Niko Laaris: Saturday, April 25 at 2:00 p.m.

Nikolaos Laaris studied piano at the Athens Conservatory, the Royal College of Music (MMus), and has been awarded a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music (DMA), where he served as a professor; he also taught at the Columbia University and the University of Macedonia. He is the recipient of the Ballantine’s Gold Seal sponsorship, as well as of the RCM and MSM, the Alexander Onassis, J.F. Costopoulos and Lilian Voudouri Foundations scholarships.
He has performed in Europe (South Bank Centre – London, Gärtnerplatz Τheater – Munich) and the USA (Carnegie Hall – Νew York), and has been featured as a soloist with Armonia Atenea Orchestra and the State Orchestras of Athens and Thessaloniki. In his London debut he was singled out by Stephen Pettit of the Times as “a fine artist, incapable of making an ugly sound”; for his collaboration with the Munich Ballet Theater in Goldberg Variationen, Dance Europe magazine hailed him as “the star of the evening”.
He presents programs of all eras: Baroque: Rameau – Les Indes Galantes, Classical: Haydn – The Seven Last Words, with the late Pulitzer-Prize winner photographer Yiannis Behrakis (Athens Concert Hall), Romantic – Wagner & Liszt tributes, and Modern: John Cage: the keyboards (Onassis Cultural Center), Leonard Bernstein: an anniversary (ACH), Sir John Tavener: Prayer of the Heart (Greek National Opera – Alternative Stage). He has premiered in Greece works by Haydn, Satie, Copland, Bernstein, Cage, Tavener, Boulez, Kurtag, and Tsontakis.
He recently premiered the hour-long solo cycle Twenty Gratitudes for the teachings of Jesus by George Tsontakis, a commission supported by the G. & V. Karelias Foundation. In his future projects is the Greek premiere of Moises Kaufman’s theatrical play 33 Variations, in his own translation, directed by George Petrou.
He also studied conducting at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (BMus), and has collaborated extensively with Armonia Atenea. He has conducted Philip Glass’ opera In the Penal Colony (OCC, NYC), musicals such as Bernstein’s West Side Story, Porter’s Kiss me Kate and Sakellaridis’ operetta The Godson (ACH), and new works: Kipourgos’ Aristophanes’ Peace (National Theater), and Papadimitriou’s St Francis; recently he conducted Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, and George Tsontakis’ The Air of Greece I (GNO – AS).

Michael Boriskin: Saturday, May 9 at 2:00 p.m.

Michael Boriskin has become recognized on five continents as one of the most imaginative and versatile American pianists of his generation. Whether the composer is Mozart or Beethoven, Brahms or Ravel, Copland or Gershwin, Perle or Lutoslawski, Mr. Boriskin offers “an adventure for the audience” (The New York Times). Each performance and recording attests to a vivid communicativeness, natural expressivity, and deeply musical virtuosity that have made him one of the most highly-regarded exponents of both old and new works.

Mr. Boriskin has performed throughout the U. S. and in over 30 countries. His extensive international itinerary includes the San Francisco, Seattle, and Utah Symphonies, New York Chamber Symphony, Polish National and Munich Radio Orchestras, American Composers Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, and UNAM Philharmonic of Mexico City, among many other orchestras. He has performed at many of the world’s foremost concert venues, including Lincoln Center (on its Great Performers Series), the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, BBC in London, South West German Radio, Theatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Vienna’s Arnold Schoenberg Center, Athens Festival of Music and Dance, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Library of Congress, and Istanbul International Festival. He is a familiar figure on National Public Radio and on American Public Media as performer, commentator, and host, and he has been heard on Performance Today, Studio 360, Marketplace, and many other programs. His innovative broadcast series CENTURYVIEW, celebrating piano works of the past hundred years, was enjoyed for three seasons by over one-million listeners on 200 NPR stations coast-to-coast. Mr. Boriskin is also a much sought-after guest with chamber ensembles worldwide, and has worked with the Borromeo, St. Petersburg, St. Lawrence, Penderecki, Ludwig, and Lark String Quartets, Dorian and Arioso Wind Quintets, and the New York Philharmonic Ensembles.

A prolific recording artist, Mr. Boriskin’s impressive discography on BMG/Conifer, New World, Koch International, Albany, and many other labels ranges widely from Brahms and Tchaikovsky through the present, and continues to grow in depth and breadth. His recording on SONY Classical of Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Eos Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Sheffer was awarded a coveted Rosette from Britain’s Penguin Guide to Recordings. He recorded five concerti for Newport Classic, including the rarely-heard Tchaikovsky Second and the Prokofiev First. He has four highly-acclaimed discs of postwar American piano works on New World Records, which have often appeared on “Best Recordings” lists of The New York Times and many other publications. On Bridge and Albany, he has recorded both of George Perle’s towering piano concerti (the second of which was written for Mr. Boriskin). Other solo discs have been devoted to Brahms, Poulenc, Joplin (which appeared on Crossover Charts in the U.K.), and Lou Harrison, as well as concerti by Richard Danielpour and Edward Smaldone.

