2022 American International Paderewski Piano Competition
Preliminary Round Jury
Dr. Wojciech Kocyan
Wojciech Kocyan was praised for his “highly distinctive performances (…) superb, intelligent artistry (…)” (.Classics Today.com) and “incisive temperament, impeccable technique and sumptuous tone” (Le Monde de la Musique.)
"Genius" Gramophome magazine
Dr. Kocyan is a Clinical Professor of Piano at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
He studied with two of the world’s most esteemed piano pedagogues: Andrzej Jasinski in Poland, where he received his Masters Degree and with John Perry at the University of Southern California, where he received a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree.
He is a laureate of several international piano competitions, including F.Busoni, Wideman and Viotti, as well as a special prizes winner of the XI International Chopin Competition and a First Prize winner of the Paderewski Piano Competition in Poland. He performed in Europe, America, Mexico, Australia and Japan, participating in music festivals such as Musica Antiqua Europae Orientalis, Capri Festival, Bydgoszcz International Music Festival, H.M.Gorecki Festival, Beethovenfest, Paderewski Festival, Liszt Festival in Vienna, San Francisco Liszt Festival, Cervantino International Music Festival, Morelia International Music Festival and the Chopin Festival in Paris.He has recorded for television, radio and film and his performances were broadcast in Europe, United States and Australia. His solo and chamber music recordings can also be found on DUX, Naxos and Spotify
In 2007 the Gramophone magazine, published in London and considered the world’s most prestigious classical music journal, chose Mr. Kocyan’s recording of Prokofiev, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff as one of 50 best classical recordings ever made, alongside recordings of such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein, Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau, Nicolaus Harnoncourt and Arthur Rubinstein.
Dr. Kocyan is also active as an adjudicator, lecturer, scholar and arts administrator. Besides numerous California competitions of all levels, including many state-wide competitions, he repeatedly judged the MTNA Performance Competition at the State and Division levels, the American International Paderewski Piano Competition, Czerny-Stefanska International Piano Competition, Guitar Foundation of America International Artist Competition, International Peninsula Festival in Los Angeles and Schimmel- Arizona Youth Piano Competition. He has given masterclasses and lectures in France, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Serbia, Mexico and United States, including such prestigious venues as the Colburn School in Los Angeles, the Chopin University in Warsaw and the Szymanowski Academy in Katowice, Poland. He twice presented lectures and masterclasses at the World Piano Pedagogy Conference. In 2015 and 2019 he presented lectures and masterclasses at the World Piano Conference in Serbia and was appointed the judge of the annual World Piano Competition.
In October 2017 he was one of five eminent international speakers invited to present a lecture at the international musicological conference “ Competition or music put to the test”, organized by the Chopin Institute in Warsaw in conjunction with the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition. His paper on the evolution of the performance style in the history of the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw was included in the inaugural issue of the “Chopin Review”, a leading publication in Chopin scholarship, published by the National Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Poland. In 2018 he was a presenter at the Music Teachers Association National Conference in Orlando, Florida and was invited to present at the Music Teachers Association National Conference in 2022 as well.
Dr. Kocyan serves as the Artistic Director and President of the Paderewski Music Society in Los Angeles and the Director of the American International Paderewski Piano Competition in Los Angeles. He is also the past President of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, Santa Monica/South Bay Chapter , current President of the West Los Angeles Branch of the Music Teachers Association of California, is a voting member of the Polish Academy of Recording Arts and serves on the boards of several other cultural organizations.
Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov
Pianist Dmitry Rachmanov has garnered much acclaim for his passionate performances, refined musicianship and brilliant pianism. Hailed as an "indisputable musician" by the Brussels' Le Soir and "suave and gifted pianist' by the New York Times, Rachmanov has been heard at venues such as New York's Carnegie Hall, Washington DC's Kennedy Center, London's Barbican and South Bank Centres, and Beijing Concert Hall, and his tours brought him to Canada, Mexico, Europe, Russia, Turkey and the Far East. He has recorded for Naxos, Navona, Omniclassic, Master Musicians and Vista Vera labels, and collaborated as a soloist with Manhattan Philharmonia, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Ukraine National Symphony, National Orchestra of Porto, Portugal and Vidin Sinfonietta, Bulgaria, among others. A strong proponent of the Russian repertoire, he gave the US premiere of Boris Pasternak's Piano Sonata, broadcast nationwide by the NPR, and his recital "The Art of the 19th Century Russian Character Piece" was noted by the New York Times for "considerable color and focus" he brought to each work. A founding member of the Scriabin Society of America, Rachmanov has given recital tours featuring the music of Scriabin in commemoration of the composer’s memorial centennial (1915-2015), including appearances in Moscow, Paris, Budapest, Beijing & Shanghai and in the US. His recital at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall was called “indeed a ‘poem of ecstasy’ in every sense: giant in conception, quantity, quality, execution, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity” by the New York Concert Review. In the past few years he has worked on the project of creating a video anthology of Scriabin’s major piano works. In the fall of 2018 Dmitry Rachmanov participated in the 100th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Scriabin Memorial Museum in Moscow by presenting at the centennial conference and performing a recital at the museum’s Grand Hall.
