Alexander Braginsky was born and educated in Moscow. At the age of six, he began 12 years of studies with Alexander Goldenweiser, a close friend of Leo Tolstoy and a classmate of Rachmaninov and Scriabin. After Goldenweiser's death, Braginsky entered Tchaikovsky Conservatoire to study with Theodore Gutman. 

Braginsky's repertoire extends from Baroque to avant-garde. He has performed more than 20 world premieres, most of which were works commissioned and written for him. He concertized extensively in the former USSR, Israel, England, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, People's Republic of China, Spain, France and the United States. Braginsky has recorded for a variety of record labels, and has performed for radio stations worldwide. 

Braginsky serves as professor on the faculty of the International Music Summer Course in Vienna, Austria, and has given numerous master classes. Currently, he teaches at the University of Minnesota School of Music, where he is professor of piano. He also is the artistic director of Musicians in Debut International (MIDI) as well as the president and artistic director of the International Piano-e-Competition.

Praised by audiences and critics alike for his fresh interpretations and dramatic presentation style, pianist Yoshikazu Nagai has performed as soloist and chamber musician in North America and Asia. Mr. Nagai has also appeared at numerous festivals, such as the Aspen Music Festival. In addition, he is a frequent soloist with orchestras throughout the U.S. and his performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio's "Performance Today," RAI (Italian National TV), Hong Kong National Radio, and on public radio stations in San Francisco, Houston, Cleveland, and Salt Lake City. Mr. Nagai won first prize at the Washington International Piano Competition and is also a major prizewinner of the San Antonio, Missouri Southern, New Orleans, IBLA Grand Prize International Piano Competitions, and the Concert Artists Guild International Music Competition.

Mr. Nagai is currently on the piano faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as professor of piano. Recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) for excellence in teaching, he frequently gives master classes and serves as juror throughout the United States, Europe and Asia including recent jury member of the 2012 Gina Bachauer International Junior and Young Artists Piano Competitions. Current and former students of Mr. Nagai are top prizewinners of national and international competitions including the Lev Vlassenko, Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition, Music Teachers National Association Piano Competition, Nina Wideman, King Award, Missouri Southern, Heida Hermanns, Corpus Christi and Lennox International Young Artists Piano Competitions and Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, among others.

Mr. Nagai studied with John Perry at Rice University and received his master of music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he was awarded the Malvina Podis Prize in Piano upon graduation. Other teachers include Paul Schenly, Sergei Babayan and Duane Hulbert.

Stanislav Pochekin was born in Russia and received his music education at the Gnesin Institute in Moscow under the tutelage of the illustrious Edouard Mirzoian and Theodore Gutman. Upon the completion of his studies he served as a professor at the Conservatoire in Sverdlovsk (Russia). In 1989 he was invited to Cuba where he became a professor at the “Instituto Superior del Arte” in Havana. 

Mr. Pochekin’s repertoire ranges from Baroque to the Contemporary. He performed with many major orchestras and worked with distinguished conductors such as M. Paverman, F. Glushenko, I. Lapinsh. R. S. Ferrers, as well as many others. 

Mr. Pochekin has been living in Spain since 1993, when he was appointed at the “Concervatorio del Liceo” de Barcelona. Pochekin’s students have received more than 50 prizes in the national and international competitions. Stanislav Pochekin gives master classes in Europe and America, and he has been invited to serve as a jury member at many prestigious national and international competitions in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Russia. Currently Mr. Pochekin is the artistic director of the International Piano Competition in Andorra, Spain.

Jerome Rose, hailed as "the last Romantic of our own age" and one of America's most distinguished pianists, has been heard in major concert halls across five continents. A Gold Medalist from the International Busoni Competition, Mr. Rose began his international career while still in his early twenties. His catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings on Monarch Classics includes the Liszt Concerti with the Budapest Philharmonic, Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, the Complete Schumann Sonatas, "Davidsbundlertanze," and "Kreisleriana," the Last Three Beethoven Sonatas, and the Complete Ballades & Fantasy of Chopin. 

He was a pupil of Adolph Baller when, at the age of 15, he debuted with the San Francisco Symphony. A graduate of the Mannes College and the Juilliard School of Music, Jerome Rose studied with Leonard Shure and Rudolf Serkin at Marlboro. In 1961 he was a winner of the Concert Artists Guild award and was also a Fulbright Scholar in Vienna. Mr. Rose has given master classes at the Moscow Conservatory, the Chopin Academy in Warsaw, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Munich Hochschule, and is a frequent guest at the Toho Conservatory of Music in Tokyo, Japan. He is on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music and is founder/director of the International Keyboard Institute & Festival held every summer in New York City. 

Mr. Rose’s performances at the Festival have been recorded by WFMT Chicago and NPR for worldwide radio broadcast. Mr. Rose appeared last year in recital in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, Croatia and Korea and served on the faculties at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris and the Salzburg Mozarteum, where he will return next summer for recitals and classes. This fall he toured major cities in China (Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Beijing), giving recitals and master classes, and promoting his four-volume book “Becoming a Virtuoso.” He continues this season with master class and recital appearances in the U.S. and Europe. Mr. Rose was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from the State University of New York for his lifetime achievement in music.