General admission tickets to Weill Recital Hall concerts are $35. Tickets may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, by going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. $15 tickets for students and seniors (with proper ID) are available at the Carnegie Box Office. Weill Recital Hall is located at 154 West 57th Street. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

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"The finest interpreter of Mozart in the world" (Südhessen Woche) is how European newspapers once greeted international concert pianist Gil Sullivan on a concert tour there. Their acclamations continued: "It is hard to believe that just one person could so convincingly make the piano sound like a full orchestra" (Darmstadter Echo). "There were so many magical moments...even Brahms himself would have been impressed" [of the 2nd Brahms Sonata] (Weinheimer Nachrichten). "Not just another pianistic wizard, but a cultured and refined musician, whose rare and insightful vision into the very soul of the music cast a magic spell over the entire concert hall" (Badische Zeitung).

In Australia, critics have been equally enthusiastic: "Playing informed by brilliance of tone and accuracy...invariably placed at the service of the music" (The Australian). "...Sullivan's digital athleticism made a lot of noisy sparks fly with a spontaneity that is all too often lacking from live performance these days..." (The Advertiser). "Sullivan's interpretation of Beethoven's 'Emperor' concerto is one of overall directness and command...authority and flair...with sensitive rubatos and a fine tonal range" (Music Maker).

Mr. Sullivan tours extensively, both internationally and throughout Australia. He performs regularly in Asia, Europe, and the United Kingdom, and on his first tour of the United States several years ago, every recital was greeted with a standing ovation. He has given recitals in the Vietnam National Opera House; the National Concert Halls of Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea; and in December 2007 will give his New York debut in Carnegie Hall. Throughout each year, he also performs as both soloist and conductor—often conducting from the keyboard—with orchestras such as the Thai Chamber Orchestra, the Adelaide Chamber and Arts Orchestras, the Melbourne Pro Arte, and the Darwin and City of Fremantle Symphony Orchestras. His repertoire of concertos ranges widely from Mozart to Rachmaninov, Brahms to Malcolm Williamson. He has recorded concertos by Tchaikovsky and Schumann for CD with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

After distinguishing himself in studies in Adelaide, he travelled to Europe for short study periods with world-renowned pianists—Murray Perahia in London, and Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna. He records and broadcasts frequently for the ABC's National FM Radio, and Hong Kong Radio 4.

His five-program recital series in 2006 of the complete piano sonatas of Mozart, during the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, confirmed Mr. Sullivan's reputation as a major interpreter of the music. One of the only pianists in the world who plays the entire piano works of Mozart, he continues to research, perform and record rarely played or published works by Mozart. His recordings of the complete sonatas will be released internationally on CD this year on ABC Classics.

In 1997, he celebrated with the rest of the music world in the centenary of the death of Johannes Brahms. Performing a five-concert series of all-Brahms recitals—which included all three piano sonatas, many of the solo variations and miscellaneous works, plus chamber and two-piano works—all five concerts were broadcast over live national FM radio. Critic Roger Knight wrote "Throughout, the playing was marked by a singular degree of coherence, continuity, and lucidity which underpinned Mr. Sullivan's well-honed skills as a colourist," while Raymond Chapman-Smith wrote "...in every phrase, Sullivan's impassioned and deeply considered approach to music is, in every way worthy of attention and devotion...engrossing, fully engaging the listener in his concentrated and complex interpretations that sought the very essence of the music."

In his travels around the world, Mr. Sullivan, as a chamber player, has performed with members of the Berlin, Vienna, and London Philharmonic Orchestras; Munich Chamber Orchestra; Medici String Quartet; and Australians Jane Peters, Georg Pedersen, Paul Wright (The Ensemble of the Classical Era), and Michael Goldschlager (Macquarie Trio).

In addition, Mr. Sullivan is a distinguished and enthusiastic teacher, whose teaching positions and residencies include the Seoul Art School in Korea; Chiao Tung University in Taiwan; Hanoi Conservatory in Vietnam; The Hong Kong Institute of Education; TAFE in South Australia; University of Western Australia; the Western Australian Academy of Music; Charles Darwin University; the Victorian College of the Arts; and the Elder School of Music. He has also lectured at London's Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance, and has given his Mozart lecture-recital at Oxford University. Moreover, for three years he reviewed for the London-published International Journal for Music Education, which enjoys a readership of some 50 countries.

