Frost Chopin Festival Returns Live-Ukranian Polish Soprano Olga Pasichnyk and Pianist Garrick Ohlsson Among Special Guest Artists

The Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and the Chopin Foundation of the U.S. are pleased to announce the fourth annual Frost Chopin Festival. The critically acclaimed week-long event begins Sunday June 19, and will conclude Sunday, June 26 returning live in-person this year following last year's highly successful all-virtual platform due to the COVID crisis. This year generous donor support has enabled all concerts to be available free of charge with more full scholarships awarded to participants selected this year than in previous editions. Concerts will take place at UM's Maurice Gusman Concert Hall located on the University of Miami Campus, 1314 Miller Drive in Coral Gables, Florida and will be livestreamed to a global audience via the Frost YouTube channel.

"We are so excited to be able to host the return of the Frost Chopin Festival with in-person events, offering world-class classical music to the people of South Florida free of charge," states Kevin Kenner, Frost Chopin Festival Academy Founder, Artistic Director and Associate Professor of piano at the Frost School of Music. a??"We especially want to welcome those who have rarely come to classical music events in hopes they will discover the transformative power and beauty of this music."

In addition to the concerts featuring some of the most celebrated pianists of the music of Chopin today, an integral part of the Frost Chopin Festival is the Academy. The Academy offers each participant specialized masterclasses and lectures fashioned to help with specific issues surrounding the performance of Chopin's works. Guest lecturers will share their specialized knowledge of Chopin in the form of workshops and subsequent breakout groups applying newly learned skills. Workshops are also open to the general public free of charge.

The 4th annual edition of the Frost Chopin Festival is especially significant for the Chopin Foundation, states Barbara Muze, Executive Director of the Chopin Foundation of the U.S. "The program really goes to the heart of the Foundation's mission by both supporting the young talented pianists who receive the finest musical instruction, and by offering accessible, high quality classical music concerts by world renowned artists to the South Florida community. Additionally, a total of seven pianists from our Scholarship Program for Young Pianists will be participating this summer. Because of Frost's philosophy which is rooted in the transformative power of music, the Chopin Foundation has started an endowment fund for the Frost Chopin Festival, which will allow the Frost School to continue in perpetuity this important celebration and pedagogy of Chopin. Our goal is to reach $100,000 (or more) within the next 5 years and we hope that others who recognize the importance of this great program will join the Chopin Foundation with additional pledges to the endowment."

This year's festival has many highlights, notably two concerts featuring some of Ukraine's finest treasures: the illustrious Ukrainian-Polish soprano Olga Pasichnyk performing Ukrainian and Polish songs, and one of Ukraine's most gifted young talents, 16-year-old pianist Khrystyna Mykhailichenko, one of the event's students receiving a full scholarship. Khrystyna, who had to flee her Ukrainian home and is now living in Poland and will perform works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko.a?? "At this disturbing moment in world events, I have been deeply concerned for the people of Ukraine," states Kevin Kenner. "This unjust war has not only shocked the world, but is also taking aim at Ukraine's rich cultural heritage, as it attempts to erase the very identity of the Ukrainian people, their literature, art and music. Our Festival, therefore, has aligned with the King Baudouin Foundation of U.S Relief Fund for Ukrainian Musicians. Donations can be made at https://bit.ly/FrostChopinSupportsUkraine.

Chopin Specialists Participating:

Chopin specialists joining the festival's distinguished artistic director Kevin Kenner, (who won the 12th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw) in conducting workshops and performing in concert include:

• Garrick Ohlsson, one of the world's leading exponents of the music of Chopin will make a rare appearance in South Florida.

• Dina Yoffe, winner of the Chopin and Schumann International Competitions will perform Beethoven and Schumann.
• Ewa Pobłocka, the distinguished Polish pianist and pedagogue returns to perform works of Bach.

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Gifted Chopin Festival and Academy Participants:

The selection of 21 gifted pianists many of whom already recognized throughout the world, include J.J. Jun Li Bui of Canada, who is just turning 18 years old and won 6tha??prize in the highly publicized 2021 International Chopin Competition, which was watched by over 4 million viewers worldwide.a?? Participants range in age from 13 - 28 and represent their home countries of South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Poland, Ukraine, Canada and the U.S. The youngest Evelina Kleczek who hails from Virginia is a prize winner in 12 competitions including most recently the Gold Prize in the Musicale Winter Music Festival 2022. The oldest Shih-Man Weng hails from Taiwan, and has been awarded prizes in 6 competitions including winning the 2019 Frost School of Music Concerto Competition.

The 4th Annual Chopin Festival is made possible with generous support from the Chopin Foundation of the U.S the Dr. M. Lee Pearce Foundation, Patrick Park Foundation, and Olga and David Melin.

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