“Throughout the evening there was never a blurred or awkward phrase, and Mr. Gurt displayed an almost superhuman command of the keyboard.” New York Times

“No doubt about it, Gurt is a high pianistic achiever.” Los Angeles Times

“Friday’s soloist [with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra], Michael Gurt, galloped from one end of the keyboard to the other with plenty of power and panache. . . shaping the phrases of the Andante with real refinement. Here is a young pianist one would greatly enjoy hearing again.”
Chicago Tribune

“Michael Gurt is a young American pianist with an uncanny ability to summon up the periods of the works which he plays. . . . The Mendelssohn Serious Variations and Chopin’s B Flat Minor Sonata were played with a surefire grasp, a sense of mood and era (he hardly ever touched the pedal in the Mendelssohn while offering a grand sound), no fear to give a big percussive sound when necessary, but always with a sense of the most noble conception.” South China Morning Post Hong Kong.“Michael Gurt is one of the finest young pianists heard in Cape Town and his performance of Rachmaninov’s ‘other’ concerto was nothing short of a triumph. Gurt is possessed of a seemingly infallible technique. Certainly, not even in the most torrid of Rachmaninov’s passages does he give the impression of being stretched. His tone remains crystal clear and beautifully graded, balances between melodic and accompanimental elements of the solo writing are cautiously maintained and ensemble with the orchestra remains taut. His tone ranges from a booming bass register to a brilliantly percussive upper extreme in forte dynamics. But, in quieter episodes, it has the beguiling liquidity of the Chopin exponent. Pedaling is discreet and to the point-extending, never blurring. Best of all, he knows just when to use which effect. He made of this performance a highlight of the symphonic season.” Cape Times Cape Town, South Africa. Pianist Michael Gurt has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the Capetown Symphony, the National Orchestra of China in Beijing, and the Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in Durban, South Africa, among others. He has performed solo recitals in Alice Tully Hall in New York, Ambassador Auditorium in Los Angeles, Orchestra Hall in Detroit, City Hall in Hong Kong, the Victorian Arts Center in Melbourne, Australia, Baxter Hall in Capetown, South Africa, and the Attatürk Cultural Center in Istanbul, Turkey. He has appeared as guest artist with the Takács String Quartet and he recently performed at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Mr. Gurt has served on the juries of the New Orleans International Piano Competition and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. He has been featured on a nationwide PBS broadcast, performing the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto with the Utah Symphony. Gurt has recorded on the Naxos, Centaur and Redwood labels. Mr. Gurt is Professor and Keyboard Division Chair at Louisiana State University. He has served as Piano Chairman of the Louisiana Music Teachers Association. He has also taught at two seminars held at Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan.Michael Gurt received his early musical training from his father, Joseph Gurt, and from Dorothy Taubman. He obtained his BM degree from the University of Michigan School of Music, where his teacher was Louis Nagel. Upon graduation he received the coveted Stanley Medal. Gurt did his graduate work with Martin Canin at the Juilliard School in New York. While a student there, he performed the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto at Lincoln Center with the Juilliard Orchestra. In 1982, Mr. Gurt won First Prize in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and he has been a prizewinner in international competitions held in Sydney, Australia, and Pretoria, South Africa

