Julia Clancy

Violist/USA

Violist Julia Clancy is currently based in Northwest Louisiana where she is on faculty at the Academy of Fine Arts at FBC Shreveport. Before pandemic Julia worked in the Staatskapelle Berlin under the direction of Daniel Barenboim.  She performs regularly with the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Boulez Ensemble, Konzerthaus chamber orchestra, Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, and the Gstaad Festival Orchestra and  has been a principal violist in Krzysztof Penderecki’s festival orchestra, Britten-Pears Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, Moritzburg Festival Orchestra, and Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Orchestra. As a member of Aldeburgh Strings, Julia performs regularly in London and Snape, England, and has collaborated with the ensemble in two albums for Linn Records. She can also be heard in the iPalpiti album, “Life Cycles” by BCM+D records.  As an educator, she has taught or assisted in teaching music theory, history, writing, and viola performance at both the Cleveland Institute of Music and Yale School of Music. She is currently an associate faculty member of the Encore Chamber Music Institute and teaches at the Moabit Musikschule. As a writer, Ms. Clancy was a guest columnist for the Case Western Observer, and was regularly published by the Yale School of Music as a program annotator. Her early musical education began at the Juilliard Pre-College program where she studied with Heidi Castleman. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in medical anthropology from Case Western Reserve University and with a Bachelor of Music with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with Jeffrey Irvine, Lynne Ramsey and Robert Vernon. Julia received her MM and is currently pursuing her DMA from Yale University, where she was a two-time winner of the Georgina Lucy Grosvenor Memorial Prize. Julia joined iPalpiti in 2016

Duo Gurfinkel

Clarinetists/Israel

The twin brothers Daniel and Alexander Gurfinkel, duo clarinetists, have established themselves among today's important artists in their country. Born in 1992, they began their musical education in the year 2000 and by age 12, they were invited by Zubin Mehta to appear as soloists in the annual concert for young musicians with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In recent seasons, Duo Gurfinkel were re-engaged with Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, and performed abroad with the Zagreb Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, with Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists at the Tchaikovsky Hall, with Capella Istopolitana, Berliner Camerata, as well as on tour in France with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire. In March 2013, the duo won the 3rd prize at the 18th International Chamber Music Competition in Illzach, France, and during that year the duo performed at Gewandhaus with Leipziger Symphony Orchester, Grand Hall in Moscow with Heilbronn Chamber Orchestra, in Rome and Vatikan. The DUO have appeared in USA (Detroit, New York, Chicago), in Hong Kong, Slovenia, Italy, Russia, Germany, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Croatia, Austria, and South Africa with performances across Europe in international music festivals. Daniel and Alexander Gurfinkel preserve a rich family tradition of three generations. Their grandfather Arkady Gurfinkel was a well-known clarinet player, teacher, and arranger, while their father, Michael Gurfinkel, is among the leading clarinet players in Israel as principal of the Israel Symphony Orchestra and Israeli Opera, as well as in chamber music both in Israel and abroad. Among forthcoming engagements of Duo Gurfinkel there are a series of concerts in Germany with Brandenburger Symphoniker Orchestra, concerts across Russia with La Primavera String Orchestra and Voronezh Academic Symphonic Orchestra, and in Estonia with Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta.

Jacopo Giacopuzzi

Pianist/Italy-USA

 As a soloist as chamber musician, Jacopo has performed at major festival and venues throughout the U.S. and Europe. He is a winner of 14 international competitions including the International Piano Competition San Dona` di Piave, Ibiza International Piano Competition, International Liszt Competition in Los Angeles, and the Beverly Hills National Auditions. Jacopo has taught at the Conservatory of Verona E.F. Dall’Abaco, worked as collaborative pianist at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels, has been performing regularly in collaborative duos with international instrumentalists, and, most recently, formed Solo Due with pianist Konstantin Soukhovetski with a premiere at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center Protostar Series in the fall of 2021.  Born in Italy to a family of pianists, Jacopo studied in Weimar at the Liszt Hochschule, earned his first Master`s Degree in Piano performance, Master`s in Sound Design (with Mauro Graziani) at the Conservatory of Verona in 2012, obtained his Diploma at the International Piano Academy of Imola Incontri col Maestro with Leonid Margarius, and completed his studies in Piano Performance from University of Southern California (2016) with Kevin Fitz-Gerald. After attending the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Jacopo found himself embraced by this loving community and makes Santa Barbara his home, surfing at sunrise before heading to his piano. Verona is still his home as he continues his international career. His most recent musical engagements take him every year to Harmos Festival in Portugal, iPalpiti festival in Los Angeles, Pianofest in the Hamptons and at the Maui Chamber Music Festival in Hawaii. He  has  been  invited  to  serve  on  competition  juries  and  to  give  presentations, masterclasses and concerts throughout the world.  Jacopo was selected as an iPalpiti artist for the 2016 iPalpiti Festival of international laureates in Los Angeles and since, has been an active member as a musician as well as great web and graphic design staff.  He is also a talented photographer and film maker.