BARRY ALEXANDER

As a lyric baritone, Barry Alexander has earned a reputation for being as much at home with the coloratura literature of Gluck and Rossini, as the more dramatic works of Puccini and Verdi. He has been hailed by L’Orient-Le Jour as “a singer of great style and feeling,” while Dean Nolan pronounces his performances as being “of the highest type, strong and virile.” Mark Lipson is quoted as saying that “a seemingly impossible combination of talents have made Barry Alexander ‘the Great.’ ”

Mr. Alexander holds degrees from Princeton University and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Having made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1991 with works by Gluck and Mozart, that same year he also auditioned for the Warsaw Chamber Opera, and became one of only two Americans ever asked to sing with the company.

Turning his attention to more entrepreneurial pursuits in recent years, he has founded Alexander & Associates, a public relations firm specializing in publicity for classical music artists. Last year he also launched the Barry Alexander International Vocal Competition, which has been designed as an entrée into the world of opera and song performance for those seriously interested in a professional career, culminating in a Carnegie Hall debut.

With constant invitations for concerts in throughout the world, Mr. Alexander has done much to both rejuvenate and expand interest in the recital format, and to reinforce its intrinsic value as a unique musical and cultural experience for both performers and audiences.

Mr. Alexander believes that it is the obligation of a teacher to maximize the unique talent of each student, and fundamental to great singing technique is the understanding that the body is the instrument, rather than the voice. “The hardest part of any vocal pedagogy for most students,” says Mr. Alexander, “is the realization that the voice is always its most beautiful when the body, not the voice, is doing the work.”

COSMO BUONO

Cosmo Buono first came to international prominence with the Bradshaw & Buono piano team.  Specialists in literature written for one piano four hands, and two pianos, the artists did much to restore awareness of rare works written by Chopin, Liszt, Rossini, and Schubert. By continuing a tradition of distinguished piano duos begun with Liszt-Chopin and Debussy-Casella, they played in major capitals and festivals throughout the world including New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the Mostly Mozart Festival, all while creating a discography that includes Grammy-nominated recordings. 

A native of New Jersey, Mr. Buono completed his musical studies at New York University, Bard College, and The Juilliard School. As a soloist he has been heard in North America, Europe, and Japan, including performances with the Munich Philharmonic and the Danish State Radio Orchestra.

In addition to performing, Mr. Buono has distinguished himself as one of the foremost teachers of the Leschetizky Method in the United States. Leschetizky was known for producing pianists capable of a resonant, almost voice-like quality on the piano, and it is that same technique which is part of Mr. Buono’s overall pedagogy. Advocating rich, expressive playing, he discourages students from note-perfect performances that lack enthusiasm, in favor of a complete understanding and communication of the musical idiom of the composer.

Mr. Buono continues to direct the Bradshaw & Buono Conservatory, while supervising music schools in Italy and Japan.  He is Artistic Director of the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, and a frequent collaborator with vocalists and instrumentalists for recitals.  He also serves as Executive Director of the International Academy of Arts and Sciences in Closter, New Jersey.

ANN CRAVERO

An active mezzo-soprano recitalist and soloist, Ann Cravero made her Carnegie Hall debut at the inaugural 2008 Winners’ Recital of the Barry Alexander International Vocal Competition. She has performed in master classes with Frederica von Stade and Michèle Crider, and coached with mezzo-soprano, Rinat Shaham. She frequently performs new music, and has debuted works in the United States and Severino, Italy. She has also been heard in the Austrian Contemporary Music Festival held at Clapp Hall in Iowa City. Likewise, her doctoral thesis, Contemporary Opera Scenes for Countertenor: A Stage Director's Guide, includes new research and commentary based on operatic works by Paul Barker, David Johnson, Jeffrey Lependorf, Stewart Wallace, and one of the foremost composers of countertenor repertoire, Geoffrey Burgon. She has performed the roles of Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Hansel (Hansel and Gretel), the Second Lady (The Magic Flute), La Mère d’Antonia (Les Contes d’Hoffman), Phoebe (Yeoman of the Guard) and The Duchess (Gondoliers).

