Karen Zereconsky

 During the span of her  artistic activity, the pianist Karen Zereconsky has been described as " a true artist having great emotional depth ... brilliant interpretation" and "one who plays with a natural, logical intelligence.  She is a  pianist who has been described as " an exceptional artist with the most refined style" who  "performs with rare intensity."   Often heralded as having a great capacity and gift for transferring emotion to the public, it has been said of her that "she communicates heart to heart " with her audiences. Her interpretations have been described as being "captivating... virtuostic... passionate ... profound...unforgettable".  


 Karen began her formal musical training  at The French Conservatory of Music in the United States at the age of five.  A few months after having started her lessons at the Conservatory, the director accepted her into her class, recognizing "her innate musicality".   The Director, Yvonne Combe, a distinguished French pianist and pedagogue, studied under the tutelage of  Marguerite Long at the Paris Conservatory.  She had created the first European-style Conservatory in the United States in the early 1900's and had produced numerous internationally reknowned pianists, pedagogues and musicologists.

At the age of nine, Karen won first prize in a National Piano Competition and was awarded the honour of performing at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, where she had performed for eight consecutive years as a result of winning the same competition. Karen performed  bi-annually at the Conservatory, where friends of Madame Combe attended, such as Arthur Rubinstein, Van Cliburn and Robert Cassadeseus. There  she was surrounded and nurtured by musically sophisticated teachers and musicians  from a young age. 

 

 By the age of fifteen she was asked by the Director to begin teaching at the Conservatory where she had immediate success with all her students and as a result began having a strong reputation as a teacher as well as a pianist. In the following year she received her Diploma from the French Conservatory with Honors.

 

In the same year, she moved to Ottawa, Canada, where she studied with the  pianist, Jean Paul Sevilla, an internationally recognized authority in French music, and later with the distinguished Canadian pianist and pedagogue, Cynthia Millman Floyd (the Director of the Department of Music at the University of Ottawa).

 

In 1980 Karen was invited to perform for  Representatives of the Canadian national government and foreign diplomats. Her performance was so much appreciated by the attending guests, Ambassadors, dignitaries and various government officials, that she was invited to perform and give concert tours in various countries in Europe and Asia, where some of those recitals were televised and broadcasted live by national public radio.

 

In 1982, Ms. Zereconsky moved to Rome, Italy, where she studied with the world renowned Italian pianist and conductor Carlo Zecchi, a student of Busoni and Schnabel.  In 1983 Karen decided to expand her academic studies and applied to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York.  She was accepted unanimously by the jury with a scholarship. After three and a half  years Karen completed and received the Bachelor and Master of Musical Arts degrees.  Even during  her study at the Juilliard, she continued to perform in Europe obtaining exceptional leave of absence by the President of the School. While at The Juilliard, she studied with the famous pedagogue and pianist Adele Marcus (a student of Stravinsky, Josef Lhevinne, and Artur Schnabel) and also with the pianist  Jacob Lateiner (a student of Arnold Schoenberg).

 

Karen furthered her studies in Russia at the Moscow Conservatory, where she studied (for a brief time, having been interrupted by the coup of 1991) Music History and Musicology with the Director Dr. Ovchinnikov and Chamber Music under Tigran Alikonov.

 

After being awarded a prestigious Teaching Fellowship at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, Karen completed and received her Doctoral of Musical Arts Degree.  During her Doctoral studies she was one of two pupils accepted into the class of the great American-Russian pianist, Eugene Istomin, a student of Siloti and Rudolf Serkin.

 

In that time, Karen continued to perform and give Master classes and lectures in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. During the same time she was on the Piano Faculty of Westminster Choir College at Princeton University, for 12 years, and on  the faculty of the French Conservatory, where many of her students won National Piano Competitions.  While in Taiwan she gave master classes and lectures at The National Chao Tung University, the University of SinChu, National Kaohsiung University and National Tainan Teachers College on analysis and interpretation. 

 

Dr. Zereconsky was on the Board of Directors of the Piano Teachers Association and the Music Teachers Association.  She was on the jury of numerous national piano competitions and festivals yearly both in the United States and Europe.

 

Karen Zereconsky's concert activity, as a soloist and with orchestras, has brought her throughout the world where her performances were broadcasted on television and radio, including the Vatican. She was invited to perform for the United Nations as the special guest of Secretary General Perez De Quellar, where she dedicated one-half of the program to Peruvian music.  After having been invited to the prestigious De Vries Foundation in Belgium to perform , her playing was said "to be placed under the sign of intelligence...A strong Mozart, such as I have not heard in a long time ... she follows heart and emotions."

 

From 2010 Dr. Karen Zereconsky is the Director of the “International Piano Academy” in Italy.  It is a new Institute where there will be advanced courses, masterclasses, lectures, concerts and research to develop and improve the three main components for musicians: the ear, the technique and the skill to analyze a score both harmonically and structurally.

 

Karen Zereconsky  continues to concertize, hold master classes and give lectures and maintains a private studio in Italy.