Dr. Igor Lipinski

Polish-born pianist Igor Lipinski made his orchestra debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on NPR’s Performance Today and performed as a soloist with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, Butler County Symphony Orchestra, Woodstock Mozart Festival Orchestra, Lakes Area Music Festival Orchestra, and Paderewski Symphony Orchestra at Chicago’s Symphony Center.

He maintains an active concert career in the U.S. with over 100 performances to date, including a live broadcast recital at Chicago’s premiere classical music station 98.7 WFMT and “33 Variations,” an award-winning theater play based on Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

At age 12, Lipinski won the Grand Prix and the First Prize at the Paderewski Competition for Young Pianists in Tuchów, Poland. At 17, he played a role of a pianist in “Paderewski’s Children,” a theater play about the life of I. J. Paderewski, written and directed by Kazimierz Braun, Professor of Theater at the University at Buffalo. A year later, he graduated from the Paderewski Music High School in Tarnów, Poland where he studied piano with Jaroslaw Iwaneczko.

Lipinski earned his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Musical Arts and Master of Music in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester where he studied piano under the tutelage of Douglas Humpherys. As a teaching assistant of Vincent Lenti and Tony Caramia, he received Eastman’s Teaching Assistant Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Lipinski continued his graduate studies at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music earning his Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance under the tutelage of Alan Chow. Upon graduation from Northwestern, Lipinski joined the piano faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville as the Lecturer of Piano. In Fall 2017, Lipinski joined the piano faculty at the University of Oklahoma as the Assistant Professor of Piano.

Lipinski’s research interests focus on the history of recital programming featured in his DMA dissertation “From Liszt to Victor Borge: A Legacy of Unique Piano Performances.” Recognized for his own creative programming, Lipinski unified two of his lifetime passions, classical music and sleight-of-hand magic, in a unique recital program “Piano Illusions.” Originally developed for his honors senior thesis at Eastman, Lipinski collaborated on the program with Teller of Las Vegas duo Penn & Teller, eventually winning the WQXR Classical Comedy Contest at Caroline’s on Broadway. In light of his success in New York, Lipinski presented “Piano Illusions” at renowned concert series and festivals including Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation in Salt Lake City and Musica del Cuore Concert Series in Hong Kong.

Highlights of 2017-18 concert season include recitals at the San Francisco International Piano Festival, College of Charleston International Piano Series in Charleston, South Carolina, The Evelyn Miller Young Pianists Series in Knoxville, Tennessee, and 2nd In The City Chopin Festival in Chicago.

Dr. Yu Xi Wang

Pianist Yu Xi Wang made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2002 as the winner of the Artist International Competition. She released her debut CD in China the following year. Since then, her performances have taken her to many cities in the United States and her native country China. She has particular interests in performing in unconventional venues. Highlights include an all-Chopin recital at World Financial Center’s Winter Garden in 2010 (presented by Piano Culture for Chopin’s bicentennial celebration) and appearance at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center as part of 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) event. Most recently, she appeared in two recitals at the Kislak Center – an intimate venue within the Van Pelt Library of the University of Pennsylvania..

Yu Xi has been faculty at Curtis Institute of Music since 2013 and is currently the director of Keyboard Studies. Prior to her appointment at Curtis, she was faculty at The Juilliard School and Music Institute of Chicago, where she covered a variety of subjects including Piano Literature, Piano Topics, and Solfège. She has also taught piano at Settlement Music School, Saint Joseph’s University, and Philadelphia International Music Festival. In addition, she is presently a teaching affiliate at the University of Pennsylvania, serving as piano instructor and in-class performance coach.

Yu Xi is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she received her Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance under the tutelage of Herbert Stessin, Jerome Lowenthal, and Julian Martin.