The masters at the keys
Peter Friis Johansson is known for his passionate performances, nuanced approach, and profound programming. He has gained international recognition through his performances with leading ensembles and his award-winning successes in numerous international piano competitions.
The story, however, began anything but glamorously. At the age of nine, Peter Friis Johansson enrolled in a free public music school in a suburb of Stockholm. His musical talents began to blossom with Inger Flyckt as his teacher. He later studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, with Anders Kilström and Mats Widlund. Outside of academia, he continued to develop his musicality under the guidance of Konstantin Bogino.
During his studies, Friis Johansson's career flourished. He undertook several Scandinavian tours and recorded a CD with Jakob Koranyi, which was later named Album of the Year by MusicWeb International magazine. He was discovered by Swedish Radio, which appointed him as an artist in residence, and embarked on a European tour with clarinetist Emil Jonason, performing at venues including the Musikverein and the Concertgebouw.
But in the summer of 2012, misfortune strikes. Peter's career is derailed by a finger injury, and suddenly everything is different. For a year, he gives concerts with nine functioning fingers, and when the injury finally heals completely, he is a changed artist and person. Peter makes his international comeback at the 2014 Alaska International Piano-e-Competition. The competition is a triumphant success for Peter, who wins first prize, the gold medal, and takes the first step toward his US career.
Mr. Friis Johansson is currently performing cycles of Franz Schubert's eleven completed piano sonatas and will also record these cycles in the coming years. He has premiered concertos by Sven-David Sandström and Andrea Tarrodi with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2020, he completed and performed Laura Netzel's Piano Concerto with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to his solo career, Peter is a passionate chamber musician who has embarked on long-term projects with cellists Andreas Brantelid and Jakob Koranyi, among others. With Emil Jonason, he forms the duo Emil&Peter, whose current project, "Worst of Emil&Peter," seamlessly combines music with acting and spoken word. The same concept can be found in Peter's solo project, "The Final Frontier," a concert with a science fiction theme that, through the use of modern technology, further develops the piano recital into an art form for contemporary society.
Born in Vienna, Manfred Schiebel received his first musical training with the Mozart Boys' Choir. After graduating from high school, he studied conducting with Prof. Karl Österreicher, accompaniment with Dr. Harald Goertz, and piano with Prof. Thomas Kreuzberger at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (mdw).
Since 1991 he has been teaching at the MUK (Music and Arts University Vienna), where he has held the title of University Professor since 2017, and since 2002 also at the mdw, in both vocal departments.
In addition to his successful work as director of the choir association “Jung-Wien”, with which he enjoyed great success in Europe and Asia and even performed before the Thai royal family, he gave master classes for singers and pianists in many parts of the EU (Estonia – University of Music in Tallinn, Finland – Metropolia University in Helsinki, Greece – Ionian University of Music on Corfu, Poland – Jan Paderewski University in Poznan, …), as well as in Tehran, Havana and Moscow.
The now highly sought-after accompanist has performed in concerts and song recitals with well-known artists such as Edita Gruberova, Elina Garanča, Grace Bumbry, Mara Zampieri, Eva Lind, Mojca Erdmann, Daniela Fally, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Leo Nucci, Jewegenij Nesterenko, Samual Ramey, Peter and Paul Edelmann, Rainer Trost, the Vienna Boys' Choir and many more in concert halls such as the Vienna Musikverein, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Opera House in Pilsen, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Chimes in Singapore, the Seoul Arts Center, the Chiang Kai Shek National Concert Hall in Taipei, the Sydney Opera House and many more.
Since 2011, he has directed the chamber music festival "Klassik im Advent" in Carinthia, where he has frequently performed with his duo partner Marcin Kozieł, with whom he has given concerts throughout Europe. He also works extensively with theater music, Viennese lieder, and cabaret chansons, which has led him to a close collaboration with KSCH Elfriede Ott, with whom he has performed repeatedly.
His last four CDs with soprano Simona Eisinger and Rainer Trost are dedicated to the songs of the still living composer Guntolf Palten.
Nao Huang received her first piano lessons from her mother at the age of three. She studied in Japan at the Music School of Osaka Music College and at Kyoto Municipal Horikawa High School (Music Department). She earned her university diploma in solo performance, pedagogy, and chamber music from the Toho Gakuen School of Music.
Nao Huang then completed her Master's degree in Piano Chamber Music at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz under Prof. Till Alexander Körber and Prof. Michael Korstick, graduating with distinction in 2016.
As a sought-after accompanist, she accompanied numerous masterclasses, including the Austrian Master Classes, the Bruckner University Summer Academy, the Gutenstein Masterclasses, the Erben Music Festival and “La Cellissima”.
From 2015 to 2017, she worked as a piano accompanist at the Anton Bruckner Private University. Since 2018, she has been teaching piano (advanced level), chamber music, and piano accompaniment at the Gustav Mahler Private University of Music in Klagenfurt.
After graduating from the "Dinu Lipatti" National College of Arts in Bucharest, Romania, Cristiana Mihart continued her studies at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels, Belgium, with Jean Claude Vanden Eynden, followed by bachelor's and master's degrees at the National University of Music in Bucharest in the class of Professor Dr. Sandu Sandrin.
