Chicago Duo Piano Festival: Varshavski-Shapiro Master Class

“A piano duo that can charm even the most versed music lovers.”

                                                                                                           ~ Gazeta Krakowska, Poland

The Varshavski-Shapiro Piano Duo is comprised of pianists Stanislava Varshavski and Diana Shapiro, who began playing together in 1998. Since then, they have gone on to capture the top prizes at numerous competitions, including the most prestigious competition for piano duos – the Murray Dranoff International Piano Competition in Miami. A winner of the Astral Artists’ 2012 National Auditions, the Varshavski-Shapiro Piano Duo also won first prizes at the Italy’s XV Piano Competition “Rome 2004,” the Jerusalem’s Kol HaMusica Young Artists Competition, the Israel Chamber Music Competition, the XIII Schubert Competition in the Czech Republic, and the First International Piano Duo Competition in Bialystok, Poland.

The Varshavski-Shapiro Piano Duo has performed in such distinguished venues as the HKAPA Concert Hall in Hong Kong, Henry Crown Symphony Hall in Jerusalem, Teatro Valle in Rome, and Lincoln Theater in Miami. They have appeared with the Radio Orchestra in Munich, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Miami’s New World Symphony. Outside of their current home base in Wisconsin and Illinois, the duo has recently given concerts in Georgia, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Texas, where they performed Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos with the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra.

The Duo has recorded for the Bavarian Radio, the Radio 4 of Hong Kong, the Israeli National Radio and TV, and the New York’s WQXR. They have recently produced a CD in collaboration with the Wisconsin Public Radio. The performances were also broadcast live on WPR and recorded for a documentary film, presented on Wisconsin television.

As music educators, Varshavski and Shapiro frequently present lectures and master classes across the United States. In 2016, they have been invited to showcase at the National Conference of the Chamber Music America and served as judges at the Chicago International Competition for Piano Duos.

Both Ms. Varshavski and Ms. Shapiro hold Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where they studied with a legendary Israeli duo Alexander Tamir–Bracha Eden. They continued their education under renowned American pianist Victor Rosenbaum, and in 2011 both pianists completed Doctoral degree studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ms. Shapiro is an Assistant Professor of Piano and a Chair of the Music Department at the Silver Lake College and Ms. Varshavski is a Director of Education at the Holy Family Conservatory of Music.