Meet The Clavis Team
Greeting from Maksim Shostakovich
practice, perform, shine
Founder & CEO
Natalia Panina
Natalia Panina (born in 1979) comes from a musician family in St. Petersburg / Russ. Federation. She has been studying piano, singing and pedagogy at the Russian State Pedagogical University (Prof .: Galina Mamon and Jury Stavitzky) and successfully completed the course of studying in 2001. Since 2005, she has been living in Germany and is continuing her musical and pedagogic activities.
Strategie & Development
Richard Balla
Richard Balla (born in 1975) in Hungary, working as Vice President of Business Development in Germany in different organisations. Mr. Balla is using his talent in development field to support Clavis to grow and scale in order to support as many talented children as possible. His main responsibility inside the Clavis organisation ist to develop world wide Strategy and build organisation structure.
Organizer of the festival in Bavaria / Füssen
Miriam Dunja Westerdoll
Dramaturg Miriam Dunja Westerdoll completed Theatre Studies and English Literatur at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Since 2011 she has been living in Füssen where she organises and conceives cultural events together with her husband John.
Organizer of the festival in Bavaria / Füssen
John Arthur Westerdoll
The Amero-Bavarian Violinist John Arthur Westerdoll completed his studies in music at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem and at the conservatory in munich. He lives as a free- lance artist in Füssen where he organises theatre events and concerts with international attendees together with his wife Miriam.
Head of Jury (group D)
Evgeny Izotov
Evgeny Izotov got his education in St.Petersburg State Conservatory, post graduate course and graduated with honors from Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, where he got the Diplom Superieur de Concertiste. He was teached by professors Nina Seregina, Elena Semishina, Marian Ryabitzki. Within masterclasses he worked with Dmitry Bashkirov, William Nabore, K.H.Kemmerling, Lazar Bermann.
Head of Jury (group Q, A)
Zueva Aleftina
Zueva Aleftina Fedorovna was born in 1949. Graduated from Ufa State Institute of Arts named after A.D. Frank. From 1973 till 1995, after graduation, she worked as a teacher at MSMC of USIA in the special piano class. From 1995 till nowadays A.F. Zueva works as a teacher of special piano and pedagogical training at the Rimsky-Korsakov Music College. She is Honored Artist of Russia
Head of Jury (group В, С)
Anna Sheludko
Anna Sheludko was born in Ufa in 1981. Her primary education was in the middle special music school at her mother’s, Alla Zueva, class. The she continued her education in Rimsky-Korsakov Music College (Oleg Koshelev class). She graduated with honors from St.Petersburg State Conservatory and later post graduate course of Honored Russian Artist professor Valery Vishnevsky.
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Marina Kheifets
Marina Kheifets hails from Lwiw (Lviv) in the Ukraine where she became a master pupil of Prof. Samuel Deitsch at the Mikola-Lysenko Music Academy. Kheifets discovered her musical talent early on, giving her first solo performance already at the age of seven. Her pianistic endeavors have included performances with the soprano, Swetlana Katchour and the pianist, Anna Yarovaya, among others.
Head of the international relations
Anastasia Sobyanina
Born in 1991 in Kaspiysk (Dagestan), after graduating from the Music School Makhachkala (Prof. Papayan) she continued her education at the Moscow State Conservatory P.I Tchaikovsky (Prof. Irina Osipova). Anastasia Sobyanina has had success in numerous national and international competitions like "Århus International Piano Competition" (2013)
Head of Jury
Olga Kotlyarova
O. KOTLYAROVA graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory as a pianist, an organist and a harpsichordist in the classes of Professors E. Murina, T. Chausova, I. Rozanov. While continuing her studies Olga became a laureate of a wide majority of the music competitions as follows: the first prize at the Durlet International Pianist Competition (Antwerp)
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Evgeny Konnov
Evgeny Konnov began to study piano at the age of four with Natalia Krivosheina, and in 1999 he entered in the Gnesin Music School in Moscow, Russia under Tatiana Sarkisians supervision. From 2008 to 2012 he studied at the Academic Music College in Moscow, Russia with Natalia Syslova. From 2012 to 2013 he studied at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, Germany under Professor Georg Friedrich Schenck supervision.
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Aimo Pagin
Born in 1991 in Kaspiysk (Dagestan), after graduating from the Music School Makhachkala (Prof. Papayan) she continued her education at the Moscow State Conservatory P.I Tchaikovsky (Prof. Irina Osipova). Anastasia Sobyanina has had success in numerous national and international competitions like "Århus International Piano Competition" (2013)
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Ana-Marija Markovina
Born in Croatia, Ana-Marija Markovina studied in Berlin, Vienna and Weimar and now lives in Cologne. Her concert tours have taken her to over 50 countries. She has been a soloist with numerous German and international orchestras such as the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia, the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesorchester, the Brandenburg Symphony,
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Michael Schneidt
Michael Schneidt, born in Munich, received his piano education at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, studying with Hugo Steurer and Klaus Schilde. He then completed his artistic state examination with distinction as well as his master-class diploma. He continued his education on a grant from the DAAD with Alessandro Specchi in Florence,
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Yulia Kazantseva
Dr. Yulia Kazantseva performed her first public solo concert in Moscow at the age of 7, and was selected at the age of 13 by UNESCO to perform at the “Music for Peace” concert, where she shared the stage with Sting, Zucchero, Montserrat Caballe, Lionel Richie, and other internationally-acclaimed musicians.
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Dmitrij Romanov
Dmitrij Romanov was born on 03.11.1982 in Moscow, Russia. He studied at the Gnessin Musical School in the class of Elena Efrussi and Ada Traub. He studied composition under the supervision of Vladimir Bagrov from 1991. In January 1997 Mr. Romanov moved to Munich, Germany. Since 1997 he studied piano under the supervision of Vadim Suchanov and Gernot Sieber. He also studied composition at the Richard Strauss Conservatory.
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Nataliya Frenzel
Nataliya Frenzel was born in the Ukraine and completed her studies there as a state-certified piano teacher and music pedagogue. Since 1999 she lives in Germany. At the University of Augsburg, she studied the subjects of music education (the subject piano at Johann Winter), psychology and German philology with a degree Magister Artium (M.A.)
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Marcus Vitolo
Marcus Vitolo, born in Stuttgart in 1967, received his first piano lessons at the age of six, and was admitted to the Conservatory "Giuseppe Verdi" in Milan, Italy, at the age of 11. Attended the Liceo artistico-Musicale del Conservatorio di musica "Giuseppe Verdi", Milano (Music-Artistic Gymnasium of the Conservatory "Giuseppe Verdi", Milan).
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Renata Mironova
Renata Mironova is a composer and performer from Novosibirsk (Russia). She graduated from Novosibirsk State Conservatory with a Piano Performance degree in 2009.
She has been writing music since childhood. She is the author of many songs and romances but her major music interest is miniatures for the piano in Romantic style
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Rie Mukai
Rie Mukai was born in Japan and started to learn Piano at the age of 4. She studied at the Kagoshima Music College with Prof. Kazumitsu Nakajima and teached at the Yamaha Music School in Kagoshima. In 2004 she came to Vienna and worked with Prof. Norman Shetler. She continued her education at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz with Prof. Johannes Marian
Felipe Güttler
Felipe Güttler is a student of Economics in Munich.
As a pianist he has won prizes in national and international piano competitions as a soloist and as piano duo....