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The American pianist, Aglaia Koras, began piano study at age three and performed extensively as a child prodigy throughout the USA and Europe. At age 11, she made her debut with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Recognition by her mentor, Greek pianist Gina Bachauer, drew the attention of Rudolf Serkin, then Director of the Curtis Insitute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied for several years on full scholarship with Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. After receiving the Curtis Alumni Award for three consecutive years, she graduated from Curtis with a Bachelor's degree in Piano. Rudolf Serkin called her "an excellent pianist, a fine musician," and Mieczyslaw Horszowski called her "a great artist" at her graduation.
In 1983, the City of New York and the Queens Council on the Arts sponsored Aglaia Koras' New York Debut at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, where she received a standing ovation. She has returned several times to Lincoln Center, and also performed at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, at the Kennedy Center, and in major concert halls throughout the USA and in France, England, Switzerland, Greece, Spain, Canada, and Mexico, including both European and American television and radio broadcasts.
In recent seasons, Aglaia Koras has performed at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall; in a special recital program for the United States Ambassadors in Washington, DC; in recitals at the Kennedy Center; in concerts sponsored by the National Symphony Orchestra; the Recording Industry's Music performance Trust Fund as arranged by the American Federation of Musicians; in programs in Spain, Greece, and Brazil; on the Smithsonian website; and in concerts sponsored by the Curtis Alumni and Leschetizky Associations. This season (2006-2007), she launches her "Beethoven and Chopin Plus" Series at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. Earlier this season, she also performed an all-W.A. Mozart 250th Birthday Tribute concert at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.
Aglaia Koras has received top prizes in several international and national piano competitions, including: the International Chopin Young Pianists Competition, first prize; the International American Music Scholarship Association Piano Competition, first prize; the International Concert Artists Guild Competition, "Fine Artistry and Musical Excellence Award"; the National Young Musicians Foundation Competition, first prize; the Koszciusko Foundation Competition; the La Gesse Foundation Fellowship of France; the Adopt-An-Artist Award of New York City; the Ruth Slenczynska Award for Piano, as well as other awards, including an all-W.A. Mozart 250th Birthday Tribute concert.
Aglaia Koras' musical lineage can be traced to L.v. Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Sergei Rachmaninov, and Alfred Cortot. Mieczyslaw Horszowski studied with Leschetizky, who studied with Carl Czerny, a pupil of L.v. Beethoven. Mieczyslaw Horszowski's mother studied with Mikuli, a pupil of F. Chopin. Gina Bachauer studied with Sergei Rachmaninov and Alfred Cortot. This rich heritage, combined with her own unique passion, intelligence, imagination, and tremendous capacity for expression brings an extraordinarily wide range of stylistic insight to her unusually broad repertoire.
In addition to being an active performing artist, Aglaia Koras has served on the faculties of Temple University (where she simultaneously received a master's degree on full scholarship) and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. |
