In (Re-)Search of Chopin: a School of Technique and Style
Many generations have passed since the last time a pianist was given a lesson or some advice from one of the 19th century's most influencing and innovative pianists, Frédéric Chopin, who is better known today for his breaking composing style. In contrast to today's dominating pianistic schools descended from Carl Czerny and Franz Liszt, knowledge of Chopin's approach has not outlasted the test of time and has been forgotten, therefore not enriching modern piano teaching methods. But writings and memoirs left by either Chopin or his pupils, as seen in a few outstanding researches over the past century, form a fertile ground for artistic research aiming for a better understanding of the way this great pianist-composer has played and taught himself. How did he use his body? His arms? His fingers? How can this knowledge be extracted from his compositions, and to what extent can it be useful when performing on a modern instrument? My artistic research offers new ways to consider Chopin's pianistic approach and possibly also teaching methods, suggesting new methods and strategies for practicing, playing and even interpreting his music.
Internal Supervisors and External Advisors: Andreas Dorschel (KUG), Milana Chernyavska (KUG), Hubert Rutkowski (HfMT Hamburg), Jonathan Bellman (University of Northern Colorado).
Almog Segal
Piano
Almog Segal is an Israeli pianist, laureate of national and international competitions who regularly performs in recitals and festivals around the globe. He has played with all Israeli leading orchestras, including The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with international orchestras and recorded for the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (“The Voice of Music”), for the Radio Television Hong-Kong as well as for the well-known label “Naxos”.
Among his prizes are: 1st prize, Audience Favorite prize and "The Best Performance of an Israeli Composition Prize" at the Aviv Competitions, 3rd prize at the “Tel-Aviv International Piano Competition”, 1st prize at the “M. Clairmont Competition”, 1st prize and “The Best Performance of an Israeli Composition Prize” at the “Voice of Music Young Artist Competition”, 1st
prize and Audience Favorite prize at “The 13th International MozARTe Competition”, 1st prizes at “Piano Forever Competition”, 1st prize at “The Pnina Salzman Piano Competition”, 1st prize at “The Israel Chopin Piano Competition” and more. He was also a semi-finalist at the 2022 Hastings International Piano Competition.
Almog has played with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (United Kingdom), Kiev Virtuosi Orchestra (Ukraine), Aachen Sinfoniker (Germany), the Hong-Kong Academy Chamber Orchestra (Hong-Kong), Ryal College of Music Prince Consort Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Netanya-Kibutz Orchestra, Raanana Symphonette Orchestra, Ashdod Symphony Orchestra, Haifa Symphony Orchestra and Tel-Aviv Soloists Orchestra.
Some of the festivals in which Almog has appeared are “Aspen Music Festival”, “Miami International Piano Festival Academy”, “PYPA”, “Apple-Hill Festival” (USA), Gulangyu Israeli Musicians Week” (China), “Gabala International Music Festival” (Azerbaijan), “Orpheo” (Netherlands), “Musicfest Perugia” (Italy), “Israel Festival”, “Felicja Blumental International
Music Festival” (Israel), “Musica Mundi” (Belgium), “Liszt Biennale” (Germany), and many more in Great Britain, France, Austria, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Hong-Kong etc.
During the past years, Almog has played in masterclasses with famous international artists such as Murray Perahia, Yuja Wang and Cristoph Eschenbach and he is a recipient of the AICF scholarships since 2012 as well as the DAAD grants in 2019-2020.
Almog started playing the piano at the age of 11. For 8 years he was taught by Luisa Yoffe, before his bachelor studies at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, where he studied until 2018 with prof. Tomer Lev. In 2020 he completed his Master degree under the instructions of prof. Balázs Szokolay at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar and today he is a doctoral student at the Kunstuniversität Graz, where he works under the scholar supervision of prof. Andreas Dorschel and the artistic supervision of prof. Milana Chernyavska.