Washingtonian Avery Gagliano is a full scholarship piano fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Jonathan Biss and Gary Graffman. Avery is a 2019 YoungArts Winner in Music, a young artist of the Artemisia Akademie at Yale, a four-year winner of the US Chopin Foundation Scholarship (2016 – 2019), a Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation (2014 – 2016), a nominated recipient of the Inaugural Outstanding Young Artist Achievement Award by the National Chamber Ensemble in 2016, and a Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship recipient from 2011 to 2016.
At age nine, Avery had her orchestral debut with the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra at Strathmore Concert Hall and performed at Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York. The following year, she had her recital debut and was invited to perform on National Public Radio’s (NPR) From The Top where the music producer Tom Vignieri described her as “a compelling presence at the piano. She immediately draws you in—not because of histrionics…She has the technique and the musicianship, which is the ultimate combination of a young artist.”
As a soloist, Avery has collaborated with the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tuscarawas Philharmonic, MostArts Festival Orchestra, the Midwest Young Artists (MYA) Symphony Orchestra, the Capital City Symphony, and the National Chamber Ensemble. Avery has garnished top prizes at music competitions and festivals. She received the Audience Prize at the 2019 Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition, won first prize at the Aspen Music Festival concerto competition, the Grand Prize at the MostArts Festival, Third Prize and Best Solo Work Award at the Southeastern Piano Festival, and Grand Prix at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Hartford, Connecticut.
In addition to her solo performances, Avery is an avid chamber musician. She has performed with several different ensembles, including piano trios, quartets, and quintets, to name a few, and in the 2018-19 concert season, she performed as a guest artist with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.
Avery’s success has taken her to stages at some of the most prestigious festivals and concert venues such as the Verbier Festival, Aspen International Music Festival, Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival, Piano Texas International Academy & Festival, MostArts Festival, Art of the Piano, Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Harris Hall and Benedict Music Tent in Aspen, Strathmore Concert Hall in Maryland, Ravinia Pavilion and Millennium Park in Chicago, Greene Space at WQXR New York, United Nations Headquarters (sharing stage with Lang Lang), Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, and in the UK, Germany, France, and Italy.
Prior to her study at Curtis, Avery spent eight years of piano study with Marina Alekseyeva and five years of violin study with Jorge Orozco at Levine Music. Over the years, Avery has received keyboard instruction from renowned artists such as Andras Schiff, Sergei Babayan, Richard Goode, Menahem Pressler, Ferenc Rados, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Boris Slutsky, Robert McDonald, Alexander Kobrin, Lambert Orkis, Joaquin Achuccaro, Joseph Kalichstein, Benedetto Lupo, Lang Lang, and Rita Wagner. Outside of music, Avery enjoys reading, dancing, and singing.
The Southeastern Piano Festival is grateful to the many generous individuals and businesses that help our festival become a reality. Steinway and Sons is the official performance piano of the festival. The Symphony League of the South Carolina Philharmonic sponsors the Arthur Fraser International Concerto Competition.
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