One of the most sought-after soloists and chamber music collaborators of his generation, ORION WEISS is widely regarded as a “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post). He has dazzled audiences with his lush sound and performed with dozens of orchestras in North America including the Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic and at major venues and festivals worldwide.
Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with violinists Augustin Hadelich, William Hagen, Benjamin Beilman, and James Ehnes; pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner; cellist Julie Albers; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Weiss can be heard on the Naxos, Telos, Bridge, First Hand, Yarlung, and Artek labels.
Weiss has been awarded the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. A native of Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax.
JAMES (ZIJIAN) WEI
Chinese pianist JAMES (ZIJIAN) WEI is rapidly becoming a rising star among his generation of pianists. His performances are characterized by genuine emotion and unique charm, and are loved and acclaimed by audiences around the world.
In the year 2024, Wei triumphed as the Mixon First Prize winner in the prestigious Cleveland International Piano Competition, while also securing accolades including the Best Chamber Music Performance Award, the Henle Verlag Urtext Special Prize, the Audience Choice prize, and the Young Judge Prize. He is poised to embark on his inaugural recital tours with performances at the esteemed Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2025 and the Tonhalle in Zurich, Switzerland in 2026.
In recent years, Wei has frequently performed as a soloist with renowned orchestras in North America, Europe, and China. For example, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Central Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra, the Changsha Symphony Orchestra, the Sichuan Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra, the Zhengzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, among others, have performed in various prestigious concert halls both domestically and internationally.
Wei pursued his secondary education at the high school affiliated with the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, mentored by Professor Jay Pengjie Sun Professor Liu Xi, and Professor Popova. In the year 2016, he was successfully admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music, and has been undergoing musical education under the esteemed guidance of Professor Wei Danwen, a celebrated pianist and the department chair of the Piano Department at the Central Conservatory of Music.
Wei has achieved remarkable distinctions, including the First Prize in the 2017 Changjiang Cup National University Piano Competition, the Grand Prize in the Professional Category of the 2018 Huanglong Music Season Piano Competition, the First Prize in the 2018 Jianfa Gulangyu International Piano Competition, and the Third Prize in the 76th Geneva International Music Competition, as well as the receipt of the Rose-Marie Huguenin Award in 2022.
James (Zijian) Wei is presented in partnership with Piano Cleveland, generously sponsored by Jeffrey and Norma Glazer.
ROMAN RABINOVICH
Praised by The New York Times for his ‘uncommon sensitivity and feeling’, the eloquent pianist ROMAN RABINOVICH was the winner of the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2008. His subsequent career has led him to perform throughout Europe and the USA in venues as Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Cité de la Musique in Paris and Washington DC’s Kennedy Center.
Roman Rabinovich has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Meininger Hofkapelle, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, NFM Leopoldinum, KBS Symphony, Prague Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic and all the major Israeli orchestras, and has collaborated with conductors such as Sir Roger Norrington, Zubin Mehta, Ludovic Morlot, Kristjan Järvi, Michael Stern, Christoph Koenig, Gerard Schwarz and Joseph Swensen. He has garnered critical acclaim for performances of concertos of all periods, ranging from Bach to Lutoslawski.
Highlights of the 2024-25 season include returns to Wigmore Hall for a series of three recitals, as well as to the Lammermuir Festival in Scotland and the Liszt Academy Chamber Music Festival in Budapest, and his concerto debut with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Roman Rabinovich also returns to Israel for a recital tour and concerto performances with the Haifa Symphony. The 2024-25 season also has a particular focus on JS Bach’s Golberg Variations, with a number of performances scheduled, including in London (Wigmore Hall) and Vienna (Bösendorfer-Zyklus).
Dubbed ‘a true polymath, in the Renaissance sense of the word’ (Seen & Heard International), Rabinovich is also a composer and visual artist with a repertoire spanning six centuries, from Byrd to Boulez and beyond. He has won critical acclaim for interpretations of the music of Haydn; he has performed Haydn Sonata cycles at the Lammermuir and Bath Festivals in UK and at ChamberFest Cleveland in the US; he has also appeared at the Herbstgold Festival in Eisenstadt, and curated a three-concert Haydn Day at Wigmore Hall in 2022. He has also released two albums of Haydn Sonatas on First Hand Records to great critical acclaim, with BBC Music Magazine noting ‘the elegance and liveliness of Rabinovich’s keyboard style are, indeed, a joy to listen to, and his unfailing musicality and inventiveness allows him to penetrate to the expressive heart of Haydn’s world.’
Roman Rabinovich made his Israel Philharmonic debut under Zubin Mehta aged 10, having immigrated to Israel a year before from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Seymour Lipkin, he went on to earn his masters- degree at the Juilliard School where he studied with Robert McDonald. He was among the first of three young pianists to be championed by Sir András Schiff for his ‘Building Bridges’ series. Together with his wife, violinist Diana Cohen, he is co-director of the ChamberFest Cleveland and ChamberFest West (Calgary) Festivals.
