 |
 |
|
||
|
|
2009 Roberto Cani Mark Carlson Gary Gray Roland Kato Connie Kupka Kathleen Lenski Joanne Pearce Martin Edith Orloff David Speltz David Walther Miwako Watanabe Roger Wilkie |
Ayke Agus, piano  Ayke Agus, a musical prodigy in piano and violin, served as Jascha Heifetz's accompanist during the last 17 years of the great Russian violinist's life. An Indonesian native of Chinese, Dutch, and Javanese descent, Ms. Agus began her concert career at age 7. She came to the U.S. on a scholarship to study violin and piano in Buffalo, New York, where she became the youngest member of the Buffalo Philharmonic.
Although Ivan Galamian, the renowned violin pedagogue, recommended her for a scholarship at Juilliard, she auditioned instead for Jascha Heifetz and was accepted as a student on full scholarship in his masterclass at USC. Ms. Agus soon became the pianist for Heifetz's masterclasses as well as his personal musical collaborator and accompanist. On occasion, she also performed chamber music with Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Ms. Agus performs regularly at chamber music festivals in the U.S. and with such internationally noted groups as the Ysaye String Quartet and the Jacques Thibaud String Trio. Her recordings for Protone Records include piano solo discs, Musical Mementos of Jascha Heifetz and Ayke Agus Doubles. Ms. Agus is a member of the Pasadena Symphony and California Philharmonic. She was a faculty member at USC for 10 years and taught strings at Antelope Valley College. She regularly holds masterclasses entitled The Art of Collaboration (What to Expect from Your Pianist). Most recently she was sponsored by the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) to give workshops at George Mason University, Virginia; University of Maryland, in Baltimore; and Peabody Conservatory, at John Hopkins University, in the Art of Collaboration in the Heifetz tradition, emphasizing the art of performance. She will be giving some presentations at ASTA's National Conference in Detroit, Michigan, in 2007. A CD of the Schubert Impromptus, along with the Fantasie in f minor for four-hands piano, is in publication. Her book, Heifetz, as I Knew Him, is published by Amadeus Press and is in its fourth printing, in paperback. Since its publication, Ms. Agus has traveled the country appearing as guest speaker and giving masterclasses and recitals to help perpetuate the legacy of Heifetz. Concerts featuring Ayke Agus: |