Jose R. Lopez
Professor of Piano/Coordinator
of Accompanying
JOSÉ R. LÓPEZ is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Keyboard Department at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, and has been on the piano faculty since 1997. He has performed throughout the United States, Italy and Central and South America with orchestras, solo recitals, and chamber groups in concert halls, summer festivals such as the Music Festival of the Hamptons in New York and the Killington Music Festival in Vermont. Active throughout South Florida, he has been a featured performer in the Florida International University’s Music Festival; ISCM New Music Miami Festival, the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, Coral Gables' Mainly Mozart Series, University of Miami’s Miami Festival, and in the Deering Estate at Cutler’s “Living Artist Concert Series.” A versatile pianist and an enthusiastic performer of chamber music, José was a founding member of the Dalbergi Trio, has collaborated as a member of FIU’s resident new music ensemble: the Nodus Ensemble, and was the orchestral pianist with the Florida Philharmonic for 13 years. As the pianist of the Wilcox/López duo, José is currently active performing, recording new and old obscure works for the viola and piano. His interests in contemporary music feature frequent world premieres and collaborations with composers. Dr. López is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Music, where he studied with Dr. Rosalina Sackstein, a former pupil of Claudio Arrau and Isabelle Vengerova. He has recorded for SNE, Albany and Innova record labels.
Nancy Luzko
Professor of Piano
Nancy Luzko began her musical studies at the Josefina de Gehre Conservatory in Paraguay and continued her education at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw, Poland. Subsequently, she earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Kansas, a Master of Music degree from Florida International University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Miami.
As a pianist, Nancy Luzko has often played classical and contemporary works, including her own music, and has given concerts in Argentina, Austria, Canada, Paraguay, Poland, Spain, and the USA. As a composer, her music has been performed in Italy, Paraguay, Panama, Spain, Germany, and the USA.
Among her honors are the Elliot Award, University of Kansas (1998); Capps-Rogers Award, University of Kansas (1998); and Excellence in Teaching Award, Florida International University (2001). In 2002 she was declared “Illustrious Daughter of the City of Encarnacion” by the government of her country; and in 2005 she was awarded “Outstanding Youth of the Year” by the Junior Chamber International. Her work Sonatina for Piano won the first prize at the “National Contemporary Composition Competition” in Asuncion, Paraguay, in 2001. An orchestrated version of this work was premiered by the Asuncion Symphony Orchestra. In 2006, Ms. Luzko was chosen by the Paraguayan First Lady to perform at the country’s most prestigious benefit concert, which raised nearly US $50,000 for social projects.
Ms. Luzko has compiled a research into her recently published Annotated Bibliography of Paraguayan Music for Piano.
Georgi Danchev
Professor of Accompanying
A native of Varna, Bulgaria, Georgi Danchev began with piano lessons at an early age. Upon his honors graduation as piano performer from “D. Hristov” School of Music in 1993, he continued his musical studies with a double major in Piano Performance and Choral Conducting at the “Vladigerov” National Academy of Music, Sofia. Being a student of renowned artists and specialists like Margarita Krasteva and Kroum Maximov he was fortunate to receive an education from capacities with high professional achievements and experience. Graduating with Master’s Degrees in both subjects, Danchev was appointed as an Artistic Director of the “A. Buckoreshtliev” Plovdiv Singing Society, a choral institution established in 1896, where he served for three seasons in presentation of numerous concerts and acclaimed tours in Greece, Italy and throughout Bulgaria. Simultaneously he taught conducting at the “Vladigerov” Academy and directed The Plovdiv Philharmonic Choir as well, assisting its famous conductor Krykor Chetinyan.
In 2005 Mr. Danchev completed his Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting with John Augenblick at Florida International University, Miami, where he is currently on the faculty roster. In the same institution he also continued his former (with Ivan Marinov) studies in Orchestra Conducting under the tutelage of Stewart Robertson. From 2006 Georgi Danchev serves as Conductor at Church of the Epiphany in Coral Gables.