ANTONIO POMPA-BALDI
Born and raised in Foggia, Italy, ANTONIO POMPA-BALDI won the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 1999 and embarked on a multifaceted career that continues to extend across five continents. A top prize winner at the 1998 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition of Paris, France, Pompa-Baldi won a silver medal at the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Mr. Pompa-Baldi appears at the world’s major concert venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Milan’s Sala Verdi, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Shanghai’s Grand Theatre, and Paris’ Salle Pleyel, to name a few. He has collaborated with leading conductors including Hans Graf, James Conlon, Miguel Harth- Bedoya, Krzysztof Urbański, Theodore Kuchar, Benjamin Zander, Louis Lane, and Keith Lockhart. He has performed with colleagues such as Takacs String Quartet, Alison Balsom, Sharon Robinson, Ilya Kaler, and principals of the Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Juilliard Quartet, among others. Pompa Baldi has recorded 35 albums to date, for various labels including Centaur Records, Harmonia Mundi, Steinway, TwoPianists, Azica, and Brilliant Classics. Antonio Pompa-Baldi is a Steinway Artist since 2003. He is often invited to judge international piano competitions such as the Cleveland, Hilton Head, E- Competition (Minneapolis), BNDES Rio de Janeiro, and Edward Grieg (Bergen), among others. Pompa-Baldi is head of the piano department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Vice Director for Education at the Lang Lang Art World organization in Hangzhou, China, and advisory board member of the Lang Lang International Piano Foundation in New York City. In 2015, Pompa-Baldi founded Todi International Music Masters. This summer festival takes place every August in the beautiful Italian town of Todi. It features internationally renowned faculty members, and students from all over the world.
YARON KOHLBERG
Engage, inspire, connect. These are the pillars guiding world-renowned pianist and Steinway artist YARON KOHLBERG every day. Kohlberg ignites audiences through traditional and nontraditional performances, develops creative programming, and supports emerging artists, making him a leader and innovator in the world of classical music.
While those crowds are often found in famous venues (Carnegie Hall, the Kremlin, Beijing’s Forbidden City, Kennedy Center, and Mexico City’s Bellas Artes are some of the iconic auditoriums he has performed as soloist), Kohlberg reaches beyond the concert-going public to engage new audiences with classical music in atypical places – a street piano in Singapore, a hotel lobby in Marrakech, a community center in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. It is in these unexpected performances where he crosses cultural divides and awakens listeners to new experiences.
Kohlberg often combines storytelling and transcriptions of popular tunes with traditional classical masterpieces, thrilling audiences and critics with his virtuosity and unique quality of sound. NPR raved, “When the music ends, if you’re not deeply moved by the depth of Kohlberg’s insight, you might want to check your pulse.” Audience favorites include Carmen, the theme songs from the Pulp Fiction and Mission Impossible soundtracks, “Hava Nagila” and the children’s song “The Most Beautiful Girl in Kindergarten.”
Winner of 10 international prizes and the 2007 silver medalist of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, Kohlberg is President of Piano Cleveland, the organizing body of the CIPC. Original programming he has co-created includes the upcoming Artist Development Program, an enrichment and professional development program for top-tier young pianists; The Listening Series, an in-person and virtual event that takes audiences from the couch to the concert hall as musicians take a deep dive into their work; and Virtu(al)oso, a global piano competition that raised more than $75,000 to support pianists during the pandemic. Articles about his creative ideas have been featured in several of the best classical music publications, including Pianist Magazine, Musical America, and The World of Piano Competitions magazine.
ADAM GOLKA
Polish-American pianist ADAM GOLKA first performed all of Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas when he was 18 years-old, and he returned to the complete cycle in 2020-2021 for performances in NYC, Orlando, and Houston. He also presented all-Beethoven live streams for presenters in Ventura, El Paso, Sitka, Spokane, and the Library of Congress. Adam’s performances and presentations were complemented by 32 short films he created, known as ’32@32″ (available on YouTube), featuring not only conversations with legends such as Alfred Brendel and Leon Fleisher, but also connecting the Sonatas to other disciplines through dialogues with an astrophysicist, philosopher, magician, painter, and a child, to name only a few special guests.
As a concerto soloist, Adam has appeared as soloist with dozens of orchestras, including the BBC Scottish Symphony, NACO (Ottawa), Warsaw Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, as well as the San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, New Jersey, and San Diego symphonies. In 2014-2015, Adam performed recitals as part of the “Sir Andras Schiff Selects” project at Klavier-Festival Ruhr (Essen), Tonhalle Zürich, Maison de France (Berlin), and 92Y Subculture (NYC). Adam has also performed solo recitals at Alice Tully Hall (NYC), Concertgebouw Kleine Zall (Amsterdam), Musashino Hall (Tokyo), and for Cliburn at the Kimbell. Chamber music is an integral part of Adam Golka’s musical life. He performs frequently with the Manhattan Chamber Players and he is a regular of the Krzyżowa-Music “Music for Europe” festival.