Violist Leslie Harlow, founder/diirector of the Beethoven Festival Park City (chamber music festival), is both a solo and chamber music performer. Leslie Harlow has collaborated in chamber concerts with many of the finest artists of this era including noted artists including Charles Libove, Glenn Dicterow, Paul Rosenthal, Bill Preucil, Elmar Oliviera, Shlomo Mintz, Charles Castleman, Scott Yoo, Arturo Delmoni and Joseph Silverstein, violist Paul Neubauer, cellists Jeffrey Solow, Mark Kosower, Yehuda Hanani, Fred Zlotkin, Steve Balderston and Armen Ksajikian. A graduate of the Juilliard School, as a student Ms. Harlow performed and participated in master classes with William Primrose, Paul Doktor, Donald McGinnis, Heidi Castleman and Nabuko Imai. Ms. Harlow was one of three finalists in the Juilliard annual concerto competition in 1983. Her primary teachers in Texas were Marna Street and Susan Schoenfeld, and at Juilliard: Paul Doktor and violinist Harry Shub. She also had additional lessons with Heidi Castleman, Donald Wright and Francis Tursi. At Juilliard Ms. Harlow coached in chamber music with Felix Galimer, Samuel Rhodes, David Soyer, Paul Doktor, Charles Castleman, Robert Sylvester, Susann McDonald and Julius Baker. Following graduation from Juilliard, Ms. Harlow moved to Utah and founded the Deer Valley (Utah) Chamber Music Festival in the resort town of Park City, Utah, in 1984. Renamed the Beethoven Festival Park City, the Beethoven Festival now presents summer, fall, winter and spring chamber music festivals, outreach in schools and additional concerts in senior facilities, and is Utah's oldest classical music festival, presenting an average of 25 concerts per year. Leslie Harlow also founded and directs the Park City Film Music Festival. In 1996 the Ms. Harlow brought her Beethoven Festival to New York City, presenting a chamber concert at Carnegie's Weill Hall, performing the Brahms Clarinet Quintet and the Fauré C Minor Piano Quartet. Ms. Harlow has also appeared as guest artist with the Sitka Festival (Alaska), Lyrica Series (New Jersey), Piatigorsky Foundation (New York), Skaneateles Festival (New York), and Bargemusic (New York), served as guest Artistic Director and performer at the Affetti Festival in Alaska, and performed on chamber series and in festivals in Oklahoma, Texas, North Carolina, Missouri and Kansas, as well as performing chamber music for the International Clarinet Society's "Clarfests" in Baltimore, Texas, Utah and Vancouver (Canada). She has performed on tour in Europe with the Juilliard Orchestra and twice with the Utah Symphony. Ms. Harlow can be heard on a number of recordings, most notably the "Chamber Music for Clarinets and Strings" album of works by Husa, Dahl and Martinu on the ISOMIKE Label. After graduating from New York's Juilliard School, Leslie Harlow moved to Utah, founding her chamber music festival that same year. During the following thirty years she has also taught viola and coached chamber music at Brigham Young University, Weber State University and Utah Valley University, served as director for the University of Utah's Virtuoso Series and, for twelve years, as principal violist with Ballet West (before resigning to perform four years full-time with the Utah Symphony), performed extensively with the Cathedral of the Madeleine Chamber Orchestra including performing as soloist in Vaughan Williams' "Flos Campi" with the orchestra and choir. In Utah Ms. Harlow has performed as concerto soloist with local orchestras, at Viola Society events, and has performed her own solo viola compositions in concert. Ms. Harlow has performed on tour in Europe with the Juilliard Orchestra and the Utah Symphony. Recordings include Chamber Music for Clarinets and Strings on the ISOMIKE Label. Active as a recording studio musician, Ms. Harlow also records as principal violist and soloist for many film scores and television soundtracks including performing the viola solos for the movies "Murder in the First" and "Surviving Picasso". Prior to studying for her masters at Juilliard, Ms. Harlow served as Assistant Principal Viola with the Oklahoma Symphony. In her native city of Lubbock, Texas, Ms. Harlow started on the viola at age 10 in the public school system and joined the Lubbock Symphony at age 15. She completed her bachelors degree at Texas Tech University as one of the school's first viola performance majors, winning the school concerto competiton and performing tour soloist with the school orchestra. She completed a masters degree from Texas Tech while also commuting to perform with the Oklahoma Symphony.

Clarinetist Russell Harlow is one of the nation's premiere solo and chamber clarinetists. In 1996 Mr. Harlow performed the New York Premiere of the Ramiro Cortes Trio (written for him), along with the Brahms Quintet, at Carnegie's Weill Hall in New York City. Harlow recently joined the artist faculty of the Affetti Chamber Music Festival in Anchorage, Alaska, and will perform on tour in Europe in June of 2011. The recent Sonolumina Ensemble recording featuring Mr. Harlow "Chamber Music for Clarinets and Strings" on the ISOMIKE Label received critical acclaim in the U.S. and Europe. Russell Harlow is the co-Director of the Park City Music Festival, the Autumn Classics Music Festival, the Winter Classics Music Festival, The Spring Chamber Music Festival and the Contemporary Music Consortium of Utah. He has performed for International Clarinet Association events throughout the world, also giving lectures on clarinetists of the past century. In addition to performances in Utah with the Park City and Autumn Classics Festivals, Contemporary Music Consortium and Sonolumina Orchestra, Mr. Harlow has performed with the Sitka and Anchorage Fall Classics Festivals (Alaska), the Amsterdam Chamber Players, the Puerto Rico Clarinet Festival, the Ars Nova, Lyrica and Piatigorsky Foundation concerts in New Jersey and with the Leonore Trio and Bargemusic in NYC. Russell Harlow studied with clarinetists Gary Foster, Mitchell Lurie, Harold Wright and violinist Charles Libove, and was coached in chamber music and attended the master classes by cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Mr. Harlow is featured on recordings with flutist Laurel Ann Maurer, the Mirecourt Trio, the Park City Music Festival and the Utah Symphony. Mr. Harlow has recorded numerous solos for major filmscores and is featured on many Utah Symphony recordings. He founded and directed Utah's Nova Series until he joined the Park City International Music Festival as Co-Director in 1986. He attended both UCLA and USC before joining the Utah Symphony at the age of 21.