As The Los Angeles Times noted, Mr. Boriskin’s lively programming is “a paragon of enlightenment,” and he actively seeks, through content and presentation, to refresh and broaden the concert experience. His vast repertoire reaches back to the works of Rameau, Scarlatti, Bach, and other Baroque masters, and he has also worked with virtually every major American composer of the past 35 years. Fanfare magazine has hailed him as “a brilliant pianist who has done as much as anyone for contemporary music.”

Long ago, Mr. Boriskin broke the constraints of a traditional performing career, with major institutions enlisting his many talents. As Artistic and Executive Director of Copland House, he has guided the national emergence of this unique creative center for American music based at Aaron Copland’s National Historic Landmark home. He has served over the years as an artistic advisor for programs and projects at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y, Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, New Line Cinema, and the fabled Arnold Schoenberg Institute in Los Angeles, and has traveled as an emissary for the U. S. Department of State and the U. S. Information Agency. For the New York Philharmonic, he played a significant role as piano soloist, chamber music collaborator, pre-concert lecturer, moderator, and program consultant at the orchestra’s Completely Copland Festival. As Music Director for three seasons of the White Oak Dance Project, his collaborations with Mikhail Baryshnikov were celebrated throughout the dance and music worlds, and Mr. Boriskin oversaw the musical preparations and production of nearly 250 performances on 10 national and international tours. An accomplished writer, his articles have appeared in American Record Guide, Symphony, Chamber Music, Stagebill, Ballet Review, Piano and Keyboard, Clavier, The Piano Quarterly, and other publications, and he was a contributing author to the Schirmer book on Vladimir Horowitz.

He has had a long and extensive commitment to education, and was been affiliated at various times with the Mannes College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, City University of New York, University of California, Purchase College Conservatory of Music, and many other important institutions. He has also brought music to life in master classes, residencies, workshops, and guest lectures at campuses around the world.

As The New York Observer noted, “Michael Boriskin is an American pianist who grew up in Long Beach, Long Island to become one of the world’s most valuable piano virtuosos.” He was born in New York City to a family long active in music and the visual arts. He attended public schools on Long Island, and pursued his musical studies at The Juilliard School and the City University of New York at Queens College.

Ayane Nakajima: Saturday, June 20 at 2:00 p.m.

Praised for her “emotional warmth and celestial lyricism” (Elena Vorotko, Keyboard Charitable Trust) pianist Ayane Nakajima enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, collaborator, and chamber musician. Active across the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany, she has appeared in major venues such as Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the New World Center. ​

Ayane’s concert highlights include performances at Klavier Festival Bayreuth, Minnesota Orchestra’s Summer at Orchestra Hall, Lake District Summer Music, and the London Song Festival. The 2025/2026 season features her professional concerto debut with the San Gabriel Valley Symphony for a performance of George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, a solo debut on BBC Radio 3, and a summer spent as a 2026 Marlboro Music Festival Artist.

She is a prizewinner of competitions including Pianale, YoungArts, the International Keyboard Odyssiad, and Young Texas Artists. Additional accolades include her nomination as a 2019 U.S. Presidential Scholar, the 2023 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts from Rice University, and the 2024 Royal College of Music Concerto Competition. Additionally, she has participated in masterclasses with renowned artists such as Jeremy Denk, Dina Yoffe, Akiko Ebi, Uta Weyand, Ronan O'Hora, Caroline Hong, Elena Levit, and Marina Lomazov. 

A devoted song pianist and chamber musician, she has won the top prize at the Young Musicians’ Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center competition, as well as pianist prizes at the AESS Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition and the RCM Brooks Van der Pump Competition. Most recently, she was a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards as duo partner to first prize-winning mezzo-soprano, Lily Mo Browne.

Growing up in New York City, Ayane began her piano journey at the age of three under the mentorship of Chaim Freiberg at the Kaufman Music Center. From ages six to seventeen, she studied with Dr. Hiromi Fukuda and graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. She received her Bachelor of Music from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, Texas, under Dr. Jon Kimura Parker and graduated with distinction from her postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music, studying with Danny Driver. 

She is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she is a student of Ronan O’Hora, Charles Owen, and Bretton Brown. Through her artistry, she strives to bring people together, curating meaningful and colorful performances. In addition to her classical work, she also enjoys collaborating in musical theatre, jazz, and film music.