About the Artists
Sandrine Erdely-Sayo
Sandrine Erdely-Sayo, pianist, composer and Artistic Director of Piano on the Rocks International Festival, began piano studies at the age four and has won numerous prizes across a career that began in Perpignan, France. She continued her musical studies with Denyse Rivière in Paris and with Christian Manen at the Paris Superior Conservatory where she received first prize for specialization in music theory. There, she pursued special studies in harmony, counterpoint and fugue. At fourteen she wrote Three Pieces for Chamber Orchestra that were played at the Chatelet Theater in Paris.
She became the youngest recipient of the French Minister of Culture Prize at the age of thirteen, and four years later won first prize at the Scène Française International Piano Competition in Paris. She was also a prize winner at the Ibla International Competition in Italy. In 1990 she came to Philadelphia to study with Susan Starr at the University of the Arts, receiving a master's degree in piano and composition. Her Chicago debut took place at Preston Bradley Hall for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert in 1999, and in 2014 she made her Carnegie Hall debut. She has played the major repertoire by Poulenc, Messiaen and Bartok, performing as a soloist, in chamber music and with orchestras in Italy, France, Spain, Argentina, the United States, and for radio and television in various countries. She was described by Gary Graffman as “one of the finest pianists with exceptional quality who brings a fresh style which is clearly European in approach
An active composer and recording artist, Sandrine has recorded the integral piano music of Primitivo Lazaro for Randolfo Records, as well as music by Poulenc, Liszt, Thalberg, Scriabin, Debussy, Christian Manen, and Piazolla. She made the first recording of Poulenc's early Trois Pastorales (discovered by Dr. Schmidt), that she played at Towson in 1995. As a composer, she has written a number of works including Platero y Yo for piano and narrator and the Hymn to Sedona that was nominated for the American Song-Writing Award. She is also a member of the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry and of the Mega Society. From Bach to Liszt, from Fauré to Yiddish and Contemporary music, Sandrine Erdely-Sayo is an eclectic pianist who handles a range of styles and emotions with the greatest of ease. She has been described as "electrifying" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and as "A pianist with idealism, passion and lyricism" (La Prensa, Spain). In 2023, Erdely-Sayo established the Anna-Maria Moggio International Piano and Voice Competition. Sandrine Erdely-Sayo’s new recording “Majestic Liszt” will be released June 28, 2024 under Navona Records. She is represented by Port-Royal Pinnacle Productions. www.erdelysayo.com
Cynthia Raim
Cynthia Raim who was unanimously chosen as the First Prize winner of the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition, has been acclaimed for her concerto and recital appearances throughout the United States and abroad. In summing up the performance that won Raim the coveted Clara Haskil prize, La Suisse (Geneva) noted that “Miss Raim showed a musical nature that has gone far beyond tech nical mastery. Without affectation, without useless bravado, Cynthia Raim has imprinted herself on us and cannot escape our admiration.” Le Monde (Paris) called her “a new Clara Haskil.” Raim has won the prestigious Pro Musicis Award and, in 1987, was the first recipient of the “Distinguished Artist Award” of The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia (America’s oldest continuing musical organization), which was given for “outstanding achievement and artistic merit.”
Raim has made numerous recital as well as radio and television appearances. She has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras in major cities such as Detroit, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Prague, Hamburg, Lausanne, and Vienna. She has also participated in many lead ing international music festivals including Marlboro, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Meadow Brook, Grand Teton, Bard, Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Luzern, and Montreux. She has recorded for Gallo, Pantheon, and Connoisseur Society. Before graduating in 1977 from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Raim had won the Festorazzi Award for Most Promising Pianist at Curtis, as well as first prizes in the J.S. Bach International and Three Rivers National Piano Competitions. This is her third appearance at the Piano on the Rocks International Festival.
James Palmer
Equally at home as a soloist, collaborator, presenter, and educator, James Palmer is a dynamic young musician based in Houston, Texas. James is sought after across the United States for solo recitals, chamber performances, and lecture-recitals. In fall 2023, he made appearances in Texas, New York, and Michigan, and in spring 2024, he will perform in thePiano on the Rocks International Festival IX in Sedona, Arizona and perform with violist Molly Wise at the American Viola Society Festival in Los Angeles,California. An active member of the Houston music scene, James regularly performs in venues throughout the city. Recent solo and chamber appearances include the Music in Context Chamber Series, Musiqa, the Houston Public Library, and numerous solo recitals for church music series in the area. Upcoming Houston performances include a solo recital at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church (February 2024) and duo performances with longtime collaborator, violist Molly Wise, at the Steinway Selection Center and the Archway Gallery (March 2024).
A passionate performer of new music, James is frequently sought after for premieres and collaborations. In spring 2024, he will premiere pieces by Dr. Karim al-Zand, Nicky Sohn, Bahar Royaee, and Tian Qin. From 2021-22, James developed the lecture-recital What is a Piano Prelude?, in which he presented a set of solo piano preludes he commissioned from six award-winning Houston-based composers: Badie Khaleghian, Nicky Sohn, Sam Wu, Olivia Bennett, Alex Berko, and Dr. Pierre Jalbert.