The pianist has participated in master classes with renowned teachers, including Dmitri Bashkirov (at the Salzburg Summer Academy, Austria), Brigitte Engerer (at the Summer Academy in Nice, France), Dominique Merlet (at the Villecroze Academy, France), Diana Ketler and Petras Genuišas (at the SoNoRo Chamber Music Workshops in Romania), and Tamás Vesmás (at the National University of Music in Bucharest).
Eager to expand her piano skills, she studied organ and harpsichord at the Early Music Department of the National University of Music in Bucharest, together with organist Dan Racoveanu.
Cristiana is also a prize winner of numerous international piano competitions such as the Concertino Prague in the Czech Republic, the Excellentia in Brussels, Belgium, the Mihail Jora National Piano Competition and the Suzana Szörenyi International Piano Duo Competition in Bucharest, Romania.
As a soloist or member of chamber music ensembles, she has performed on Romania's most important stages – the Romanian Athenaeum, the National Radio Hall, the Auditorium of the National Art Museum, the "George Enescu" National Museum, the Romanian Parliament, the Presidential Palace, the Romanian Cultural Institute, and the philharmonic halls in Brașov, Bacău, Oradea, Ploiești, and Satu Mare. Throughout Europe, Cristiana has performed in Belgium, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and France, and is invited to give a piano recital at Lewkow Castle in Poland.
Cristiana has participated in numerous music festivals, including the George Enescu International Festival, where she will make her debut as a soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto K.537 in 2021, the SoNoRo International Chamber Music Festival, the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, France, the South Bohemian Festival Concertino Prague in the Czech Republic and the Young Euro Classic in Berlin, Germany.
Her repertoire ranges from solo and concert works to a variety of chamber music programs, in which she performs together with numerous partners such as the violinists Alissa Margulis, Rebekka Hartmann, Anna-Liisa Bezrodny, Nicolas Dautricourt, the violist Razvan Popovici and the cellists Kyrill Zlotnikov, Raphael Bell, Adolfo Gutierrez Arenas and Razvan Suma.
Cristiana is currently a lecturer at the National University of Music in Bucharest and is completing her doctoral studies in piano interpretation under the direction of pianist and professor Dr. Dana Borsan.
Levon Avagyan is an internationally renowned pianist and multiple prizewinner of major competitions. A significant milestone in his career was winning first prize, the audience prize, and several special prizes at the prestigious Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona in 2017. Since then, he has appeared as a soloist with international orchestras such as the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville, the Bilbao and Granada Symphony Orchestras, the Porto Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Sinfonietta Orchestra, and the Stuttgart Young Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Levon Avagyan performs at prestigious festivals, including the Kissinger Sommer, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Vaduz Classic Festival, the Next Generation Classic Festival Bad Ragaz, the Marbella Piano Festival, the Elisarion Festival, the Arsonore Festival, and the Alpenarte Festival.
He has worked as a chamber music teacher and accompanist with renowned artists in international masterclasses – including at the Liechtenstein Music Academy, the Mozarteum University Summer Academy, the Accademia Perosi, the Neuberger Cultural Days, and the Seefeld Music Days. His discography includes several CD recordings on various labels, including two releases on the Naxos label (2019 and 2024).
Levon Avagyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia, in 1990. He received his initial piano training at the Yerevan State Conservatory under Professor Vagharshak Harutyunyan. He then completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz under Professor Milana Chernyavska, graduating with distinction. Since 2017, Levon Avagyan has been teaching and working as an accompanist at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and the Graz State Conservatory.
Japanese pianist Yuki Sunamura was born in Sendai and received her first piano lessons as a child at the Toho Gakuen School of Music with Mayumi Saito and Mikako Abe. At the age of 14, she moved to Vienna to continue her musical studies. She initially attended the preparatory class at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Elisabeth Dvorak-Weißhaar before completing her concert studies with Wolfgang Watzinger. After graduating in 2014, she furthered her training with postgraduate studies under Christopher Hinterhuber and Barbara Moser, focusing on solo repertoire, song accompaniment, and chamber music.
Yuki Sunamura is a prize winner of numerous national and international piano competitions, including the International Young Pianists Chopin Competition in Estonia, Prima la Musica, the Munich Piano Podium, and the Vietri sul Mare–Amalfi Coast International Piano Competition in Italy.
As a soloist and chamber musician, she performs regularly in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Her concert activities include a tour of Italy with the Jove Orquestra Simfònica de Castelló, where she performed Chopin's First Piano Concerto, as well as numerous chamber music projects with renowned artists. In 2017, she released a CD of contemporary flute works with flautist Yumi Yamano on Belta Records. That same year, she performed as a piano duo with pianist Christopher Hinterhuber in Tokyo and with cellist Hyunah Park in concert series in Italy.
In addition to her international concert activities, Yuki Sunamura has been involved as a pianist and interpreter at the Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy in Japan since 2018. With her stylistic versatility and passion for chamber music, she combines European and Japanese musical culture at the highest artistic level.
Accompanists
The accompanists of the Althofen Master Classes 2025