ZOLTÁN FEJÉRVÁRI
ZOLTÁN FEJÉRVÁRI has emerged as one of the most intriguing pianists among the newest generation of Hungarian musicians. Winner of the 2017 Concours Musical International de Montréal and recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2016, Zoltán Fejérvári has appeared in recitals throughout the Americas and Europe, at prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Canada’s Place des Arts, Gasteig in Munich, Lingotto in Turin, Palau de Música in Valencia, Biblioteca Nacional de Buenos Aires, and Liszt Academy in Budapest. His latest recording, Schumann, was released for the Atma Classique label in May 2020 and was again praised by Gramophone: “Fejérvári is a deeply communicative artist who combines an imperturbable yet magisterial command of his instrument with impeccable musicality. Those who have yet to hear him are in for a rare treat.”
Highlights of the 2022-2023 season include a U.S. tour with Concerto Budapest, as well as performances at Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Impromptu Classical Concerts (Key West, FL), Capitol Region Classical (Schenectady, NY), Music for Galway in Ireland, Wigmore Hall and the Nicholas Yonge Society in the UK. He performs with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Markus Stenz.
Zoltán Fejérvári’s solo recording debut, Janáček, was released on the Piano Classics label in 2019. In 2013 his recording of Liszt’s Malédiction with the Budapest Chamber Symphony, for Hungaroton, was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque. The recording was followed by a CD of four Mozart sonatas with violinist Ernő Kállai, issued in 2014 on Hungaroton. Fejérvári was also featured on a 2020 Warner Classics release of sonatas, entitled Strangers in Paradise.
Fejérvári currently holds a professorship at the Hochschule für Musik FHNW, Musik Akademie Basel in Basel, Switzerland, where he teaches piano and chamber music classes.
MICHAEL STEPHEN BROWN
Composer-pianist MICHAEL STEPHEN BROWN, hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers,” is a 2025 MacDowell Fellow and 2024 Yaddo Artist. He is currently composing Endangered Carnival, a four organization co-commission premiering in 2026. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center, he has performed with major orchestras and venues worldwide, is an artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and regularly tours with Pinchas Zukerman. Brown’s compositions have been commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Gilmore and Bridgehampton festivals, Osmo Vänskä and Erin Keefe, the SPA Trio, and pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Jerome Lowenthal, Ursula Oppens, Orion Weiss, Adam Golka, and Roman Rabinovich, soprano Susanna Phillips, and cellist Nicholas Canellakis. Two albums of his music including his Piano Concerto with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra will be released in 2025. A native New Yorker, Michael lives in New York City and Wallkill, NY with his two nineteenth-century Steinway D pianos, Octavia and Daria.
AHMED ALOM
AHMED ALOM is a pianist, composer, and conductor whose artistry bridges classical and popular traditions, earning him recognition as “one of the most versatile artists in the Western Hemisphere” (Diario de Mallorca). His unique voice blends the rigor and structure of classical training with the rhythmic and harmonic richness of his Cuban heritage, forging connections between the past and the music of today.
Alom’s compositions have been performed by world-renowned musicians, including Yuja Wang, who premiered his Displaced Etude No. 1 at the New York Philharmonic. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, New World Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de México, and Britt Festival Orchestra. He is also the youngest Artistic Director of the Washington Square Music Festival, where he champions inclusive and innovative programming, premiering works by Julian de la Chica, Dante Cucurullo, Dick Hyman among others,
Deeply engaged in collaboration, Alom works across genres with leading artists such as Michael League, Antonio Sánchez, Teddy Abrams, Steve Hackman, Miguel Zenón, Mark Dover, Brandon Ridenour, and Pedrito Martinez. His debut album, Exilio (2023), explored themes of displacement through the works of six Hispanic composers, including the first complete recording of Luis A. Calvo’s Four Intermezzos. His chamber trio, Triple Cortado—with Caleb Hudson and Achilles Liarmakopoulos—blends classical virtuosity with new contemporary works, while his duo CrossCurrents with Pedrito Martinez navigates the intersection of Afro-Cuban music and European classical traditions.
Beyond the stage, Alom is a sought-after educator, having given masterclasses and lectures at Berklee College of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, Dartmouth College, Peabody Institute, and the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. His passion for new music has led to collaborations with visionary composers and projects, including performances with Steve Hackman, the Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet, and Ballet Hispánico’s Doña Perón.
Born in Cuba, Alom trained in both piano and percussion before earning his Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music under Dr. Solomon Mikowsky. He continues his studies in conducting and composition with Dr. Ford Lallerstedt while actively expanding his artistic collaborations worldwide.
About our Rising Stars
ChamberFest Cleveland’s Rising Stars are recognized for their extraordinary talent. They are invited to deepen their connection to the art of chamber music by immersing themselves in the festival, rehearsing side by side with the leading chamber musicians of our time, and performing in a professional concert setting for discerning audiences and critics alike.
The Rising Stars program is generously sponsored by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder.
NOLAN JUAIRE
NOLAN JUAIRE is a Cleveland-based classical guitarist. He is an active solo and chamber musician, with performances ranging from solo recitals to world premieres of guitar and orchestra works. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music with a Bachelor of Music in guitar performance. While there, he studied with Bill Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, and Pepe Romero. He recently completed his Master’s degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Jason Vieaux. In addition to performance, Nolan is also an active teacher, sought after for his enthusiastic approach to sharing the study of both musicality and technique.