Boaz Sharon
Boaz Sharon is Professor of Piano at Boston University. He is a Steinway Artist and Artistic Director of the Sichuan International Piano Festival, China.
An internationally renowned pianist and artist/teacher, he is the first-prize winner and gold medalist of the Jaen International Piano Competition, Spain. A frequent judge on international competitions, he was on the juries of Top of the World Competition, Norway; Jaen International, Spain; Shanghai International E Competition; the Berliner Philharmoniker International; Rudolf Firkusny International, Prague; the Composers of Spain International Piano Competition, Madrid; Kaufman International, NYC; and Chairman of the Jury at the Sterinborgh National Competition in Xiamen, China. He also is a founder of the Liszt International Piano Competition in Moscow.
His students have won top prizes in international piano competitions including the Hamamatsu, Grieg (Norway), New Orleans, Jaen (Spain), the Janacek (Czech Republic), the prestigious Seoul Arts Center Award, Dallas, and the Manhattan International Piano Competition in NYC.
He is Director of the Sichuan International Piano Festival since 2010 and was the artistic director of the Prague International Piano Masterclasses for many years. He is a faculty member of the International Pianist Certificate Artists Program at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris and Fondation Bell’Arte.
A frequent performer in China, Sharon has given recitals at the Shanghai, Beijing Central Conservatory, Beijing Concert Hall, Xinghai Concert Hall, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Tianjin, and Sichuan Conservatories, at the Beijing Concert Hall and has performed and taught in many other cities in China.
Sharon has given hundreds of masterclasses over the years including at the Moscow Conservatory; Gnessin Institute, Moscow; Royal Academy of Music, London; Stockholm Royal Academy, Seoul National University, and others. He is the recipient of the Prague Charles University Medal – one of 10 given internationally for “significant contributions” to that university. He also has given lectures on 20th-Century French Piano Music at The Juilliard School of Music and Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, Stanford, Columbia, Yale, and Berkeley Universities.
In 2018/19, Boaz Sharon will be giving masterclasses and recitals in Turkey, China, Israel, Puerto Rico, and Belgium and will be judging the Olga Kern International Piano Competition and return to the Illinois International Piano Festival in summer of 2019.
Sharon recorded for the Nonesuch/Warner Brothers, Hyperion (London) and Unicorn (London) labels.
His Nonesuch/Elektra Warner Bros. recording was mentioned as one of the Ten Best Recordings of the Year in Newsweek Magazine and the Washington Post called him “a pianist of superb technique and keen stylistic sense.” Of his 2016 performance at the Sau Paulo Museum of Modern Arts, a review said, “Right from the start of the first piece – Passecaille by Couperin – the audience became readily aware of a great master dialoguing with his arts and his instrument.”