Ukrainian Pianist Igor Akselrud graduated summa cum laude from Sumy Music College (Ukraine) and from Voronezh State Institute of Art (Russia). Upon graduation, he immediately joined the faculty of the Sumy Pedagogical University where he had charge of students majoring in piano. In 1994 He was named Chairman of the Piano Department and held that position until he moved to New York in 2005. In 1996 Akselrud was granted the rank of Associate Professor by the Ministry of Education of the Ukraine.
Among his students he counts prizewinners of piano competitions such as the Samara International Piano Competition (Russia, 1991), Konzerteum (Greece, 1999), All-Ukrainian Piano Competition for students (2001), and Citta di Ostra (Italy, 2003).
He is author of "Theoretical and Practical Fundamentals of Expressive Piano Performance" (1996, Mriya Press). For more than fifteen years he coached and accompanied vocalists and instrumentalists throughout the Ukraine and Russia in concerts and recitals with the Sumy Regional Philharmonic.
From 2001 to 2005 he judged various piano competitions and festivals for students and young people including the 5th International Festival of Slavic Piano Music. (Melitopol, Ukraine).
Awards: Special Awards, Ukrainian Ministry of Education (2001, 2003) Educational Medal of Honor, the Ukraine, 2005
Currently he works at the Special Music School and Lucy Moses School of Music and Dance at Kaufman Center as an accompanist for instrumental students. He coaches and accompanies singers and instrumentalists privately. He is a member of the advisory board of www.vocalimages.com, and music editor of The Voice and Singing, a Practical Manual, by J. Faure, 1886, translated and expanded by Francis Keeping and Roberta Prada, Vox Mentor, New York, 2005.
Sheila Allen is an occupational therapist with a board certification in pediatrics and a MA in psychology from Teachers' College, Columbia University.
She is a co-founder and co-director of Pediatric Therapeutics, LLC, a children's therapy center, and Integrated Soundwork, LLC, a practice specializing in sound-based interventions, bothlocated in Chatham, NJ. Currently on both the faculty and devlopment team of Advanced Brain Technolgies, Sheila served as a founding board member of The Darcy School, a private school educating children from preschool through sixth grade.
She has taught graduate coursesas an adjunct instructor at The Bank Street School in NYC. Sheila brings to Vocal Images over twenty-five years of practice specializing in sensory processing, an evergrowing appreciation for sound and music, and a passion for promoting awareness and understanding of the value of listening.
(September-April)
1233 Island Drive, Apt. 202
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
U.S.A.
tel.: (734) 741-1556
E-mail: gbocca@umich.edu
(May-August)
Via Aldo Moro, 72
50025 Montespertoli
Firenze, ITALY tel.: (0571) 60.97.67
The Italian-born music writer Aloma Bardi is now an U.S.A resident where she works as an independent scholar and researcher, mostly active in the field of American Music. She was a Research Scholar at the University of Michigan School of Music in the academic year 1995-96. Her work is focuses in two main directions. First, she acts as a "correspondent" between Italian and American culture, researching American Music and literature. She has been writing essays and translations on twentieth century American Music for the past ten years, to promote its understanding in Italy. Second, has been an associate of the Teatro Comunale di Firenze and other opera theaters in Italy for the last fifteen years. She is the author of the Catalog of Events of the principal Florentine Theater (Teatro Comunale di Firenze - Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Catalogo delle Manifestazioni, 1928-1997), an innovative project in this field.
Aloma Bardi, as an author and translator, works with Italian publishers, theaters, periodicals, cultural institutions and the Swiss radio, and is active on the lecture and conference circuit.
As groundwork for her Italian translation of the literary and philosophical writings of Charles Ives, she is the author of the first critical edition of such writings, studying Charles Ives's manuscripts at the Ives Archives of the Yale Music Library. This research has enabled her to prepare an emendated and still unpublished text. She is currently planning a book on musical comedy, with the Italian-French scholar Gianfranco Vinay.
Main publications:
- Philip Glass, The Fall of the House of Usher, Teatro Comunale di Firenze, 1992.
- Autori Vari, Gershwin, a cura di Gianfranco Vinay, Torino, Edt 1993 (Aloma Bardi contributed to the volume with three essays and a bibliography).
- Gershwin a Hollywood, compositore per il cinema, "Symphonia", febbraio 1996.
- Charles Ives, Prima della sonata, a cura di Aloma Bardi, Marsilio Editori, Venezia 1996.
- George Gershwin, Blue Monday, CEL-Teatro di Livorno, Stagione Lirica 1997.
- Teatro Comunale di Firenze-Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Catalogo delle manifestazioni, 1928-1997 (two volumes and cd-rom). Progetto: Aloma Bardi. A cura di Aloma Bardi e Mauro Conti. Realizzazione: Prescott Productions, Firenze. Stampa e distribuzione: Casa Editrice Le Lettere, Firenze 1998.
- Le biografie di Charles Ives, "Avidi Lumi", Teatro Massimo di Palermo, febbraio 1999