Zora Mihailovich
Professor of Music (Piano) and Artist in Residence
Visiting Adjunct Professor of Piano, Eastman School of Music
zmihailo@mail.rochester.edu or zoramiha@hotmail.com
Todd Union 107B
(585) 275-0583
Representation: Ann Summers Intl.--
http://www.sumarts.com/roster/mihailovich.html
Belgrade-born American pianist Zora Mihailovich has made a name for herself internationally as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, recording artist and educator.
Mrs. Mihailovich has performed in recital and as an orchestral soloist in several major European and North American centers such as London’s Wigmore Hall and Royal Festival Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Washington’s Constitution Hall, and Brussel’s Conservatoire Royal. Concert tours and festival appearances have taken her through much of North America and both Western and Eastern Europe.
Numerous recordings of Zora Mihailovich can be found on Centaur, Yugoton, PGP-RTS, Virtuoso and Virtuoso Classics labels. Among her recent CDs are Anton Rubinstein’s Works for Piano (Centaur 1995), Chopin Piano Sonatas No. 2 & No. 3 and Polonaises (Centaur 1996), Rachmaninov’s 2nd Sonata, Six Musical Moments op. 16 and Preludes (Centaur 2000), Mozart’s Piano Sonatas K.282, K.331 and K.333 (Virtuoso Classics 1999), Rachmaninov 2nd Piano Concerto and Franck’s Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra (PGP-RTS 1998), Brahms Sonata Op. 5, Intermezzi Op. 118 and Rhapsody (Centaur 2007) and a discklavier with Bach, Mozart and Brahms (Virtuoso 2000). Future recording plans include Debussy’s Images and Preludes.
Her performances and recordings have delighted reviewers and peers. “…A genuine musician” (Le Soir, Brussels); “lyrical sweetness, intimately eloquent phrasing, climaxes of startling intensity and many flashes of virtuosity” (Joan Chissell, The Times London); “Uppermost among her assets is her large well-orchestrated sonority and her grasp of spanning architecture….superb technical abilities, bravura outbursts, dignity and power” (Harris Goldsmith, New York Concert Review); “Revealing fine lyrical gifts ...Mihailovich scores big” (Clavier); “Mihailovich is a wonderful Mozart player” (Michael Ulman, Fanfare); “Notable dexterity and power…riveting brilliance in [Rachmaninov] sonata” (Peter Burwasser, Fanfare); “Mihailovich is a poet with a big technique…In the Sonata No. 3 [Brahms] she holds her own easily with the likes of Rubinstein and Ashkenazy in the craggy peaks of I, and in tossing off the perilous right-hand octaves in the Scherzo. Her touch is a pure silk in the quieter moments…She delves deeply into IV, and captures its haunting mystery perfectly.”(Bender, American Record Guide, Jan/Feb 2008).
During recent seasons, she has appeared as a soloist with the Washington Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, Penfield Symphony, University of Rochester Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra performing Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms and Chopin piano concerti, Franck’s Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia. She performed in Washington DC, New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Lincoln City, Tuscon, London, Belgrade, Sofia, Uppsala, San Francisco, Portland, Rochester, Pasadena, etc. In 2008 she toured in Sweden. In the summer 2009 she will perform Beethoven’s 5th Concerto with the Toronto Symphony and will appear in festivals and recital performances.
Taught first by her mother, Dobrila Mihailovich, she began her musical career at the tender age of five, with Bach’s Double Piano Concerto. At 16, she made an acclaimed debut with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, and a year later, she became the youngest person ever to graduate from the Academy of Music in Belgrade. She completed her studies in Rome at the Academia di Musica Santa Cecilia with Carlo Zecchi, the renowned pianist and conductor who had been a pupil of Busoni. She also studied with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Daniel Pollack.
Before she moved to the U. S. in 1989, Mrs. Mihailovich was Professor for Piano at the University of Belgrade for 15 years. Although Mihailovich represents the European School, she was also influenced by the Russian School working as a tenured Professor in Belgrade with several eminent Russian Professors from the Moscow State Conservatory and St. Petersburg Conservatory. At that time, the Belgrade School of Music has produced some of the forefront international pianists and winners of major competitions such as Ivo Pogorelich, Kemal Gekich and Alexander Magyar. Several of Zora’s students have achieved success in competitions and have drawn attention in the international arena. Moving to the U.S. she was a guest artist at the University of Southern California, California Institute of Arts, California Institute of Technology, University of California Fullerton, University of Arizona and New York State University. As Professor of Music (Piano) and Artist in Residence at the College of Music at the University of Rochester and a Visiting Adjunct Professor for Piano at the Eastman School of Music, she directs a program for advanced piano students and for piano students on the performance track and holds workshops and master classes for pianists. As a Steinway Artist, she gives master classes in Europe and the U.S.