One of the greatest pianists I have ever heard is Sergi Babayon (SP.) He teaches at the Cleavland Institute of Music, and has only a few students. Few times will you ever hear a pianist with such a control of sound, as well as of coloration of harmonies in music. If you haven't heard of him, ask around. Someone will have, and after they've heard him, they'll tell you just what I did.
Babayon is great. I am going to attempt to get him for grad school.
Lawrence Campbell - My teacher. Am I biased? Actually no, I don't look up to all of my teachers like I do him. He teaches at Illinois Wesleyan and played a concert a couple of months ago, including Mozart sonata f minor, some Chopin, and Liszt (Dante sonata) He is also performing the B minor sonata in November.
His control over color is incredible, and I did not even hear one mistake throughout the concert. Just as he is at teaching it, he is phenominal at playing Mozart, and I prefer his interpretation over any Mozart I've heard (this includes Brendel). He had not one ounce of nerves.
He studied with someone named Pauline at Northwestern U, and at Indiana U, studied with Shebok (BIG name, especially in Hungary).
It's funny, he only parcipated in one big competition (the Young Artists at Chicago), which he won, and he decided that instead of being a touring pianist, he wanted to be a College Professor, so he got his doctrate, and beat out 200 other pianists (including pianists from CIM, Joulliard, Indiana) for his position at Wesleyan.
It was funny, during the Chopin, there was a passage where he had to play around 7 octaves running up, and he did it so quickly and easily, that all of the pianists in the audience looked at eachother, even an accompanist who won the Rach 3 competition....it was ridiculous.
An amazing teacher as well as pianist, I chose him over many others from select conservatories.
Topic: Unknown Great Pianists