St Andrew’s Spring/Summer 2011 Concert Series

Jan Hugo, born in Bloemfontein in 1991, started his music tuition at the age of 7 with Claudine van Breda in Pretoria. He distinguished himself in local art-festivals, eisteddfods and passed all examinations for practical piano and theory with distinction. At the age of 11 he participated in the International Competition for Pianists “Virtuosi per Musica” in Usti nad Labem in the Czech Republic and at 12 years he won the Musicon Senior Primary Piano Competition in Bloemfontein and the Sanlam Music Competition in Cape Town. In 2006, 15 years old, he won the category “Soloists 18 years old” in the International Piano Competition “Carlo Soliva” in Casale Monferrato, Italy.

Just 13 years old, Jan was invited to further his studies in Italy and became a student of Francesco Cipolletta at the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali “Vecchi-Tonelli” in Modena, Italy where he passed all his exams cum laude. During December 2006 he was admitted to a ‘Corso di Alto Perfezionamento in Pianoforte’ (Master’s Diploma in Piano Performance) at the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola, where he currently studies with Franco Scala and Boris Petrushansky. In the academic year 2007/2008 he was accepted for the Diploma Accademico Superiore di 1° Livello, (Bachelor of Music Degree) at the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicale “Vecchi-Tonelli” above mentioned, where he studied under the tutorship of Prof. Giuseppe Fausto Modugno and graduated in March 2010, obtaining 110/110 cum laude.

Jan has participated in various master classes with internationally acclaimed professors and pianists such as Michel Dalberto, Robert Levin, Jin Ju, Riccardo Risaliti, David Ascanio, Adam Wodnicki and Joseph Stanford. He has played recitals in Rome, Milan, Bologna, Modena and various other towns in Italy, in important concert-seasons of Italian music associations. He has also performed as soloist with the Kwa-Zulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. He performed as soloist with the Orchestra of the Istituto “Vecchi-Tonelli” in the Teatro Comunale of Modena and he is also active in chamber music.

Programme:R. Schumann: Novelette, Op. 21 No. 8
J. Brahms: Sonata in C major, Op. 1
F. Liszt: Aux Cyprès de la Villa d’Este: Thrénodie I
F. Liszt: Harmonies du Soir
L. van Beethoven: Sonata in C minor, Op.11