Also assuming the role of opera director, Dr. Cravero most recently directed Die Fledermaus, The Pirates of Penzance, and Copland's The Tender Land, with the Drake Opera Theatre, Britten's The Little Sweep with the City Opera Company of the Quad Cities, as well as producing and directing the one-act opera Fortune's Favorites at the University of Iowa. Dr. Cravero holds a Doctor of Musical Arts, and Master’s degree from the University of Iowa, and a Bachelor of Music Education from Bradley University. Dr. Cravero is Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera at Drake University.

GOHEI NISHIKAWA

A native of Osaka, Japan, Gohei Nishikawa enjoys an international career as a teacher, accompanist, and solo pianist. He is a graduate of the Osaka College of Music, where he majored in Piano Performance.

Coming to the United States in 2000, he began piano studies with Cosmo Buono and the late David Bradshaw, making his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall, and his debut at Carnegie Hall in 2001. Mr. Nishikawa is also a Professor of Piano at the Greenwich International Conservatory of Music, and returned to Japan last year to accompany soprano Asako Tamura for her recital tour.

MATTIA OMETTO

The winner of a vast array of international prizes, pianist Mattia Ometto came to the attention of the European musical public a decade ago with an astonishing debut recital in Venice, which quickly established him as an artist whose gifts hark back to the Golden Age of classical piano performance. With a mastery that is formed in equal parts by the inspiration of his Venetian background, his studies in Paris with the legendary Aldo Ciccolini, and in America with the late Earl Wild, he continues to astonish audiences and virtuosi alike with his talent.

Mr. Ometto has performed extensively in Italy with Milan's Società dei Concerti, Festival Pianistico Internazionale in Rimini, Associazione Dino Ciani and Associazione Veneta “Amici della Musica.” In Venice, he has appeared at the Gran Teatro la Fenice, Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, in Milan at Palazzo Cusani and Sala Puccini, in Rome at the Teatro Marcello and Villa Torlonia ,and in Turin at Politecnico.

As a winner of the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, Mr. Ometto performs regularly in Europe and United States. During the 2008-2009 season he appeared in recitals in Paris at the Théatre du Rond Point des Champs Elysées, in New York City at Carnegie Hall as part of the Second Annual ABC Gala, and in California at Redlands University. The 2009-2010 season saw him in performance both in recital and as a soloist with orchestra as part of a North American tour.

Born in Padua in 1982, Mattia Ometto graduated summa cum laude from the Venice Conservatory of Music, where he studied for ten years with Anna Barutti, a pupil of Wilhelm Kempff. Very active also as a teacher, he gives master classes at the Accademia Filarmonica di Camposampiero, and as a visiting artist at universities and conservatories in the United States. Earlier this year he was appointed Managing Director of the Alexander & Buono Festival of Music, and is Artistic Director of the “Guido Alberto Fano” International Piano Competition in Padova.

Mr. Ometto will release two recordings next year featuring works by Chopin and Liszt on the OnClassical label

YEUNG YU

Dr. Yeung Yu is an active soloist and has performed internationally in the United States, Hong Kong, Japan and Mainland China, and on collaborative events with Ohio Metropolitan Orchestra. He records under the China Contemporary Recording Company label.

Dr. Yu received his D.M.A from University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music, and his M.M from Texas State University, School of Music, and Professional Diploma from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He also holds a B.A. from Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing China. While pursuing his degree, Dr. Yu studied under Professor Wang Mei Ling, Li Hui Li, Yin Shi Zhen, Zhou Guang Ren, Gabriel Kwok, Timothy Woolsey, Russell Reipe, James Tocco and Joel Hoffman. He has won First Prize at the Graves Piano Competition, and was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award from Shen Zhen Youth Piano and Steinway Piano Competitions.

A frequent adjudicator for various piano competitions in China and the United States, he previously served on the faculty at Shen Zhen Art School, and is currently on the piano faculty of Central Conservatory of Music, Piano Academy at Gulangyu in China.