Douglas Humpherys, department chair and professor of piano at the Eastman School of Music, has been named artistic director of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation. The foundation hosts festivals, concert series, and outreach educational programs to further pianistic art, and sponsors a major international piano competition.
Humpherys, whose concert career has spanned more than three decades across four continents, was the Gold Medal winner of the first Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in 1976. Since then, he has served on the juries of numerous piano competitions in the United States, Asia, and Europe, including the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the PTNA (Piano Teachers National Association) National Piano Competition in Tokyo, the Rachmaninoff International Young Artists’ Piano Competition in Novgorod, and others. He has been an adjudicator for the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition 14 times, including 10 times as jury chair.
A frequent guest artist and soloist, Humpherys has concertized across Asia, presented solo concerts in such major European cities as Moscow, Berlin, and Dublin, and performed throughout the United States and Canada.
Humpherys has taught hundreds of master classes at major conservatories in China, Korea, Taiwan, Russia, and North and South America, and has been appointed to visiting residencies or professorships at the Middle School of the Central Conservatory in Beijing, Yonsei University in Seoul, and the University of Michigan. His students have won numerous competition awards including prizes at the Honens, Cleveland, Hilton Head, Osaka, and Pacific International Competitions, as well as two recent first-prize winners of the national MTNA/Steinway Young Artists Competition.
In Rochester, Humpherys founded the Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition, which awards cash prizes and Eastman School scholarships to outstanding 15-to-18-year-old pianists from around the world.
Humpherys succeeds Paul Pollei, the founder and artistic director of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition since its inception.
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