Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more program information! WCM Piano Faculty Audrey Andrist and Ardita Statovci will present a piano four hands concert.
Hailed as a “stunning pianist with incredible dexterity”, Canadian pianist Audrey Andrist has thrilled audiences around the globe, from North America to Japan, China and Germany with her “passionate abandon” and “great intelligence.” Ms. Andrist grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, and while in high school traveled three hours one-way for lessons with William Moore, himself a former student of famed musicians Cécile Genhart and Rosina Lhévinne. She completed Masters and Doctoral degrees at the Juilliard School with Herbert Stessin, and won first prizes at the Mozart International, San Antonio International, Eckhardt-Gramatté, and Juilliard Concerto Competitions. She is the principal pianist of ROCO in Houston, Texas and of the PostClassical Ensemble in Washington, DC. She is a member of the Stern/Andrist Duo with her husband, violinist James Stern; Strata, with her husband and Nathan Williams, clarinet, and the Andrist-Stern-Honigberg Trio with cellist Steven Honigberg. She has performed at Lincoln Center in New York, the Phillips Collection, Kennedy Center and Library of Congress in Washington, Place des Arts in Montreal, and the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. With the CBC Vancouver Orchestra and maestro Mario Bernardi, she presented the world premiere of Andrew P. MacDonald’s Piano Concerto, composed especially for her and commissioned by CBC Radio.
An avid performer of new music, Ms. Andrist has recorded for more than a dozen record labels and has presented over 75 world premieres as a soloist and with various ensembles. In her many intrepid adventures in modern music, she has played a wide variety of instruments, including synthesizer, harmonium, celesta, melodica, paper accordion, mbira, tack piano, bass drum and slide whistle! She and the ensembles with which she performs regularly play music by young student composers, working with the students to hone their craft, and mentoring them in the composition process. A devoted teacher, Ms. Andrist lives in the Washington, DC area, where she teaches at the Washington Conservatory and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and where she is in constant demand as a soloist, chamber musician, adjudicator and master class teacher. She spends her summers at a variety of festivals, including ChamberFest Canandaigua, where she serves as Co-Artistic Director, The National Music Festival (new faculty member in 2026), The Chamber Music Conference, Intermuse, and the Manhattan Music Festival in Shanghai, China. In her spare time, she is an enthusiastic cook and hockey fan.
To learn more about WCM Piano Faculty Audrey Andrist, visitwww.audreyandrist.com.
Ardita Statovci impresses with uncompromising dedication to music, exceptional expressiveness, and profound artistic integrity. Her playing combines technical brilliance, emotional clarity, and a distinctive inner intensity.
Born in Prishtina (Kosovo), she began piano studies at an early age with Hadije Gjinali and Lejla Pula, completing multiple grades within a single school year. At fifteen, she was admitted to the internationally renowned University Mozarteum Salzburg, where she earned her Master of Arts degree with highest distinction under Christoph Lieske. Postgraduate studies followed at Indiana University Bloomington (USA) with the legendary Menahem Pressler, and at the Accademia Pianistica di Imola under Boris Petrushansky and Franco Scala.
As a soloist, she has appeared with orchestras such as the Haydn Orchestra Bolzano, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Mozart Bologna, Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, Presidential Symphony Orchestra Ankara, Albanian Radio Television Orchestra, SOI – Symphony Orchestra of India, Kosovo Philharmonic, and Bad Reichenhaller Philharmonie, under conductors including Claudio Abbado, Dennis Russell Davies, Tito Ceccherini, Lavard Skou Larsen, Johannes Kalitzke, Gustav Kuhn, and Alessio Allegrini.
For her outstanding artistry, Statovci has received numerous awards and scholarships from institutions such as the Society for Music Theatre Vienna, Mozart Society Dortmund, Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, Piano Academy Birmingham, Fohn Foundation, Gotthard-Schierse Foundation Berlin, Land Salzburg, Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research, and the International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg. She is a recipient of the Bösendorfer Prize of the University Mozarteum, a winner of the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Salzburg auditions, the Talent of Kosovo Prize, and prizewinner at the International Rotaract Competition (Spain) and the Ibla Grand Prize (Italy). She is also a Young Steinway Artist. Her live CD featuring works by Brahms, Beethoven, and Dutilleux was released in Salzburg in 2008.
To learn more about WCM Piano Faculty Ardita Statovci, visit www.arditastatovci.com.
