2020 Conference Artists

DANIEL EPSTEIN, piano

Lecture Presentation and Advanced Master Class Artist

“Learning and Memory - Two Sides of the Same Coin”

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Pianist DANIEL EPSTEIN received international acclaim in 1973 with his performances of the Yellow River Concerto – the first piece of Chinese classical music to be performed in the United States – in a series of concerts and RCA debut recording with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Since then, he has become recognized as one of the most vital and versatile solo and chamber pianists of his generation, as well as an articulate communicator and educator.


Winner of the prestigious Kosciuszko Chopin Award, the National Arts Club Prize, the Prix Alex de Vries at the Marguerite Long Competition, in Paris, and the Concert Artists Guild Award -- which afforded him his Carnegie Hall debut recital -- Epstein was also selected for an NEA Recitalist Grant to perform recitals throughout the US. He has appeared as guest soloist with such eminent American orchestras as Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Detroit, and Rochester. He has given recitals at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the 92nd Street Y as well as in major cities throughout the US, complemented by master classes and intensive seminars for pianists at colleges and universities. He has also toured in China, Japan and Europe.

As pianist and founding member of the famed Raphael Trio, since 1975, he has performed virtually the entire piano trio repertoire. The Trio has appeared regularly in New York’s Carnegie and Town Halls, The Kennedy Center in Washington, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna, Paris, Geneva, Budapest, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, as well as numerous other musical centers throughout the U.S. and Europe. The Trio's recordings of Beethoven, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, and Wolf-Ferarri have received wide critical and public praise. He has collaborated with many renowned string quartets, including the Ying, American, and Talich, and has played with members of the Juilliard and Guarneri quartets as well as many other distinguished chamber musicians and soloists.

In the fall of 2004, Mr. Epstein was invited to Shanghai, China, serving as visiting faculty at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He has visited China since then at least annually, performing and teaching in the conservatories of Shanghai, Beijing (Central) Xi’an and performing recitals and concerti. In the summer of 2017 he performed the Yellow River Concerto for the first time in China at the Xiamen International Piano Festival.

Additional recent performances have included Brahms Piano Concerto #2 with Broadway Bach Ensemble in May of 2017, Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue in September of 2017 with the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 in March of 2018 with the Bartlesville OK Symphony, and Rachmaninoff Variations on a Theme of Paganini with Broadway Bach.

Mr. Epstein has been a member of the piano faculty of the Mason Gross School of Music at Rutgers University since 2007 and Manhattan School of Music since 2001. In February of 2018 he was appointed Head of Keyboard at Rutgers. 

Daniel Epstein’s unique and comprehensive teaching style has made him one of the most sought-after teachers in the United States. Among his current and former students are major competition prizewinners, performers with major conductors and symphony orchestras throughout the world, and recording artists on major record labels.

Recordings:   RCA, Sony, Albany, Sonar, Nonesuch, Newport  Classic, ASV, Unicorn-Kanchana and EMS.




CATHERINE KAUTSKY, piano

Intermediate Master Class and Lecture Presentation Artist

“Intersections: How Place and Music Come Together”

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Catherine Kautsky, the George and Marjorie Olsen Chandler Professor of Music and Chair of Keyboard Studies at Lawrence University, has been lauded by the New York Times as a pianist whose “music spoke directly to the listener, with neither obfuscation nor pretense.”  Her recent recording of the complete Debussy Preludes was said to “bring out all the power, majesty, and mystery of Debussy’s conception,“ and she has recently issued a recording of the Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano. Ms. Kautsky, whose teachers have included Rosina Lhevinne, Gyorgy Sebok, Martin Canin, and Gilbert Kalish, has concertized widely, performing in Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, and the Phillips Collection in the United States and appearing abroad on six continents.  She teaches and performs at the Interharmony International Music Festival in Italy and the Saarburg International Music Festival in Germany during the summers. 

Prof. Kautsky has taught at Lawrence University since 1987, with a 6 -year hiatus as both a faculty member and chair of the Keyboard Dept. at University of Wisconsin-Madison.  A devoted teacher, she is the winner of the 2016 Lawrence University Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2013 Faculty Convocation Award. Ms. Kautsky is also known for her cross-disciplinary interests and was awarded the distinguished Arts Institute Creative Arts Award while at UW-Madison for her work on the intersections of literature, music, and social history.  She is a frequent presenter at national conferences, and her articles have appeared in Clavier CompanionAmerican Music Teacher, and International Piano. Her book, Debussy’s Paris: Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque, appeared to excellent reviews in September, 2017. 

An eager advocate for building new audiences for classical music, Prof. Kautsky has a long history of performances at prisons as well as other outlets for communities in need.  She is now undertaking a series of 24 videos on piano literature for Great Courses.