BELMONT PIANO ACADEMY - Key Persons
Ms. Dietrich first began her piano studies at the age of three with her musicologist father, Mr. Piotr Dietrich. By the age of four, she was accepted by the New England Conservatory of Music, where she continued her piano and music studies. Her first public performance was at the age of five. By the age of nine, she appeared as a soloist with the New England Conservatory Orchestra.
Since her childhood, Ms. Dietrich has appeared extensively in concerts, as well as participated in competitions, where her many first place winnings resulted in a series of television appearances during her teen years. She has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras. Early on in her career she appeared with the Indian Hill Symphony and has collaborated with such noted composers as Lucas Foss and Theodore Antoniou in the performances of their piano/orchestral works. She has performed on such stages as Jordan Hall, Boston, Symphony Hall, Boston, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, New York to name a few.
Throughout her career as an artist and educator, Christina Dietrich has performed in the United States and Europe in many capacities. For over twelve years, Ms. Dietrich was regularly scheduled on the New York Public Library Concert series and performed in over fifty concerts for the Chopin Society of New England in the Boston area alone. At the Chopin Society, her collaboration with the incomparable soprano, Ms. Danuta Sava-Wysocka was responsible for the Boston premiere of the complete songs of Fryderyk Chopin. Her artistic achievement led to a special invitation by the Consul General of Poland to perform at the Consulate in New York. This was crowned by a letter of recognition and thanks from then President Lech Walesa of Poland.
Ms. Dietrich received her Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, her Master of Music from Boston University and pursued her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at that institution. Her principal teachers were A. Ramon Rivera, Victor Rosenbaum, Veronica Jochum (the daughter of the world famous conductor, Eugen Jochum), and the internationally acclaimed pianist, Professor Anthony di Bonaventura.
Ms. Dietrich's musical chronology extends back to Beethoven and Salieri by way of her teachers, descendants of both Franz Liszt and Theodor Leschetitzky, the two major schools of piano virtuosos. A selected few can boast of having the honor and privilege of passing that legacy on to future generations - a mission she takes to heart as a teacher, a performing artist, as well as a general public educator of what she refers to as "the joy of classical music."
In addition to maintaining a concert career and regularly presenting master classes in the art of piano performance, Ms. Dietrich is currently on the faculty and chairman of the piano department at Indian Hill Music, faculty of the Steinert's Piano Academy, adjunct music professor at Mount Wachusett Community College and Northern Essex Community College, as well as Artistic Director of the Steinway Society of Massachusetts and awarded a Steinway & Sons Top Teacher Award for both 2017 and 2018.
Ms. Dietrich has held faculty positions at the New England Conservatory of Music, Brookline Music School, North Shore Community College and is Founder/Artistic Director of the Summer Music Festival at Northern Essex Community College, Founder/Director of the Chopin Conservatory of Music on the North Shore and Vice President of the Chopin Society of New England. Most recently, she was appointed Steinway Ambassador at M. Steinert & Sons.
Born in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, Konstantinos Papadakis consistently earns critical acclaim as a solo and collaborative pianist. He has performed recitals and has collaborated with chamber ensembles and orchestras in the world's major concert halls and famous artistic centers, such as London's Wigmore Hall, Boston's Jordan Hall, the Athens Megaron Concert Hall, New York's Carnegie Hall, and St. Petersburg's Grand Concert Hall, where he gave world premieres of works by Greek and Russian contemporary composers.
A versatile performer, Mr. Papadakis has recorded several works especially written for him by contemporary composers, many of which have been broadcast on radio and television. He has made repeat solo appearances with Boston's Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, where he also holds the prestigious Motoko and Gordon Deane Principal Chair as the Orchestra's pianist. Other distinctions include the prestigious Yannis Vardinoyannis Award, as well as awards at international piano competitions. He is a pianist of exceptional technical ability whose playing has been described as "stunning … [Papadakis] displayed great variety of attack, poetic lyricism, and wrists of carbon steel" (The Boston Globe).
Equally at home performing Bach's English Suites or Ligeti's Etudes, Mr. Papadakis possesses an unusually broad repertory, including some 70 concertos and over 300 works for solo piano, in addition to numerous chamber works. Commemorating the bicentennial year of Franz Liszt's birth, in 2011 Mr. Papadakis embarked on an ambitious cycle of recitals of some of Liszt's shorter and less known works. In the spring of 2011 he recorded a new and unique CD of 16 miniature Liszt pieces entitled The Short Liszt (D.S.H., 2012).
Professor Papadakis is an alumnus of Boston University's College of Fine Arts, where he studied with Anthony di Bonaventura. He graduated in 2000 with an Artist Diploma in Piano Performance and he also received that year's Esther & Albert Kahn Career Entry Award. Soon thereafter he was invited to join Boston University's piano faculty where he taught for several years. Between 2006 and 2011, Mr. Papadakis was the "Samuel Barber Artist-in-Residence" at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. He re-joined the piano faculty of Boston University's College of Fine Arts from 2011-2019. Currently he is on the piano faculty of the New England Conservatory's Pre-College and Continuing Education Division. He also directs the Summer Piano Academy in Athens, Greece.
Michael Kramer, pianist, has always been in great demand as a performer. He has concertized extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Early on in his career, Mr. Kramer was selected as a music ambassador by the United States State Department to present concerts throughout Europe. He has been a piano recitalist and soloist with many orchestras in the United States and Europe. He performed numerous concerts in England, France, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Germany. While on tour, he was commissioned for a series of performances and recordings with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra of Bratislava.
While at Boston University, Mr. Kramer was invited by the internationally acclaimed pianist Anthony di Bonaventura to present a centennial concert commemorating the birth of Zoltán Kodály in Boston. In gratitude, Mr. Kramer received a special prize from the family of Zoltán Kodály for his interpretation of the composer's works. Later, Mr. Kramer was invited to present a concert in honor of the 150th anniversary of Béla Bartόk's birth.
As a guest artist and piano faculty member for ten years at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in Lenox, Massachusetts, Mr. Kramer had frequent solo and chamber music performances with Boston Symphony Orchestra members as well as numerous appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His many credits include performances and world premieres of piano solo and chamber works, and concertos of many contemporary composers, including Luciano Berio, Bernard Rands, William Thomas McKinley, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, to name a few. At the age of 24, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in New York, following which the New York Times said "The confidence with which he handled such a proving ground as Schumann's Symphonic Etudes put him in the virtuoso class… marvelously lucid playing."
A prize winner in many competitions, including the prestigious Ann and Aaron Richmond piano competition, Mr. Kramer's many accomplishments led to an invitation by world-renowned impresario Walter Pierce to present a series of concerts. As a chamber musician, he was a member of the Boston-based Equinox Ensemble. For his extensive concert appearances throughout the United States, he has received numerous awards and tributes, including the Keys to the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Degree of Chevalier, the highest honor offered by the Order of DeMolay International.
Professor Kramer has held many faculty positions, including Boston University, University of Massachusetts, Northern Essex Community College, and Bentley University. Mr. Kramer was offered a teaching position and invited to present a series of master classes at the Yamaha Piano School in Singapore. He has collaborated with such pianists as Anthony di Bonaventura, Ursula Oppens, Susan Starr, and Evelyn Crochet. Recently he has been guest artist at the NECC Summer Music Festival.
Mr. Kramer completed his Masters and Doctoral work in piano performance at Boston University, where he studied with the distinguished pianist Anthony di Bonaventura. He also holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Mathematics.