New York Music & Arts - Kaplinsky & McDonald

Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky

Yoheved Kaplinsky is currently the Chairperson of the Piano Department at the Juilliard School in New York.
She began her musical career as a prizewinner in the J.S. Bach International Competition in Washington, D.C. A native of Israel, she studied with Ilona Vincze at the Tel Aviv Music Academy before entering the Juilliard School as a scholarship student of Irwin Freundlich. She holds a Master's and Doctoral degrees from Juilliard, as well as awards for scholastic and pianistic achievements. She continued her studies with Dorothy Taubman in New York.

Ms. Kaplinsky has appeared throughout the United States as a recitalist, in chamber music concerts and with orchestras, including performances in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Noted for her insight and understanding of piano technique, Ms. Kaplinsky has been in great demand for lectures and masterclasses in the U.S., Israel and the Far East.

She has served on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the Manhattan School of Music, and has been a member of the Juilliard piano faculty since 1993. She also teaches regularly at various summer festivals, including the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Maine, The Aspen Music Festival, the Tel Hai International Masterclasses in Israel, the Texas Conservatory for Young Artists, the Cliburn Institute and Pianofest in Long Island, New York.

Ms. Kaplinsky frequently adjudicates in international competitions, most recently the Cleveland, Rubinstein, Dublin, Cliburn and the Tchaikovsky competitions. In 2003, she received the Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award.

Mr. Robert McDonald

Pianist Robert McDonald has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Far East as a solo recitalist and as recital partner to Isaac Stern and Midori, among others. An active chamber musician, he has performed with the Juilliard, American, Takács, Brentano, Fine Arts, Orlando and Chicago quartets, as well as with Musicians from Marlboro. He has appeared as soloist with the San Francisco, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Omaha, and Curtis symphony orchestras, and with the Orquesta Sinfónaca Nacional of Costa Rica, and the Orchestra Sinfonica Haydn de Bolzano e Trento in Italy.

Mr. McDonald is on the piano and chamber music faculty of the Juilliard School. 2005 will mark his twenty-fourth summer in Taos. Other summer teaching and festival activities have included the Marlboro, Brevard, and Carmoor festivals in the U.S., the Montreux, Luzerne, Bergen and Besançon festivals in Europe and the International School for Musical Arts in Canada. He also gives piano and chamber music master classes at prominent universities, music schools, and music festivals in the U.S. Canada, Japan, South Korea and Europe.