About
The Academy
The International Piano Academy Lake Como is a unique institution.
Seven pianists, chosen annually from a worldwide field of applicants including many international prizewinners, have the opportunity of studying with a faculty whose core membership past and present includes such stellar artists as Dmitri Bashkirov, Malcolm Bilson, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Alicia de Larrocha, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Graham Johnson, Vladimir Mischouk, William Grant Naboré, John Perry, Menahem Pressler, Charles Rosen, Andreas Staier, Fou Ts’ong, Dang Thai Son.
These distinguished artists come for approximately a week at a time and give daily private tuition and master classes to the fortunate seven students. The International Piano Academy Lake Como was founded in April 2002.
Due to the extraordinary faculty invited to teach and the exceptional talents admitted to the school, the International Piano Academy Lake Como, has imposed itself as one of the major piano academies in the world.
Despite the name, the atmosphere is more familial than that of an academy, and communal rather than competitive. The Academy is housed in a beautiful 17th century palazzo overlooking the famous lake.
Away from the pressures of the outside world, students are able to learn and work in a relaxed, stimulating and contemplative environment. Here they receive inspiration, opportunities and guidance in every aspect of concert and artistic life, including chamber music, accompaniment, physiology (the treatment/prevention of occupational injuries) and piano technique.
Palazzo del Vescovo
The majestic Palazzo del Vescovo (Palace of the Bishop) was erected by the family of the Marquis Cossoni in the 1600’s.
In 1854 the Bishop of Como, Carlo Romanò, acquired the building from the heirs of the family Cossoni.
In 1983 the Town of Dongo purchased the building, and with the financial help of the Comunità Montana Valli del Lario e del Ceresio, the citizens of Dongo embarked on a complete restoration of the Palazzo.
Today the building, which still retains its former name, houses the Civic Institute of Music “Alto Lario” and, since December of 2003, the International Piano Academy Lake Como.
William Grant Naboré
A native of Roanoke, Virginia, William Grant Naboré began his formal piano studies at age 8 with Kathleen Kelly Coxe. Two years later, he was accepted at Hollins College as a special student of the noted musicologist Anne McClenny. At 17 he won a scholarship from the Italian government and continued his piano studies with Carlo Zecchi (a pupil of Busoni and Schnabel) at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He also studied with the eminent pianist and pedagogue Renata Borgatti. Later he was coached privately by Rudolf Serkin, George Szell, and Alicia de Larrocha. He studied chamber music with Pierre Fournier in Geneva and won the Premier Prix de la Virtuosité and the Prix Paderewski from the Geneva Conservatory.
For more than 20 years, in collaboration with the city of Geneva, he performed the complete chamber works of Brahms, Schumann, Dvorák, Beethoven, and Schubert, plus the essential works of the French and Russian repertoire, with ensembles including the Amadeus, Talich, Gabrieli, and Brindisi quartets. He was also active as a member of the Studio de Musique Contemporaine, where he performed European premieres of several important American works. In 1988 he founded the Amadeus Festival, just outside of Geneva.
Naboré has received critical recognition on the international concert circuit as cultural ambassador for the United States and has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. His distinguished discography is broad and eclectic.
An outstanding teacher, Naboré has shaped some of the finest young artists of this generation. In 1993 he became founding director of the International Piano Foundation “Theo Lieven,” created and financed by the German businessman Theo Lieven, who is himself a pianist. The foundation has become one of the most respected musical institutions in the world for the extraordinary successes of its students. This entity now hosts the program Young Masters of the Keyboard at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. Nabore holds the Theo Lieven Chair for Advanced Studies in Piano and Chamber Music Performance at this conservatory.
In 2002, Nabore, along with Martha Argerich, created the International Piano Academy Lake Como, where he is president and artistic director. Argerich serves as president of honor.
Recently, Nabore’s students won first prize at the 2015 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition (Dmitry Masleev) and first prize at the 2015 Honens Competition (Luca Buratto).
Palazzo del Vescovo, Strada Statale 14 | Dongo, CO | 22014
intpianoacademy@libero.it | Tel./Fax +39.0344.81046