International Piano Academy Lake Como

The International Piano Academy Lake Como is a piano academy. Seven pianists, chosen annually from a worldwide field of over 1000 applicants including many international prizewinners, have the opportunity of studying with a faculty whose core membership past and present includes such stellar artists as Dmitri Bashkirov, Boris Berman, Malcolm Bilson, Leon Fleisher, Fou Ts'ong, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Graham Johnson, Menahem Pressler, Charles Rosen, Andreas Staier, as well as Alicia de Larrocha, and Charles Rosen.

These distinguished artists come for approximately a week at a time and give daily private tuition and master classes to the fortunate seven students. The International Piano Academy Lake Como was founded in April 2002 in order to continue and strengthen the teaching tradition of the International Piano Foundation "Theo Lieven". Due to the extraordinary faculty invited to teach and the exceptional talents admitted to the school, the International Piano Academy Lake Como has imposed itself as one of the major piano academies in the world in its ten years of activity.

Despite the name, the atmosphere is more familial than that of an academy, and communal rather than competitive. The Academy is housed in a beautiful 17th century palazzo overlooking Lake Como. Away from the pressures of the outside world, students are able to learn and work in a relaxed, stimulating and contemplative environment. Here they receive inspiration, opportunities and guidance in every aspect of concert and artistic life, including chamber music, accompaniment, physiology (the treatment/prevention of occupational injuries) and piano technique.

Thanks to generous funding by private sponsors, tuition, lodging, expenses, and practice facilities are entirely free of charge.