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CHINA CREATES NEW PIANO SCHOOL WITH ITALIAN ACADEMY

Press release                                              Embargoed for release July 2, 2007

CHINA CREATES NEW PIANO SCHOOL WITH ITALIAN ACADEMY

BEIJING, 2 July 2007--  A new institute for advanced piano training has been established to bring leading teachers from the West to Beijing to help train China’s most promising young pianists. It is the first important colllaboration between renowned Chinese musical institutions and a major Western music academy.

The announcement of the Beijing Lake Como International Piano Art Exchange Ltd. was made at the Italian Cultural Institute, Beijing, by William Grant Naboré, co-founder and director of the International Piano Academy Lake Como, of Dongo, Italy.

The event included the world premiere screening of a documentary film on the Lake Como academy, "The Piano is the World", directed by Angelo Bozzolini.

To launch the collaboration, the partners plan to organise a magnificent series of musical events at a Piano Festival July 15-22, 2008, in the buildup to the Olympic Games in Beijing. The Festival will feature seven of the Lake Como teachers, each giving a master class and a public concert, either solo or with the China National Symphony Orchestra.

Also planned is a series of concerts by former students of the Academy, all first prize winners of major music competitions around the world. Venues for the Festival will be the Beijing Concert Hall, the China National Theatre, now under construction, and other major Beijing concert halls. The concerts and master classes will be open to the general public. Piano students and teachers from throughout China will also be invited to attend.

The master classes of the new branch of the Lake Como Academy in Beijing are scheduled to begin in September 2008 with seven students to be selected by Maestro Naboré. Master class teachers will include Fou Ts’ong, Menahem Pressler, Dmitri Bashkirov, Claude Frank and John Perry.

BACKGROUND
The International Piano Academy, considered the finest school of its kind. Maestro Naboré was the first director from 1993. In 2002, he and Argentine pianist Martha Argerich created the successor school, International Piano Academy Lake Como. Located in Dongo, Italy, the Academy is housed in the17th century Palazzo del Vescovo and is financed by the City of Dongo, and Mary Virginia Foreman Le Garrec. Classical music is enjoying a boom in China, with more than 20 million young Chinese studying to become classical concert pianists. Conservatories in China are filled to overflowing and new concert halls are being built in Beijing, Shanghai and throughout the provinces.

The Chinese now want to develop their best pianists to an international standard. Young musicians seeking a superior musical education have been obliged, however, to go the United States or Europe. Western conservatories are filled with young Asian students.

For this reason, the Lake Como Academy was invited to create the new Lake Como Academy Beijing branch offering the same instruction by the same teachers in Beijing in collaboration with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the major music school in China.

The piano is by far the most popular musical instrument in China. Two of the leading pianists of the young generation are, in fact, Chinese - Lang Lang and Yundi Li. They are popular throughout the world and are idolised in China for their musical achievements.

For more information contact:

Dr. Xiang Min
Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing
Telephone: +86 10 6641 0803
Or
Mrs. Turid Hjelmstad Johansen Prestinari
International Piano Academy Lake Como
Telephone: +39 03 448 1046

 Also consult:
www. Comopianoacademy.com (English)
www. Comopiano.com (Chinese)