James is the Secretary for the Scriabin Society of America (SSA), a national organization dedicated to promoting the music and legacy of the great Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. In this role, he co-organized and gave a lecture-recital at the SSA’s International Scriabin 150 Festival in November, 2022.
James is also an active educator in Houston. In addition to maintaining an independent private studio, he is on the faculty of the Shepherd School of Music Preparatory Division. James is a regular teacher and coach for AFA Texas, and in summer 2024 he will teach the Summer Piano Intensive course for the second year in a row. James was a Teaching Fellow at the Rice University Shepherd School of Music, where he taught group piano, aural skills, and Master’s-level piano repertoire courses. In 2023, James finished doctoral coursework at Rice University’s ShepherdSchool of Music, where he studied with Dr. Robert Roux. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying respectively with Émile Naoumoff and Menahem Pressler. As a pre-college student, James studied with pianist-composer Sandrine Erdely-Sayo in his native Philadelphia, PA. In his free time James enjoys cooking and painting. He serves as organist at Advent Lutheran Church in northwest Houston. Find out more at jamespalmerpiano.com
Madeleine Hehn
Madeleine Hehn is a piano student of Jean-Marc Luisada at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, and of Sandrine Erdely-Sayo with whom she also studies musical writing. Madeleine is a two time finalist with the Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield Competition, and a first prize winner of the Boulder Bach Festival World Bach Competition. She is also a scholarship recipient of the Chopin Foundation’s Young Pianists Scholarship Program, and received an honorable mention from the XII Chopin International Piano Competition in Hartford, Ct. As a competition winner, Madeleine has performed with the Warminster Symphony Orchestra, the Washington International Piano Festival Young Artist Concert Series, and the Lancaster International Piano Festival. Madeleine has also performed at the Piano on the Rocks International Festival in Sedona, AZ as recipient of the festival’s Young Artist Award.
Sonja Bruzauskas
Sonja Bruzauskas received her undergraduate diploma in Voice, Acting and Dance in Germany where she was born and raised and her Master of Music degree with Marlena Malas in the United States. Sonja made her professional Opera debuts singing Hänsel in ‘Hänsel und Gretel’ with the Nordharzer Staedtebundtheater as well as Nancy in ‘Martha’ with the Staatsoperette Dresden, Germany, where she was under a full-time soloist contract for several years prior to her move to the United States. In the U.S. Sonja made her debut covering Beatrice in ‘Beatrice et Benedict’ and singing the Maidservant in ‘Simon Boccanegra’ during her stay as Apprentice Artist with the Santa Fe Opera.
Sonja’s repertoire embraces a wide range of operatic roles (Rosina in ‘The Barber of Seville’, Hänsel in ‘Hänsel und Gretel’, Nancy in ‘Martha’, Beatrice in ‘Beatrice et Benedict’, Orlovsky in ‘Die Fledermaus’, The Mother in ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’, to name a few), Musical Theatre ( Eliza in ‘My Fair Lady’, Anita in ‘West Side Story’, Mary Magdalene in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’), as well as Concert (Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Händel’s Messiah, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, St. John’s Passion, Christmas Oratorio, Caldara’s Christmas Oratorio, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Durufle’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and many more). Appearances include the Staatsoperette Dresden, the Santa Fe Opera, Volkstheater Rostock, Nordharzer Staedtebundtheater, Babelsberger Filmorchester, Bochumer Symphoniker, Baton Rouge Symphony among others. Recent appearances include the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Da Camera, the Bach Society, Mercury the Orchestra redefined, the Greenbriar Consortium, the Houston Chamber Orchestra, the Houston Chamber Choir, ROCO and The Roundtop Institute. Sonja is also an active and passionate recitalist, specializing in German Art Song and contemporary repertoire.
Sonja has sung and lectured at institutions such as Cal Arts, Vanderbilt, LSU, Rice University, the University of Houston, the Philosophical Society of Houston, Grinell College, as well as numerous health institutions. She has served on the board of directors for the Houston Chamber Choir, the Philosophical Society at Rice, the Houston Tuesday Musical Club and the German Center Houston and Ars Lyrica Houston. She teaches collaborative projects for CSSSA at at CalArts, Los Angeles, she serves as director for the Theatre Forum at Round Top and is the founder and director of pARTnerschools, a project that connects students through the Arts to empower diversity and strengthen communities.
Elizabeth Peña
Elizabeth Peña, Narrator and Co-Director of the Piano on the Rocks International Festival, is currently the director of the Spanish Language School in Philadelphia. After studying in Cali, Colombia, where she was born, she immigrated to the United States in 1991. Her interest and love for languages took her to a different path. She specialized in the field of languages and became an expert in teaching Spanish as a second language. With a great talent in prose and narrative, Elizabeth Peña received a proposal to work with artist Sandrine Erdely-Sayo. In 2010, she narrated Platero y Yo in New York City for the annual NPR conference, repeating it in 2014 in Carnegie Hall. Since then she has performed it in many different states including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Texas and Arizona.
In 2012 Elizabeth Peña, made the recording of Platero y Yo in Texas with pianist/composer Sandrine Erdely-Sayo followed by a second recording called "Intelligent Series" of The Dove and the Jaguar. With her lyrical voice, she brings words to life and life to words.