2017 Plowman Chamber Music Competition
- JUDGES -

ALESSIO BAX,
​piano

International Concert Pianist;
​The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Pianist Alessio Bax’s quintessential lyricism, insightful interpretations, and dazzling facility create “a ravishing listening experience,” with playing that “quivers with an almost hypnotic intensity” (Gramophone), leading to what Dallas Morning News calls “an out-of-body experience.” First Prize winner at the Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions and a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, he has appeared as soloist with more than 100 orchestras, including the London and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, Dallas and Houston Symphonies, NHK Symphony in Japan, St. Petersburg Philharmonic with Yuri Temirkanov, and the City of Birmingham Symphony with Sir Simon Rattle.

This summer, Bax looks forward to performing at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Mimir Chamber Music Festival, Minnesota’s Beethoven Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Switzerland’s Verbier Festival, Kentucky’s Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, and Italy’s Incontri in Terra di Siena Festival, where he was recently appointed Artistic Director for a three-year term starting in 2017. Next season he makes his solo recital debut at London’s Wigmore Hall with a program of Schubert, Scriabin and Ravel; gives solo recitals in Spain, Italy and California; and performs with his wife, pianist Lucille Chung, in Guatemala, the U.S., and, in fall 2017, at the Fundación Beethoven in Santiago, Chile. He also gives six performances at Japan’s Le Pont Music Festival with Berlin Philharmonic concertmaster Daishin Kashimoto, flutist Emmanuel Pahud, and others; tours Japan with Kashimoto before giving a summer recital together at Wigmore Hall; and tours the U.S., both with his frequent recital partner, violinist Joshua Bell, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS), culminating with a performance at New York’s Alice Tully Hall. Later in the spring, he participates in CMS performances at both Alice Tully Hall and Wigmore Hall.

JOEL KROSNICK,
cello

Juilliard String Quartet;
The Juilliard School

Joel Krosnick has performed as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician around the world. As a member of the Juilliard String Quartet since 1974, he has performed the great quartet literature throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. With his sonata partner of more than 30 years, pianist Gilbert Kalish, Mr. Krosnick has performed recitals throughout the U. S. and Europe. Since 1976, they have given annual series of recitals in New York City and in 2007 presented the series “American Milestones of the Last 100 Years” at The Juilliard School.
With Mr. Kalish, Mr. Krosnick has recorded the complete sonatas and variations of Beethoven and the sonatas of Brahms as well as works by Poulenc, Prokofiev, Carter, Hindemith, Debussy, Janácek and Cowell for the Arabesque label. Especially noteworthy is their CD devoted to the cello and piano music of Ralph Shapey. Released in January 2012 is a CD, Forgotten Americans, featuring the music of Ernst Bacon, Otto Luening, Hall Overton, and Ben Weber..
Mr. Krosnick completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia College where he began his lifelong commitment to contemporary music. He has performed and premiered a large number of new works by composers including Donald Martino, Ralph Shapey and Richard Wernick. Joel Krosnick’s recording of the Sonata for Solo Cello by Artur Schnabel appears on the CP2 label, and his CD of Roger Sessions’ Six Pieces for Solo Cello is presented on Koch Classics.
A dedicated teacher, Mr. Krosnick is chair of the cello department of The Juilliard School and is a member of the faculty of Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in Maine. He has been associated with the Aspen, Marlboro and Tanglewood music festivals, and appeared for the third time as a member of the artist-faculty of the Piatigorsky Seminar at the University of Southern California. A recipient of the Chevalier du Violoncelle Award from the Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center at the Indiana University School of Music, Mr. Krosnick holds honorary doctoral degrees from Michigan State University, Jacksonville University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

William Scharnberg,
horn

University of North Texas; Dallas Opera Orchestra

William Scharnberg joined the faculty at the University of North Texas in 1983 and became a Regents Professor in 2002. He is principal horn of the Dallas Opera Orchestra and Wichita Falls Symphony and regularly performs chamber music in a variety of venues. He has been a member of the faculty at the University of Oklahoma, Pacific Lutheran University, the Royal Music Academy of Stockholm, and Central Missouri State University. He has performed as principal horn of the Tri-City Symphony (Iowa-Illinois), Tacoma Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Dallas Ballet, Dallas Bach Society, Royal Opera of Stockholm, Classical Music Seminar (Austria), Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, and Flathead Festival Orchestra. He presented solo recitals at four International Horn Symposia and the first Hungarian Horn Workshop, and has performed concertos with several regional orchestras. His recorded performances can be heard on Klavier, Eco-Classic, Crystal, Centaur, andChandos labels. He serves the International Horn Society as Editor of TheHorn Call, past President (1990-1992), and former Music Review Editor (1981-2003). His publications include many journal articles and four editions of eighteenth and nineteenth-century works for horn. ​

Past Plowman Judges

2015: Sergei Babayan, Frank Morelli, Paul Biss
​2013: Frederic Chiu, Randy Gardner, Peter Wiley
2011: Anne Epperson, Peter Salaff, David Shifrin
2010: Atar Arad, Boris Berman, Mark Kellogg
2008: Melvin Chen, Frederic Hemke, Mathias Tacke
2007: Charles Castleman, Peter Frankl, Gail Williams
2006: Linda Chesis, Claude Frank, Wolfgang Laufer