For more information, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com

General admission tickets to Weill Recital Hall concerts are $35. Tickets may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, by going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. $15 tickets for students and seniors (with proper ID) are available at the Carnegie Box Office. Weill Recital Hall is located at 154 West 57th Street. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

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Yulia Ziskel has established herself as an internationally acclaimed solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. A member of the New York Philharmonic's first violin section, Ms. Ziskel gave her United States solo recital debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2002. She has been praised by Strad Magazine for "the sweetness of her sound." She has also performed in such venues as Alice Tully Hall in New York City; Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Italy; Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Germany; St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall; and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in Russia. Recent critically-acclaimed solo appearances include The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra; Key West Symphony and New York Chamber Symphony Orchestras; chamber music performances for the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York; Merkin and Avery Fisher Halls in New York City; and Minato Mirai Hall in Yokohama, Japan. Ms. Ziskel's festival participation includes The Grand Canyon, Bellingham, Sarasota and Pacific Music Festivals, and a recent collaboration with Leonard Slatkin at the Indiana University Summer Music Festival.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Yulia Ziskel began her musical training on the violin and piano at age four. She made her solo debut at the age of seven at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, and at age 12 with the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra. As a teenager, she toured extensively, appearing throughout Russia, Germany, Finland, Poland and United States. In 1994, Ms. Ziskel's family emigrated to the United States, where she completed her Bachelor of Music degree with honors at Indiana University, and later received her master's degree from the Juilliard School in 2001. Ms. Ziskel's pedagogues include Glenn Dicterow, Yoko Takebe, Nelli Shkolnikiva, Lev Ivashenko, and Eugenia Poustireva. Her debut CD on the Sonoris label is available at www.YuliaZiskel.com.

A 2006 Borletti-Buitoni Trust fellowship recipient, Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute recently made her Chicago Symphony debut at the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Conlon, and her Brazilian orchestral debut in Rio de Janeiro. Over the last several seasons, Ieva gave recitals at the Freer Gallery in Washington DC, on the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, at Caspary Hall in New York City, and in Vilnius, Lithuania. She has recently appeared in chamber music concerts at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; as a guest artist on National Public Radio's Performance Today; in Panama City, Panama; and on tour with Musicians from Marlboro. Ieva regularly appears at the Marlboro, Ravinia, and Bard Festivals; at Prussia Cove in England; and at La Lointaine in France. Earning degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and from Mannes College of Music, her principal teachers have been Seymour Lipkin and Richard Goode.

For more information, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com

General admission tickets to Weill Recital Hall concerts are $35. Tickets may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, by going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. $15 tickets for students and seniors (with proper ID) are available at the Carnegie Box Office. Weill Recital Hall is located at 154 West 57th Street. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

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Evangeline Benedetti, cellist, active soloist, and chamber musician, has been a member of the New York Philharmonic since 1967, one of the first women to be accepted into the organization. She appears regularly on the Philharmonic Ensembles series at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, and as a member of the New York Trio Concertant. In addition to the numerous recordings she has participated in with the New York Philharmonic, she has recorded the Prokofiev and Shostakovich Sonatas for cello and piano with Pedja Muzijevic, a CD that has been released by Musicians Showcase. Ms. Benedetti's second love and career is teaching. She brings a unique approach as a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, steeped in the tradition of Bernard Greenhouse, Zara Nelsova, and Janos Starker, her teachers. She has also performed in master classes with Pablo Casals. Ms. Benedetti is a master coach for the New York Youth Symphony and the Interschool Orchestra. She also serves on the executive boards of the Musicians Club and the Violoncello Society on New York and the Bloomingdale School of Music. From 1997 to 1999 she was board chair of Opus 118 Music Center, which sponsors a violin program in the public schools in East Harlem that was the focus of the 1999 movie Music of the Heart.

Serena Benedetti has been heralded as "a pure-toned soprano that soared radiantly." Her operatic appearances include Susanna in Le Nozze de Figaro, Musetta in La Bohème, Fiordiligi in Cosí fan tutte, and Violetta in La Traviata. Concert performances include a Mozart recital, a Bach St. John Passion, a Carnegie Hall debut in Handel's Messiah, and an appearance in Dave Brubeck's oratorio La Fiesta de la Posada. Ms. Benedetti has also appeared with the National Symphony, National Cathedral Choir, Lancaster Symphony, and has recently won a Marian Anderson Career Grant for Emerging Classical Artists.

Stanley Drucker, clarinetist, was Musical America's 1998 "Instrumentalist of the Year," and is the principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic. That year marked his 50th anniversary with the Philharmonic. He has made approximately 150 solo appearances with the orchestra. Mr. Drucker has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, both times as "Best Instrumental Soloist/Classical with Orchestra," and has the distinction of being one of the few living orchestral musicians whose biography is included in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

A past winner of the National Guild of Piano Teachers' International Piano Recording Competition, Kiyoshi Tamagawa has performed as a soloist and collaborative pianist throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, England, India, and Mexico. His collaboration with Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition prizewinner Eugene Fodor has resulted in over thirty recital appearances in the United States; the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, Mexico; the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai, India; as well as a CD of violin and piano music. He has performed at Weill Recital Hall and the Bargemusic series in New York City, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Currently he is professor of music and chair of the music department at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com