| Fernando
Laires
Piano
  Fernando
Laires has concertized on five continents. At the age
of 19, he was awarded the Beethoven Medal, in memory of Artur
Schnabel, by the Harriet Cohen International Music Awards
of London, for his performance in cycle of the 32 piano sonatas
of Beethoven. He was decorated by the Portuguese government
with the rank of Commander of the Order of Prince Henry the
Navigator, and is a recipient of the Franz Liszt Medal of
the Liszt Society of Budapest, the Medal for Excellence of
the American Liszt Society, and the Liszt Centennial Commemorative
Medal by the Hungarian government.
Mr. Laires has recorded extensively, has played with orchestras
and given recitals and master classes in the United States,
Russia, China, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Australia,
New Zealand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea,
Singapore, Croatia, Hungary, Scotland, England, France, Switzerland,
Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Sweden, Norway,
and Italy. He has given recitals in major cities: London,
Paris, Lisbon, Vienna, Warsaw, Moscow, Leningrad, Seoul, Beijing,
Shanghai, and throughout the United States, and has performed
as soloist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Lisbon Symphony
Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Oporto Symphony, New Zealand
National Symphony, and others. For his performances he has
earned the highest critical and public acclaim.
While a resident of Portugal he received a six-month grant
from the United States Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare, to observe music teaching in
twenty universities and conservatories across the U.S.
Mr. Laires also received several grants from the
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, one of them for his recording
project and artistic direction of twenty LPs of contemporary
Portuguese music. He served as chairman of the music panel
of the Maryland State Arts Council and as director
of the William Kapell International
Piano Festival and Competition, 1978-81. He is a co-founder
and President Emeritus of the American Liszt Society, and
was the artistic director of the ALS annual festivals for
many years.
He has held artist faculty positions at the National Conservatory
of Music in Lisbon, Portugal, the University of Texas at Austin,
Interlochen Arts Academy, the Catholic University of America,
the Peabody Conservatory, and the Eastman School of Music.
In 1989 he was appointed Permanent Guest Professor of Piano
at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in the People's Republic
of China.
Mr. Laires has been a jury member of international piano
competitions-- Tchaikovsky, in Moscow, Van Cliburn, in the
USA, Franz Liszt, in Budapest, First North American Tchaikovsky,
New York, Casagrande, Italy, Gina Bachauer, USA, and others.
He is the recipient of a grand piano - a special prize awarded
to him by the faculty of the National Conservatory of Music
in Lisbon, Portugal, where he graduated with the highest honors.
The following year Mr. Laires won the first prize at a national
competition sponsored by the government of Portugal. He
continued his studies with Isidor Philipp, Ernest Hutcheson,
James Friskin, and Winfried Wolf, as a result of grant awards
for study in the United States and for travel in Italy, Austria,
France, Germany, and Switzerland.
Piano
Program
Piano Program, Faculty
|
