Stephanie Appelhans

violinist/Germany

A protégé and a student of iPalpiti Concertmaster Peter Rainer since 2015 at the University of the Arts Berlin, Stephanie is a First Prize winner of numerous competitions, including the International Spohr Competition in 2009.  As a soloist with orchestras she performed major concertos such as Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, and Barber throughout Germany and Scotland and, in 2014, performed Martinu’s Sinfonia Concertante under Sir Neville Marriner in a live broadcast on “Radio Suisse Romande.”  Prestigious scholarships such as Erasmus, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and German Academic Exchange Service enabled Stephanie to study at famous institutions such as the “Hanns Eisler” Music School Berlin and the Guildhall School of Music in London.  She also took violin master classes with Vesselin Paraschkevov, Petru Munteanu, Heime Müller, Pierre Amoyal, Boris Brovtzyn and performed chamber music with Pavel Gililov, Kolja Blacher, Fabio Bidini, and the Belcea Quartet.  A concertmaster of Westfälische Kammerphilharmonie Gütersloh since 2012, Stephanie’s orchestral leadership experience include concertmaster and soloist of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie (2014-15 seasons), Radio Orchestra Frankfurt, German Radio Orchestra Berlin, concertmaster of the festival orchestra ORFF-Festspiele Andechs, and most recent 2015-2017 seasons with Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Kammerakademie Potsdam.  Stephanie’s community activities include volunteering in Guatemala, teaching a youth orchestra of indigenous kids and, since 2016, singing weekly with refugee kids.

Peter Mezo

Violinist/Hungary

Hungarian violinist Peter Mezo was born in 1982 to a family with a rich musical tradition.  Peter Mezo holds a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, from Madrid and Basel University of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Pécs in Hungary.  He has been the first violinist of the Accord Quartet and the concertmaster of the Danubia Symphonic Orchestra since 2014.  In 2017, he also joined the Danish National Chamber Orchestra. Since 2012, Mr. Mezo has been a professor of chamber music and string quartet at his alma mater, the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and also has given master classes in the USA (Rutgers University, Youngstown State University), Denmark (Royal Academy Copenhagen), and in Slovenia (Music Academy). Peter Mezo’s musical career took a turn when, in 2001, he co-founded the Accord Quartet.  They gained recognition by winning First Prize at the Leó Weiner Hungarian National Chamber Music Competition in 2003 and First Prize at the International Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, Austria in 2009.  Numerous awards include the Thomastik-Infeld, the Kodály, and the Bartók Award from the Vienna-Budapest-Prague International Summer Music Academy; the Hungarian National Contemporary Music Artisjus Award in 2006, and the Junior Prima Award of Hungary in 2010.  The quartet took master classes with the greatest representatives of the medium such as members of the Amadeus Quartet, Alban Berg Quartet, Janacek Quartet, Smetana Quartet, Mozaik Quartet, Hagen Quartet and Bartók Quartet. Peter plays on an Italian instrument of the Republic of Hungary.

Victor de Almeida

Violist/Australia-Brazil-USA

A double prize winner of the 2008 Primrose International Viola Competition, violist Victor de Almeida makes his home in Los Angeles and is in demand throughout Southern California as a soloist, Principal Violist and chamber musician, as well as scoring in Film and Television.  As a winner of the 2010 and 2011 Beverly Hills National Auditions, he was featured in numerous concert series throughout Southern California.  Mr. Almeida has held positions as Principal Violist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Associate Principal Violist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.  While studying at the Peabody Institute of Music of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, he was Principal Violist of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and a regular substitute violist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Born into a Brazilian and American musical family in Adelaide, Australia – where his parents were the Principal and Assistant Principal Cellists of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra - he began playing violin and piano at the age of three.  Victor arranges virtuosic transcriptions for the viola, most recently Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” for Viola and Piano.  He is also an avid collector of viola music and takes pride in performing and recording those rare selections.  Victor was selected to join iPalpiti in 2012, and has been a member of the iPalpiti orchestra of international laureates and featured as a soloist and in chamber ensembles in 2013 and 2017 during its annual international laureates festivals in Los Angeles.

Francisco Vila

Cellist/Ecuador

“Vila brought out the fervour and vitality…consummate projection.”  — The Strad Magazine, April 2012 Francisco Vila began playing the cello at age eight and had his solo debut with an orchestra at age fourteen.  Having performed in concerts throughout Europe, North and South America, Vila has been described by cellist Janos Starker as “an exceptionally talented young cellist and musician. He is heading for an important place in the world of music.”  As a chamber musician, Francisco has collaborated with Nobuko Imai, Cho-Liang Lin, Gary Hoffman, Martin Chalifour, and others.  As a soloist, he has appeared with the Houston Symphony, Liège Royal Philharmonic, the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, Aalborg Symphonyorkester, the Bolivia Clásica Youth Orchestra, Mexico National Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony and all principal orchestras in his native Ecuador.  He has been a participant in Ravinia Steans Institute festival in Chicago, guest artist at the Beaumaris, Santander and the Stavelot Music Festival, among others.  As an iPalpiti artist since 2009, he has performed at Zankel Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in a radio broadcasted recitals, Mozarteum Salzburg, and on international tours. Francisco was granted Presidential Scholarship to the Boston Conservatory for his Bachelor studies, after which he received a Performance Diploma from Indiana University where his teachers were Janos Starker, Sharon Robinson and Menahem Pressler. In 2012, he was selected to the inaugural cello class at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, where he earned an Artist Diploma under the famed cellist Gary Hoffman. In the same year he became the second-prize laureate of the Sphinx Competition in Detroit Michigan. Francisco views teaching as an important aspect of music-making. In 2015 he has founded the International Music Festival of Esmeraldas (Ecuador), his hometown – supported by a grant from iPalpiti Artists International - social project of free master classes to young talents from Central and South America.  In its inaugural 2015 season, iPalpiti alumnus violinist Daniel Austrich was among its international guest artists. For his work, Francisco also received grants from the US State Department, Tarisio Trust, and the Sphinx MPower Grant. Francisco serves on the faculty at the Longy School of Music at Bard College, MA. He was a Principal Cellist of the Aalborg Symphoiorkester in Denmark – in a happy collaborations with concertmaster Vesselin Demirev and Principal 2nd Alexander Dzyubinsky, both iPalpiti alumni.  Francisco performs on a fine 1790 Vincenzo Panormo cello, on generous life-term loan from the “Karl McNutt Family Trust”, as well as the “ex-Janos Starker” E. Tubbs bow.

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.