Prizes and Diplomas: 1st Prize, All-Russian Piano Competition in Togliatti, Russia(1993); 2nd prize, International Piano Competition in Ostuni, Italy (1993) Diploma. 1st international Rachmaninov youth Competition, Tambov (1994), Rachmaninov Prize of tambov (1993, 1994) Diploma, 1st International Franz Liszt Competition, Wrozlaw, Poland (1999) Winner, Concerto Competition of NCSA, Winston-Salem, NC, USA (2003)

Festivals and appearances include: International Rachmaninoff festival in Tambov and Ivanovka, Russia; Keyboard festival at Lander University, SC, USA Plutalov performed at the Grand and Small Halls of the Gnessins Academy and at the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. In addition to his achievemnets as a pianist, Plutalov is also a skilled musicologist and a great specialist on Mahler, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich. He's an honorary member of the Dutch Willem mengelberg Society and the International Shostakovich Asoociation. He wrote several significant works on Rachmaninov and Shostakovich's music.

Some recent awards and scholarships include a Raymond N. Ball Dissertation Year Fellowship(2007-8), the Belle S. Gitelman Composition Award (2007), a Hanson Institute for American Music Commission (2006), the Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize (2005), a Composer’s Assistant Program grant from the American Music Center (2005), participation in the Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions (2004), an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award (2003), and the Grawemeyer Fellowship (University of Louisville, 2001-3). David was also a finalist in the 2007-8 Rome Prize competition. David’s compositions include works for piano, voice, chamber orchestra, orchestra, various chamber ensembles, and many transcriptions of his own music and the music of others. He is currently working on a large-scale piece for piano and orchestra.

In addition to performing experience, he had held a number of teaching posts, and is currently Director of Foundation Studies at Trinity College of Music, London, and a Tutor in Piano at the Royal Northern College of Music.

He graduated from The Royal Academy of Music (London)in June 2004 where his professors were Malcolm Martineau and Colin Stone. While at the Academy Sergey has won a number of prizes and awards: The Serena Nevill Award of The Concordia Foundation, The Leverhulme Prize of The Royal Academy of Music; the Sir Arthur Bliss Prize, the Ludmila Andrew Russian Song Prize, the Frank & Hilda Stokes and Marjorie Meyer Memorial Prize and the Cork Award of The Royal Academy of Music.

Alphose Sauer was teaching at the conservatory of Santander/Spain, at the Kunitachi University Tokyo/Japan and at the University of Music in Vienna/Austria

Recitals in Europe, Asia, South-Africa

Ms. Shields began her piano studies with Elaine Felder at the Music Institute of Chicago. She first gained recognition, at the age of nine, as a prize winner in the YKAA International Piano Competition in Winter Park, Florida. Most recently, she was a top prize winner in the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition in 2002.

Highly regarded as a chamber musician, she has participated in such festivals as the Yellow Barn Music Festival, the Banff Chamber Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. She has collaborated with such well-known artists as Barbara Stein Mallow, Itzhak Perlman, Kathy Murdock, Pinchas Zukerman, and Andre Emelianoff. In 2001 she received the Carmen Mihalache Dimulescu Memorial Award, given by the Cleveland Institute of Music in recognition of outstanding collaborative achievement by a young pianist.

In addition to bringing out new facets of the traditional repertoire, Dr. Shpachenko enjoys applying her deep interpretation to new repertoire by performing and premiering music by contemporary composers. Her recent notable premieres include Michael Garson’s Homage to Ligeti at Carnegie Hall, a Piano Quartet by Ukrainian composer Yuri Ishchenko at the Ukrainian Institute of America, and the West Coast premiere of Elliott Carter’s Dialogues for Piano and Chamber Orchestra with the Nimbus Ensemble in Los Angeles. Dr. Shpachenko is also touring a series of lecture-recitals exploring the relations between modern art and modern music, including one on Unorthodox Use of Piano by 20th Century American Composers and one commissioned by the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC to accompany its Modigliani exhibit.

Born in Ukraine, Dr. Shpachenko completed her Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees at the University of Southern California, where she was awarded the title of Outstanding Graduate. Her principal teachers have included such distinguished musicians as John Perry in Los Angeles, Victor Rosenbaum in Boston, and Victor Derevianko in Israel. She has won top prizes in numerous competitions, including the California International Young Artists Piano Competition, Wideman International Piano Competition, Grace Welsh International Prize for Piano, Corpus Christi International Piano Competition, National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Competition, MTNA Collegiate Piano Competition, and the USC Piano Concerto Competition. Dr. Shpachenko has performed at the International Holland Music Sessions, Aspen, Cliburn, Manchester, Orford, Sarasota, Music Academy of the West, Tel-Hai, and Saluzzo International Music Festivals. Her performances have been featured on many radio and television stations in California, Massachusetts, New York, Ukraine, the UK, and Italy and released on CDs in Europe and the U.S.

ABOUT THE ARTIST Richard Sladek, Pianist, has performed professionally in the Chicago area for the past 20 years. A native of Chicago, he has been the recipient of several awards including those from the Chicago Musical Arts Club and the Grace Welsh National Piano Competition. Mr. Sladek has received a New York Film Festivals award for Outstanding Achievement for his Original Music for Video with the nationally acclaimed education theater troupe, Wavelength. As their musical director/composer for 16 years, he performed for over 100,000 educators in North America and the Netherlands.

He has served as staff accompanist for Columbia College and the Second City National Touring Company. He has also accompanied for the Salt Creek Ballet, and The Academy of Movement and Music. He has played keyboards in numerous musical theater productions, most notably for the Shubert, Marriott Lincolnshire, Theater at the Center, Apple Tree and Circle Theaters, and the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse.

Between 2001-3, being awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award, Gregory undertook a Master of Creative Arts degree studying performance practice issues in Russian piano music. And has since undertaken research into the music of Nicholas Medtner. Gregory has presented several papers on the music of Medtner, including the Australian Musicological Society in Sydney in 2005, and the combined Australian and New Zealand Society Conference in Wellington in 2003.

Gregory is a freelance composer and accompanist. As a soloist he has played in Malaysia as part of the University of Newcastle's overseas graduation ceremonies, and Japan, as part of the Newcastle-Ube Sister City 20th Anniversary celebrations in 2000. In July 2001, he was a participant in the London Master classes, run by Norma Fisher.