Mr. Danchev’s concert activities include various performances as pianist and conductor with numerous live recordings registered by Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, Classic FM Radio, Eurocom Television etc. Solo and chamber recitals or performances with orchestras at different festivals and venues took places in Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Japan, USA. His repertoire includes the highlights of piano masterpieces from Baroque to contemporary, celebrated especially for his interpretations of Bach, Schumann, Brahms, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, etc. Mr. Danchev has received national and international acknowledgments as a prizewinner at Piano Competitions in Huesca and Palma de Mallorca in Spain, Sofia, Varna and Pleven in Bulgaria as well as different honor fellowships like those of “Sofia Fund” and “Geza Anda Fund” in Zurich for Rudolf Buchbinder’s piano master class in 1998. G.Danchev presently works in Florida with an active involvement in The Lyric Orchestra’s concert series, in close collaboration with its Director Franco Bertacci.
Adolfo Vidal
Professor of Piano
Adolfo Vidal has been hailed as an "exciting and compelling pianist” (Surface and Symbol, Toronto). His appearances include performances in Europe, South and North America, and some have been broadcasted on radio stations such as WQXR New York and WLRN Public Television in Miami.
In 2001 under the supervision of Marietta Orlov and Andre Laplante, Vidal completed the Artist Diploma program at the Glenn Gould Professional School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. He played in Masterclasses for pianists John Perry, Robert McDonald, Claude Frank, Angela Cheng, Marc Durand, Julian Martin and Alan Walker, among others. During the Sarasota Music Festival 2001, aside from numerous exciting performance opportunities, Vidal also worked with teachers Susan Starr, Robert Levin and John Perry.
Vidal holds a MM and BM from FIU in Miami where he studied with Kemal Gekic, and Susan Starr. In addition, he also studied with Gordon Roberts at the Chopin Foundation of USA. Other pianists he has played for include Roberta Rust, Mark Zeltzer, Eleri Anjaparidze, Arthur Pizarro, Lorin Hollander, Boris Berezovski and Vladimir Feltsman.
Born in Venezuela and winner of two National Piano Competitions, Adolfo Vidal started music studies at the age of 5 under ‘El Sistema’ (Venezuelan Youth Orchestras and Instrumental Training Program System) with French pianist Gerard Bourgogne. Further music studies were completed at the Maracaibo and Caracas Music Conservatories under Russian pianists Mikhail Antoshin, Igor Lavrov and Stanislav Pochekin. In 1990, a Bachelor of Music Education was earned from the “Cecilio Acosta” University. He regularly returns to perform solo and orchestra concerts around Venezuela.
Vidal is a Doctoral candidate at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and a Staff accompanist and Adjunct faculty at Florida International University. He is also the Director for the Music Learning Center at Miami Dade College. Currently he is working on a project of his own piano transcriptions from the guitar music of composer Antonio Lauro. A recording is expected early next year.
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Kemal Gekic
Professor of Piano
Flamboyant, daring, provocative, exciting, seductive and sensitive are some of the words used to describe one of today’s most formidable pianists, Kemal Gecić, whose playing has been acclaimed worldwide by public and critics alike.
Born in Split, Croatia in 1962, Gekić amazed his family by accurately picking out melodies at the piano at age one and a half. The young prodigy received all his early musical training from his aunt, Lorenza Batturina. In 1978 he entered the class pf Prof. Jokuthon Mihailovich (a graduate of Moscow Conservatory) at the Art Academy of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. He graduated in 1982 with the highest mark ever granted a diploma exam recital, and was immediately given a faculty appointment by the piano department which he eventually directed until 1999. During his school years he won prizes at the Franz Liszt Competition in Parma (1981), the Viana da Motta in Lisbon (1983) and the Yugoslav Artists’ Competition in Zagreb (1984).
He earned his Master’s degree in 1985, the same year he created a sensation at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Although panned by the jury he won the hearts of audience and critics alike, and began receiving many invitations to perform abroad, including several from the Chopin Society of Hannover, Germany which had awarded him a special prize for best sonata performance at the competition. A recording of his Warsaw performances sold 60,000 copies in Germany by the end of the year, and the Victor Entertainment Corporation, Japan (JVC) sold 80,000 copies of a CD version in their home country. The Warsaw Philharmonic invited Gekić to perform the E minor Chopin Piano Concerto in Philharmonic Hall in their regular series that season. In the same hall, with the same orchestra as he would have done in the competition finals, Gekić wowed the Warsaw once more, and for an encore gave Chopin’s Third Sonata in B minor in its entirety!