Dr. Rachmanov's interest in historical performance practice brought him to the Massachusetts' Frederick Historic Piano Collection, where he has made regular appearances performing recital series on period instruments. His album “Beethoven and His Teachers,” recorded in collaboration with the pianist Cullan Bryant on the collection’s period instruments and released by Naxos in 2011, has received critical accolades.
Through the sponsorship of the CSUN Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Award as well as Mike Curb College Research and Creative Activities Grant, as part of The Tapestry Ensemble, Rachmanov commissioned, premiered and recorded chamber works by Southern California composers, released by Navona Records to critical acclaim.
An active member of the American Liszt Society, Dmitry Rachmanov has served as the Artistic Director of the American Liszt Society Festival “Liszt and Russia” hosted by California State University Northridge in June of 2016 (http://www.als2016.org). He is a founding member and President of the ALS’s Southern California Chapter.
Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov is Professor of Piano at CSU Northridge, where he serves as Chair of Keyboard Studies. A sought-after master class clinician and lecturer, Dr. Rachmanov has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and has appeared as a guest artist/teacher at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, University of Michigan, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Beijing Central, Shanghai and Harbin Conservatories as well as East China Normal and Shanghai Normal Universities, among others. Dr. Rachmanov has been a frequent competition adjudicator in the US and abroad, including Gina Bachauer International Artists, Brahms Poertschach, Austria, and Los Angeles International Piano Competition, among others.
Rachmanov is a graduate of The Juilliard School (BM & MM) and he holds DMA from Manhattan School of Music. His teachers include Nadia Reisenberg, Arkady Aronov, and he coached with Yvonne Lefebure, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Menahem Pressler, Vitaly Margulis and John Browning. A prizewinner of international competitions, he was awarded a fellowship from the American Pianists Association and received the George Schick Award for Outstanding Musicianship at Manhattan School of Music. In 2008 Dr. Rachmanov was named the Jerome Richfield Memorial Scholar of the Year at California State University, Northridge. In 2015 he became an honoree of the Outstanding Faculty Award presented by the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars for his dedicated service to the International Community at CSUN, and he was a recipient of the Outstanding CAPMT (California Music Teachers National Association) Member, State Recognition Award. In 2018 he was named the Academic Affairs Research Fellow in the Mike Curb College at CSUN. In the summer of 2019 he was a resident at the Brahmshouse in Baden-Baden, Germany. He serves as an artistic co-director of the biennial ChamberFest @ CSUN Chamber Music Festival.
Dmitry Rachmanov is a Steinway Artist.
Adam Wibrowski
Pianist and internationally acclaimed piano educator ADAM WIBROWSKI studied with professors Halina Czerny-Stefanska and her husband Ludwik Stefanski at Cracow Academy of Music where he received his Masters Degree in piano performance. Later, Dr. Wibrowski followed his studies at Doctorate 3 Cycle at Sorbonne, Paris. His piano awards include: 1st Prize at the National Chopin Competition in Poland, Diploma de Honor at Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona, Spain, and the First Prize at the Union Francaise des Artistes Musiciens, France. Mr. Wibrowski received also the MTNA Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music and Music Studies (USA). He has taught successively at Grenoble Conservatory, France, University of Southern California, USA, European Virtuosity Class, Netherlands, Katowice Superior Academy of Music, Poland, and Paris Conservatory, France, the latter continuously since 2000.
Mr. Wibrowski has taught master classes at major Universities and Conservatories in the USA (UCLA, Yale, Rice), Canada (McGill, U.B.C., Concordia), Australia, Japan, Vietnam, Italy, and China. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of Chopin Festival at Nohant, France; European Music Sessions, Netherlands; Liszt Piano Festival, Hungary and Austria Piano Summer, Vienna-Wiener Neustadt, and recently of Polish Music Piano Competition in Hamburg, Germany. Dr. Wibrowski is the President of Chopin Association in Nohant, France; Member of the Paderewski Association, Switzerland; Member of the Board of Directors of the Paderewski Music Society in Los Angeles; and the Director of the Program of the European Union Culture Commission: "Piano-European Cultures"