Adam Golka

Max I. Allen Classical Fellow

Adam Golka is the 2009 Max I. Allen Classical Fellow of the American Pianists Association. Also winner of the 2008 Gilmore Young Artist Award, 24 year–old pianist Adam Golka has performed well over 200 concerts since he took the first prize in the 2nd China Shanghai International Piano Competition at age 16 in 2003. He has performed with such exceptional orchestras as the symphonies of Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, San Diego, Syracuse, Fort Worth, and Grand Rapids, in the United States, as well as the BBC Scottish Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Shanghai Philharmonic, Orchestre Poitou–Charentes, Orquesta Filarmonica de Jalisco (Guadalajara), and Sinfonia Varsovia.

He has collaborated with such eminent conductors as Donald Runnicles and Miguel Harth–Bedoya, who have regularly re–engaged Adam over the past seasons, as well as Pinchas Zukerman, Michael Christie, Andreas Delfs, Edwin Outwater, David Lockington, Daniel Hege, Julian Kuerti, Michael Morgan, Timothy Muffitt, and his brother, conductor Tomasz Golka. Golka's solo and chamber music appearances have taken him to famous venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall) in New York, Nakanoshima Hall in Osaka, the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, and prestigious festivals such as the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the Ravinia Festival, Music@Menlo, the New York City International Keyboard Festival at Mannes, the Newport Music Festival, and the Duszniki–Chopin festival. In 2006, Adam gave his first performance of the cycle of Beethoven's complete 32 piano sonatas; he continues to devote much time to working on these sonatas and plans to renew his interpretations of the cycle in future stages of his career.

Adam made his Isaac Stern Auditorium Debut at Carnegie Hall playing Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto with the New York Youth Symphony. Other highlights of Adam's 2009–2010 season included concertos of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff, with the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Phoenix, Knoxville, Fort Worth, and South Dakota Symphonies. Adam will also be premiering esteemed American composer Richard Danielpour's Piano Fantasy (2008), commissioned by the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival for Adam, in various recitals around the country, as well as in a Toyko debut recital. A 1st generation American, Golka owes his unique background to his parents, Polish musicians who fled Communist controlled Poland in the 1980s in search of a better life. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Golka moved to Fort Worth, Texas, when he was 15 years–old, in order to pursue devoted studies with his much admired teacher and mentor, Jose Feghali. While studying with Mr. Feghali, Adam completed an Artist Diploma in Piano at Texas Christian University. A graduate of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Adam studied with the legendary Leon Fleisher.  Adam previously worked with Maestro Fleisher at a special workshop devoted to Beethoven's Sonatas at Carnegie Hall, and at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia. Adam's previous teachers include Dariusz Pawlas, in Houston, as well as his mother and first teacher, Anna Golka. He also regards with great importance lessons he has received from artists such as Claude Frank, Miriam Fried, Gilbert Kalish, Jon Kimura Parker, Menahem Pressler, and John Shirley–Quirk, among others. Adam currently resides in New York City.  For more information, see www.adamgolka.com

Grace Fong

Christel DeHaan Classical Fellow

Grace Fong is the 2009 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellow of the American Pianists Association.  Praised as "positively magical," an artist of "rare eloquence and grace," American pianist Grace Fong performs internationally as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has gained critical acclaim in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, making appearances at major venues around the world, including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Phillips Collection, Hollywood Bowl, Great Hall in Leeds, UK, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Germany, among others. Radio/television broadcasts have included British Broadcasting Company, WCLV-FM 104.9, KUSC 91.5 FM in Los Angeles, the "Emerging Young Artists" series in New York, and "Performance Today" on National Public Radio. Performances with orchestras have included the Halle Orchestra in the United Kingdom, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, the Olympia Philharmonic Orchestra, The Shreveport Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Southwest Virginia, the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, among others.