Dr. Bryan Stanley, (b. 1972) accomplished pianist-composer originally from Atlantic, Iowa, USA, is Music Director at the Park City Community Church (Utah) and head of the piano faculty at the Utah Conservatory in Park City. He is published by Hal Leonard, Boosey & Hawkes and G. Schirmer, which include two arrangements of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring for violin/piano and solo piano, the latter of which was played at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival; and a Hal Leonard Vocal Library book of American Folksong concert arrangements (2002). In 2010 The Utah Youth Symphony commissioned and premiered his Serenade to Spring scored for four harps, strings and brass at the famed Salt Lake City Mormon Tabernacle. An avid coffee drinker, his compositions have also been performed with the Riverton Symphony Orchestra, at St. Louis Community College, Indiana University-Southeast, Simpson College, University of Oklahoma, and Lewis University. Stanley has been composing an ever-growing body of sacred works at the Park City Community Methodist Church, including a 2011 choral-orchestral Christmas Cantata of six movements containing original music and innovative carol arrangements. Dr. Stanley has most recently performed as a concert artist in Park City and Salt Lake City, St. Louis, and Iowa. A frequent collaborative guest artist with the Park City International Chamber Music Festival, (particularly Beethoven's Opus 11 Trio) Dr. Stanley accompanies, coaches and lectures and has played for President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. His second piano concerto garnered first prize in the Riverton Symphony concerto performance competition in 2009 and has repeat performances at St. Louis Community College with composer as soloist. In 1997 the Des Moines Metro Opera premiered his one-act chamber opera, Edgar Allen Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, the result of winning a national chamber opera competition sponsored by the company. The premiere, which he conducted, was enthusiastically reviewed in the November 1997 issue of Opera News magazine. He currently is working on a new one-act, operatic endeavor. Dr. Stanley has a DMA in composition from the University of Oklahoma in 2002, an MM in piano performance from University of Missouri-Kansas City (1996), and a BM in piano performance from Simpson College (1994).

Dr. Kristín Jónína Taylor is an Icelandic-American pianist who has been enthusiastically received for her performances of Nordic piano works, including the North American premiere of Jón Nordal’s Piano Concerto in 2003 and programs by invitation in Washington D.C. for the Ambassador of Iceland and President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. She has performed widely in the U.S. as well as in Iceland, France, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, and Serbia. As a foreign student in Iceland when she was 16, Kristín studied piano with Halldór Haraldsson. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, her mentors were Joanne Baker and Richard Cass. In June of 2006, Kristín received the Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where she studied with Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff. She has also studied in Europe with Diane Andersen, Daniel Blumenthal, Jacques Lagarde, Perfecto Garcia Chornet, Vit Gregor, and Einar-Steen Nokleberg. Dr. Taylor was the Grand Prize Winner of the Naftzger Young Artist Competition and a national finalist in the Music Teacher’s National Association Young Chang Collegiate Competition. In 2003 she was invited to give a performance at the Classical Hall of Fame in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was a soloist with several orchestras gave a performance of an all-Schumann program at the internationally prestigious Reykjavík Arts Festival. Kristín was the recipient of a Fulbright grant to Iceland in 2004-2005 to conduct research for her doctoral thesis on Jón Nordal ’s Piano Concerto. She received another Fulbright Scholar grant award to Iceland for the Fall of 2010 to research the music of Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson. In addition, her debut CD recording The Well-Tempered Pianist: The solo piano works of Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson was released by the Iceland Music Information Centre in November 2010. Her second album, which is self-titled, was released by Pólarfónía Records in March 2011. Dr. Taylor is an Associate Professor of Piano and Keyboard Area Coordinator at Waldorf College. She is also the coordinator for the Waldorf Community Artist Series. Kristín Jónína Taylor is a Steinway Artist.


Financial and In-Kind Support for the
BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL PARK CITY
provided by the following:

The Summit County RAP Tax Fund
Summit County Restaurant Tax Fund
George S. and Dolores Dore´ Eccles Foundation
KBYU Classical Radio
The Utah Arts Council and
The National Endowment for the Arts
The Salt Lake County ZAP Tax Fund
Phyllis Egermeier Trust
Russell and Leslie Harlow
Eleanor Sedgwick
StorageCraft.com
The Park City Community Church
Temple Har Shalom
ReichelRecommends.com
Steinway & Sons Pianos
Daynes Music

The Park City Chamber Music Society
Board of Directors:
Annette Amendola
Russell Harlow
Leslie Harlow
Jon Scarlet
Margaret Lewis

Friends of the Festival:
Bette Scarlet, Rhea Bouman, Jan Zinn, Russell Hoburg, Ann Fischer, Nathan Vineyard
The Festival Volunteers

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