In the years following the 1985 Chopin Competition, in addition to extensive concert activity in Germany, Denmark, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Spain, France, Italy, Canada and of course Yugoslavia, he completed tours of the USSR and Japan-Southeast Rim. Programs of his life and his performances were broadcast by RAI Italy, TV Portugal, TV Yugoslavia, NHK Japan, POLTEL Poland, RTV Lower Saxony West Germany, RTV USSR, Intervision, CBC and PBS.
But it was during the early 1990’s that Gekić drastically curtailed his concert activity, going into seclusion for a further period of intense study, seeking even higher levels of perfection in his art. The ‘first fruits’ of this retreat was the landmark recording of the complete Liszt Transcendental Etudes, generally considered as the best recording of the set ever made. Shortly to follow were the Naxos recording of Liszt-Rossini transcriptions (including the William Tell Overture) which won the “Rosette” prize from the Penguin Guide to Music, and live recordings from Yugoslavia (VAI), Montreal (Palexa), and Liszt’s Années de Pelerinage Book II from The International Piano Festival Williamstown, Pennsylvania.
In 1999 he was invited to perform at the Miami International Piano Festival. Minutes before he was to walk on stage, a chance glance at a television showed houses burning in his home town of Novi Sad. It was March 24th: the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia had begun. Instead of cancelling, he went out on stage and played what many consider to be the best recital he ever gave, one that launched his current reemergence as one of the major pianists of our century.
Over the past few years, Gekić’s appearances worldwide have consistently generated frenzied audience enthusiasm. There are concert recordings from Japan where audible weeping can be heard among members of the normally reserved Japanese public. His sound is constantly evolving, setting a new standard for other pianists to aspire to. His daring approach to interpretation is often perceived as provocative or quixotic, but this is the prize he pays for breaking new ground-to “boldly go where no pianist has gone before” might well be taken as his motto. Of one thing you can rest assured-at a Gekić recital you will not receive ‘standard’ interpretations but renditions of the great masterworks that have been subjected to his razor-sharp musical scrutiny, his flamboyant imagination, his amazing digital dexterity, his stunningly colorful, wide and varied tonal palette and his ever-deepening comprehension of the spiritual elements of these works. For sure, a Gekić recital will wow you, seduce you, overwhelm you, delight you, transfix you, but in the end Gekić sees the process of musical communication as something even more: as the transmission of spiritual material. In this as well he is sure to give you an unforgettable experience.
Mr. Gekić's web page can be found at KemalGekic.info
Joanne Norman Schulte
Professor of Organ
Joanne Schulte, a native Miamian, earned the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in organ performance, with high distinction, from Indiana University .. She was a student of Oswald Ragatz and has been coached by Marie-Claire Alain, Marilyn Mason, Virgil Fox and Arthur Poister.
Joanne has served on the faculties of Catawba College, Miami-Dade College, the University of Miami, and most recently at Florida International University. In 1999, following her inaugural performance on the Sydell Ida Wertheim Organ, Mrs. Schulte was appointed Adjunct Professor of Organ and Director of Organ Studies.
Mrs. Schulte has played recitals throughout the United States and Europe. As a soloist, she has performed with the New World Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic, the FIU Symphony and the Pro Musica Society on National Public Radio and Television. She was senior organist at historic Plymouth Congregational Church in Coconut Grove, director of music and organist at Naples United Church of Christ and artist in residence at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.
Very active in cultural and arts organizations, Mrs. Schulte established the jury system for arts grants while a member of the Fine Arts Council for the State of Florida and currently sits on the boards of a number of arts agencies. She has been active in the American Guild of Organists as an officer and member of the Miami Chapter since 1967 and as a teacher/performer for Pipe Organ Encounters. She is a member of the National American Guild of Organists Committee on the New Organist.
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