. This foundation has become one of the most respected musical institutions in the world for the extraordinary successes of its students. This entity now hosts the program, Young Masters of the Keyboard at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. Nabore holds the Theo Lieven Chair for Advanced Studies in Piano and Chamber Music Performance at this conservatory.
In 2002, Nabore, along with Martha Argerich, created the International Piano Academy Lake Como where he is President and Artistic Director. Argerich serves as President of Honor.
This summer, Nabore's students won first prize at the 2015 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition (Dmitry Masleev) and first prize at the 2015 Honens Competition (Luca Buratto). Luca Buratto is one of the first Fellows in the Oberlin Como Program. He joins Hungarian pianist David Bekker in the unique course of study.