Pianist Michael Chertock has fashioned a successful career as an orchestral soloist, collaborating with conductors such as James Conlon, Jaime Laredo, Keith Lockhart, Erich Kunzel and Andrew Litton. His many orchestral appearances include solo performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Montreal, the Toronto Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Chattanooga Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony. He recently completed a Florida tour with the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Chertock performs frequently overseas, most recently playing and conducting a Gershwin program with the State Symphony Orchestra of Russia. In 2014, Chertock recorded a concerto by John Alden Carpenter with Keith Lockhart and the BBC Orchestra at the famed Dutton Epoch recording studio in London, England.

Claude Gingras of La Presse, Montreal, said of pianist Michael Chertock: “Chertock revealed himself as a first-rate pianist and an interpreter of noticeable interest through the freshness that he brought to these familiar scores….(he) displayed the sensitivity of a Chopin interpreter.” The Boston Globe has called his playing “unmannered, zestful, and lovely.” The Cincinnati Enquirer has described the Virginia native as “intelligent and disciplined…noble…finely finished…expressive and well-controlled.” The Salt Lake City Deseret News said “Chertock… is a musical performer with an immense technical command of the piano.” His 2003 performance on the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Petrouchka with Paavo Järvi turned in rave reviews in Gramophone and American Record Guide.

Chertock made his debut at the age of 17, performing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with Andrew Litton conducting. In 1994, Chertock released his first CD on the Telarc label, a collection of his original arrangements of music from movies entitled Cinematic Piano. American Record Guide said “(Chertock) plays beautifully, and Telarc’s lush sonics bathe the listener in an intoxicating wash of piano sonorities.” Cincinnati Enquirer critic Janelle Gelfand cited his “elegant techniques…just the right poetic tone.” Since then, he has recorded three more discs with Telarc: Palace of the Winds, Christmas at the Movies and Love At the Movies, which have been praised for their lush, original arrangements and exquisite technical facility.

Chertock began conducting in 2001 when he stepped in for Maestro Carmon De Leone in performances of Cincinnati Ballet’s The Nutcracker. Chertock is the conductor of the Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony, located in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio, and he frequently composes and arranges music for the orchestra’s concerts. In 2008, he conducted the Columbus Symphony (Ohio) in performances of The Nutcracker with Ballet Met Columbus. In 2012, Michael conducted the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops.

Chertock serves as chair of the keyboard division at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where he received his Master’s Degree. He has garnered numerous awards at major competitions, among them the top prize in the 1989 Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition (Brahms Division,) and the grand prize in the 1993 St. Charles International Piano Competition. He also shared the silver medal in the 1991 World Piano Competition of the American Music Scholarship Association. He received the Rildia B. O’Bryon Cliburn Scholarship in 1986.

Chertock makes his home in Cincinnati with his wife Maaike, son Joshua and daughters Maria and Janneke. Most Sundays you can find him playing piano and organ for services at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church.

Steinway artist Donna Lee made her solo debut in 1990 with the National Symphony Orchestra.  She has since appeared as a soloist and collaborative artist at Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall and Terrace Theater in Washington, DC and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City.  She has concertized in Asia, Europe and throughout the US, with performances in Shenyang, China, Brno, Czech Republic and Maui, Hawaii.  Donna made her solo recording debut on the Azica label, with a program entitled Scenes from Childhood with works by Schumann, del Tredici, Medtner, and Prokofieff.  In 2011, she released a recording on the Blue Griffin label of Felix Mendelssohn’s Complete works for cello and piano with cellist Keith Robinson.  Fanfare Magazine called the disc,” …quite simply, amazing”.

Critics have described Donna Lee’s performances as elegant and refined (Il Fronimo, Italy), engaging (WCLV-Cleveland) and brilliant (Iwate Daily News, Japan).  As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at the Ameri-China Festival in China, Gotland Chamber Music Festival in Sweden, Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, Interlochen Arts Center in Michigan, Kent Blossom Music Festival in Ohio, Maui Classical Music in Hawaii, Music-on-the-Hill in Rhode Island and Classical Tahoe in Nevada.  A frequent collaborator with clarinetist Daniel Gilbert, the husband-wife duo has performed in recital throughout the United States, including recent performances in Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington as well as in Chengdu, China.

