Dr. Lisa Yui
Described as “a musical phenomenon” (Pianiste magazine), Canadian pianist and Yamaha Artist Lisa Yui enjoys a multifaceted musical career as performer, lecturer, teacher, author, and musical director. Since making her concerto debut at the age of seven, Lisa Yui has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a recitalist and soloist with orchestra. She is the top prizewinner of the Senigallia International Piano Competition in Italy, the Super Classics International Auditions in Tokyo, and has twice been the recipient of a Canada Council Scholarship.
Lisa Yui has performed as soloist with prominent orchestras such as the Tokyo
Symphony, Polish National Radio, Toronto Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, the Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, and the Krakow State Philharmonic. Her performances have been broadcast on WQXR (New York), CBC (Canadian In Broadcast Corporation), CJRT-FM (Ontario, Canada), and STV (Sapporo, Japan). She has performed in Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum in Budapest, among other major concert venues around the world.
2005 Ms. Yui was chosen from over 1000 applicants as one of the few Canadian artists to participate in the World Exposition in Aichi, Japan, where she performed and hosted in English, Japanese, and French. She performed a program of works by Liszt, Ravel, and Canadian composers Francois Morel and Colin McPhee. She has been invited twice to be the featured guest artist on the 101 Days Around the World Tour of the Japanese cruise ship Nipponmaru.
As a lecturer and performer, Ms. Yui originated The Lives of the Piano, Manhattan School of Music’s first piano lecture/concert series, now in its 21st season. She has been invited as a guest lecturer to many distinguished universities and conservatories around the world. She has performed and given masterclasses in various music conferences, including the MTNA National Conference and NAMM.
Lisa Yui has worked extensively with the Yamaha Disklavier, having given numerous performances, including a solo recital of music for four hands, two pianos, and piano and orchestra, as well as long-distance “remote lessons.” A short film on her work with the Disklavier, sponsored by Cisco, was filmed in 2010.
Lisa Yui’s CD of the music of Carl Maria von Weber and Jan Ladislav Dussek was awarded the highest rating, the “Pianiste Maestro,” by the French music magazine, Pianiste. Her DVD/Blu-ray recording of four Beethoven Sonatas with commentary was released on the Aurora Classics label, garnering rave reviews.
Lisa Yui’s insightful writing on music has appeared in numerous publications such as Clavier Companion, EPTA Journal, and Listen, on a variety of topics including the life and influence of the virtuosic 19th-century pianist Marie Pleyel, on whom Dr. Yui wrote her doctoral thesis.
Lisa Yui’s principal teachers and mentors include Giovanni Valentini, Byron Janis, Marc Silverman, Oxana Yablonskaya, Edna Golandsky, David Dubal, Jean-Paul Sevilla, and Leonid Hambro. She received her bachelor’s degree at the Juilliard School, where she
received the Humanities Award, and her master’s and doctor of musical arts degrees at Manhattan School of Music, which awarded her both the Roy M. Rubinstein Award, given to a graduate with exceptional promise in piano, and the Helen Cohn Award as outstanding doctoral graduate.
In addition to producing The Lives of the Piano series at Manhattan School of Music, Lisa Yui teaches graduate piano literature, keyboard skills, Historical Recordings of Great Pianists, and The 32 Beethoven Sonatas at Manhattan School of Music, where she is also Associate Dean of Assessment and Academic Programs. She is the recipient of the School’s 2018 President's Medal for Distinguished Service.
Previously, Lisa Yui has been on the piano faculty at John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, served as department chair of the Music Advancement Program at the Juilliard School, and taught a course on the social history of the piano at Marymount Manhattan College. She has frequently served as a member of competition juries, including the National Finals of the Stepping Stone of the Canadian Music
Competition and the Canadian Chopin Competition.
Dr. Magdalena Baczewska
Hailed by the press as “One of the most innovative, even radical classical keyboardists in the U.S.” and described as “Columbia University professor by day, musical sorceress by night,” pianist and harpsichordist Magdalena Baczewska [ba-CHEV-ska] enjoys a multifaceted career as a concert artist, educator, and speaker. Having made her solo debut with the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra at age 12 in her native Poland, Baczewska performed internationally with the world’s leading orchestras: Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, China National Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, among others. She has been praised for her "magnificent, unique voice that stylistically never falters" (Classical Music Guide), “world-class playing” by the American Record Guide, and hailed as “eloquent and technically flawless” by The Washington Post.
The first pianist to play J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations twice in one evening--first on the harpsichord, then on piano--since Rosalyn Tureck’s 1977 double-bill Carnegie Hall performance, Baczewska has toured Europe and the U.S with double performances of the Variations, having also recorded them along with Strauss’ Sonata Op. 5 for her critically-acclaimed album A Tribute to Glenn Gould.
Baczewska collaborates extensively with the Oscar and Grammy Award-winning composer Tan Dun, performing his music internationally. Performance highlights include a debut at the Tanglewood Music Festival, soloist appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, China National Symphony, and a Canadian premiere of Tan Dun's Piano Concerto with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. At the invitation of the composer, Baczewska also recorded his chamber music and the Sonata for Piano Solo in Shanghai’s famous Water Heavens Hall.
Baczewska is Professor of Music and Director of the Music Performance Program at Columbia University. She is a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Bogdan Zdrojewski, for promoting Polish culture abroad.
The Palm Beach Arts Paper writes "Baczewska enlightens.” As an avid educator, she has given master classes and lectures around the world: Beijing Central Conservatory, New York University, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Manhattan School of Music, International Keyboard Institute, to name a few. As a Yamaha Artist, Baczewska has used the technology pioneered by Yamaha Disklavier, to give remote master classes at the Microsoft School of the Future, Elon University, and Hartt School of Music. In her spare time she volunteers through Selfhelp, Inc., teaching music appreciation online at the Virtual Senior Center. During the COVID-19 pandemic Baczewska produced a video series Bach@Home, available on YouTube, containing piano and harpsichord performances and analysis of works by J.S. Bach, and other composers. While in lockdown she partnered with the Grand Piano Series in Florida, and the Chopin Society of Atlanta, designing and delivering an interactive series of online music appreciation lectures and discussions for seniors, and separately for small children, under the title "The Enjoyment of Music." Her musical mission, in addition to sharing the timeless beauty of the music itself, is to educate her audiences in each performance, by giving them tools to enjoy music more profoundly.
Baczewska’s discography encompasses a variety of styles, ranging from classical to hip-hop. Together with composer/DJ Gene Pritsker, Baczewska released an album for the harpsichord and samplestra Hip-Hopsichord. She also collaborated with Pritsker on a remix of Music for Dreams - a crossover between classical style and chillhop. Baczewska has also collaborated with the BlueSleep medical team specialized in research and treatment of sleep disorders. Among her releases are three best-selling albums Music for Dreams, and music for MetroNaps’ EnergyPod®, popularized by Google.
Baczewska holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Mannes College The New School for Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music. Her doctoral dissertation, In Search of Bach’s Cantabile: The Role and Aspects of Oratory and Singing in Keyboard Interpretation was published by Lambert Academic Publishing.
For more information and discography, visit MagdalenaNYC.com.