Described by one critic as "absolutely astounding-and now I've run out of praiseworthy adjectives," Dr. Fong is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in the United Kingdom, 2007 Bosendorfer International Piano Competition, San Antonio International Piano Competition, Viardo International Piano Competition, and the Cleveland International Piano Competition. Most recently, Dr. Fong is the winner of one of America's most prestigious piano awards, the 2009 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship of the American Pianists Association, after a competitive one-year and a half process that began with nominations and culminated in solo, chamber, lieder, and concerto performances in Indianapolis in spring 2009. The first female winner in twelve years, the DeHaan Classical Fellow, Grace Fong receives three years of concerts and recitals both nationally and internationally through the APA's PianoFest program, promotional materials, and a debut CD release. She will also participate in education and community outreach programs called Concerto Curriculum. The value of a two-year Fellowship is $75,000. Before this, Dr. Fong has won the Grand Prize in piano from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and was thereafter named a "Presidential Scholar in the Arts", and was presented a medallion by former President Clinton at the White House. Other prizes include Gold Medalist for the Wideman International Piano Competition, the winner of the Music Academy of the West Concerto Competition, the winner of the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition, 1st Prize in the Los Angeles Liszt Competition, 1st Prize in the Edith Knox Performance Competition.

Dr. Fong is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with Sergei Babayan who describes Dr. Fong as "not only a true artist and an exciting virtuoso, but a sensitive poet who can speak about the most important of subjects through the craft of her hands." During the course of her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California, Dr. Fong completed a double major and minor; she was awarded the prestigious Renaissance Scholar Prize, and was named "The USC Thornton School of Music Keyboard Department's - Most Outstanding Student - B.M." Former teachers include Sergei Babayan, John Perry, Louise Lepley, Paulina Drake, and Norberto Cappone.

Dr. Fong is currently the Director of Keyboard Studies at Chapman University Conservatory of Music where she was recently awarded the 2008 faculty excellence award at the Conservatory of Music. She is also faculty at Claremont Graduate University, teaching and advising Doctoral Candidates of Piano Performance. An enthusiastic supporter of the education of young musicians, Dr. Fong has served as guest artist and teacher at the Innsbrook Summer Festival, the New Hampshire Music Festival, the first Salt Spring Piano Festival, the Montecito Summer Festival 2008, and the Sitka Chamber Music Festival. A chamber music enthusiast, Dr. Fong frequently performs in chamber music settings, and is one of the founders of the Selvaggi Trio, described as a group "with technical brilliance, infectious energy and sheer enjoyment of making music." Most recently, Dr. Fong has been performing with Sony-Classical Artist Gilles Apap from France, hailed as "a true violinist of the 21st century" by Yehudi Menuhin.

More recently, Dr. Fong has embarked on a series of collaborations with dancers, filmmakers, fashion designers, artists, and also enjoys performing music that crosses the genres of classical, jazz and Latin lounge. She is a frequent guest artist with the group Pink Martini, which has been described as the house band of the United Nations, and whose music can be called "vintage music." This “little orchestra” was founded in 1994 to provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education and parks. With the group, Dr. Fong has shared the stage with some of America's top orchestras and figures, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, NPR's Ari Shapiro and Emmy-award winner, Emilio Delgado.

Other projects include: a collaboration with dance choreographer, Alicia Okouchi-Guy (whose credits include Prince, Paula Abdul, Married With Children, The Oprah Winfrey Show, MTV, the New York Knicks City Dancers), on a project entitled "Grace," involving live, solo piano and a dance trio;  her performance used for the play, If All the Sky Were Paper, by best-selling author/playwright Andrew Carroll, directed by John Benitz; a filming in London for a music video by Oscar nominated & multi-award winning film Director Mike Figgis. Dr. Fong can be seen on award-winning C Music TV as well as on the Alexander Toradze documentary on WNIT-TV and national PBS in 2010; and in 2011, she can be heard on the RED and Heinz labels. For more information, see www.pianistgracefong.com