A highly respected pedagogue, Donna Lee has received accolades for her teaching.  In October of 2021, she was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame, a prestigious designation recognizing the work of North America’s most committed and passionate piano teachers.  In the same year, she received a Distinguished Teaching Award from Kent State University, the institution’s highest honor, where she serves on the faculty as Professor and Coordinator of Piano.  During the summers, Donna is also artist-faculty at Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.

A native of Silver Spring, Maryland, Donna Lee earned her doctorate from Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University, Masters from The Juilliard School, and Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she studied with prominent artist-teachers Julian Martin, the late Rudolf Firkušný, and Thomas Schumacher, respectively.

Praised by Fanfare as “a first-rate pianist who isn’t afraid of challenges,” Chinese-American Pianist Clara Yang has performed in notable venues such as Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York), Auditorio Nacional de Musica (Madrid), Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing), Chiesa dell’Addolorata (Italy), the Seymour Centre (Sydney), the Barclay Theater (Irvine, CA), Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theater (Rochester), the Sunset Center (Carmel, CA), Memorial Hall (Chapel Hill), Meymandi Concert Hall (Raleigh), and on series such as Carolina Performing Arts, Dame Myra Hess (Chicago Cultural Center), and Museu d’Història de Barcelona. She is currently Associate Professor of Music and Head of Piano Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Besides performing the traditional repertoire, Yang is also an innovative contemporary and new music interpreter. She was awarded the prestigious Baryshnikov Arts Residency for her interdisciplinary project Ex Machina. The distinguished composer Chen Yi composed the piano concerto Four Spirits for her. Yang performed the U.S. premiere of the concerto with the distinguished conductor Maestro Long Yu (余隆) leading the China Philharmonic Orchestra (中国爱乐乐团) on the Carolina Performing Arts series. She performed the world premiere of this work with the China Philharmonic in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. In addition, she performed Philip Glass’s etudes alongside the composer himself and other renowned artists in the Glass at 80 Festival. She recorded Lee Weisert’s Érard, which was written for her, for Weisert’s album Wild Arc on the New Focus label. Yang served on the Artist Panel for New Music USA. In addition, she has designed innovative interdisciplinary and cross-genre projects, collaborating with celebrated artists such as pianist Aaron Diehl, new media artist Xuan, rock guitarist Yvette Young, and hip hop artist Suzi Analogue. 

Concert highlights as a concerto soloist include performances with renowned conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Long Yu, Huang Yi, Josep Caballe Domenech, Jeff Tyzik, Carl St. Clair, Tonu Kalam, Grant Llewelyn, George Jackson, and Laura Jackson. She has soloed with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra, Banda Sinfonica Municipal de Madrid, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra, among others. In addition, she has performed with acclaimed artists such Joélle Harvey and Lucia Lucas in recital and as soloists with orchestra. 

Her solo album Folding Time (Albany Records) won a Global Music Awards Gold Medal and received rave reviews from Fanfare, New York Arts, and American Record Guide. It was chosen as one of the Best of 2016 by American Record Guide. Her recently released violin-piano album Mother Tales (Navona Records) with violinist Sunmi Chang has received great reviews from the String Magazine and Pizzicato (Luxembourg). Her cello-piano duo album titled Grieg and Prokofiev (Albany Records) with Los Angeles Opera cellist Helen Zheng Altenbach was well received. Her albums and performances have been aired on ABC Classic FM in Australia and New Zealand, 98.7 WFMT Chicago, and many other major radio stations across the United States.

Yang received her D.M.A. in piano performance at the Eastman School of Music, where she was a student of Nelita True. She studied with Claude Frank at the Yale School of Music (M.M., Artist Diploma) and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California as a student of John Perry. For more information, please visit: https://www.clarayangpiano.com