MTAC-WLA Romantic Festival

Robert Ward pursues an active international career as pianist, orchestral conductor, chamber musician, artistic director of music festivals, juror at international competitions, and master teacher.  He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Prix di Positano for outstanding performance of Beethoven's piano music, an Austrian Government Grant for study with Professor Dieter Weber at the Akademie fur Musik in Vienna, and Carlo Zecchi at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and a Fulbright Award for study in Italy with Wilhelm Kempff.  A native of Illinois, his early teachers were former pupils of Isabelle Vengerova, Artur Schnabel, and Emil von Sauer, one of the last pupils of Franz Liszt.  Later in New York, he coached with Dorothy Taubman.

Long admired for his performances of the Viennese classical composers, Robert Ward is also a proponent of American music, giving many first performances abroad.  He first came to international attention when he introduced Samuel Barber's Piano Concerto during a 10-country tour of South America sponsored by the U.S. State Department.  He is a foremost interpreter of the music of George Gershwin, reflected by numerous appearances with orchestras across the country, and of John Cage.  With colleagues from Vienna, he founded and served as Artistic Director of Piano*Fest*Austria, an international festival in Bad Aussee, Austria. The festival featured a chamber orchestra from Bratislava in-residence to perform cycles of Mozart and Beethoven Piano Concerti. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Altenburger Musik Akademie, we are pleased to announce that Robert Ward brings this exciting program to AMA.

In addition to his pianistic and scholarly activities, Robert Ward is a founding director of the California Philharmonic orchestra in Los Angeles.  Making his conducting debut at age 17, he has conducted college and professional orchestras in the U.S. and a Mozart Concerto course in Prague.  Renowned as a master teacher, he has produced prize-winning students in national and international competitions.  In 2002, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts honored Robert Ward as a Distinguished Teacher in the Arts for inspiring young artists and "having the most profound influence on their artistic development."  Professor Ward has taught on the faculties of the University of Southern California and UCLA in Los Angeles, and is currently Professor of Piano at California State University and Occidental College. He is active at summer festivals world-wide, including the Liszt Piano Academy in Sopron, Hungary; Corso Internazionale di Musica da Camera in Positano, Italy; and at Tunghai University in Taiwan.  He is an artistic adviser to the AMEROPA Festival in Prague and teaches privately in Vienna each summer.

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The Romantic Festival is not a competition.  Each participant will receive written comments from the adjudicator and will be presented with a festival award or certificate.  Written comments will be mailed to the teacher after the festival.

Rosa Wong, Co-Chair
Lisa Donovan Lukas, Co-Chair

 Guidelines:

1. Each teacher is allowed a maximum of 12 minutes of total playing time for students CM Levels 4-9.
2. Teachers with CM Advanced Level students participating are allowed a maximum of 20 minutes to accommodate a FEW longer Advanced Level pieces.
3. You may divide your total time among as many students as you wish, as long as you do not exceed 12 minutes for teachers with students in Levels 4-9, or 20 minutes for teachers with students in Levels 4-Advanced.
4. Please provide accurate timings.  Please No Repeats!
5. Students must have previous performing experience and be playing at CM Level 4 or higher.
6. Instrumental and vocal ensembles are encouraged to apply.  At least one member of the ensemble must be a student of an MTAC-WLA branch member.
7. Entry fee per student or ensemble: $18.00
8. Please send one check per studio for all entry fees made payable to "MTAC-WLA" and mail to Rosa Wong; entry fees must be postmarked by October 27, 2007.
9. Repertoire is to be chosen from the Certificate of Merit "Romantic" and "Late Romantic to Early Impressionistic" composers lists.  Works by appropriate contemporaries--for example, Amy Beach, Busoni, Fanny Mendelssohn, Berlioz--are acceptable.
10. All piano solo and vocal solo literature must be memorized.  Memorization is optional for instrumental solo literature and ensemble literature.