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.

Takamori Arai

Violinist/Japan

Winner of numerous prizes in international and national competitions, Takamori has been performing in concerts and music festivals in Japan and Europe. This May 2022 he gave a debut solo performance at Weill Carnegie Hall in New York as a First Prize winner of IBLA Grand Award Japan international violin competition, with comments “…his tone production reminds the sound of the great vinyl records which are from violinists in the last century such as Oistrakh.”

 A graduate of The Tokyo University of Arts with the top score and the Acanthus Music Prize for the outstanding academic achievements, Takamori was selected numerous times as a soloist with the university symphony orchestras, and played under baton of such conductors as Professors Kazuki Sawa, Douglas Bostock, and Ken Takaseki. In 2014 he was selected as a soloist of the Musical Activity Supporting System by YAMAHA Music Foundation and performed throughout Europe. As participant in international  music festivals he performed at Mozarteum Salzburg, IBLA Sicily, and in iPalpiti festival of international laureates in Los Angeles.  During his college years he studied with professors Takashi Shimizu, Sungsic Yang, Eszter Perenyi, and Pierre Amoyal.  He studied with Professor Eduard Schmieder in his international class Artist Diploma program at the Boyer College of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia.  At present, he is an associate violinist at Musashino University of Music in Tokyo.

This is his third season with iPalpiti.

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

Laszlo Mezo

Cellist/Hungary-USA

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Laszlo gained national recognition as one of the top musicians of his generation when he won First Prize in the “Kertész Ottó Memorial Competition” at 18. Since then, he has won numerous other competitions which have brought him international recognition including the Fourth Prize in the “Antonio Janigro Junior International Competition” in 1998, Second Prize in the “International Dávid Popper Competition for Young Cellists” in 2000, the Special Prize in the “International Dávid Popper Cello Competition” in 2004, and First Prize in the “Ima Hogg International Competition” in 2008. Mr. Mezo has forged a career as a soloist, recitalist, master teacher, and chamber musician. He has performed extensively in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. Mr. Mezo is currently an adjunct professor in cello at Chapman University and Saddleback College in California, and he was Assistant Teacher at the University of Southern California between 2007 and 2008. Laszlo has also conducted master classes in Japan, Brazil, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, and the United States.  As a soloist with orchestras, Laszlo has performed with maestros Ádám Fischer, Thomas Wilkins, Grant Llewellyn, Zsolt Hamar. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated in recitals with pianists Kevin Fitz-Gerald, Steven Vanhauwaert, Gábor Farkas, Márta Gulyás, Piotr Folkert, and Balázs Szokolay, violinist Kristóf Baráti, cellist Philipp Muller, and the Bartók Quartet. He has also played under the direction of Zubin Mehta and Kent Nagano as a member of the Bayerische Staatsorchester in Munich, Germany. Laszlo holds two master's degrees from the Liszt Ferenc University of Music in Budapest and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, and also graduated from the class of Ralph Kirshbaum at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.  Currently residing in Los Angeles, California, Laszlo is a member of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, is a sought after soloist, and an active studio musician in Hollywood. He has played in many film scores, some most updated blockbusters include Ice Age, Life of Pi, Wolverine, and The Lone Ranger. His first CD recording of Dávid Popper’s works, on the Hungaroton label, includes several first time ever recordings of the master’s cello works. He recently finished his second CD, “Made in Paris,” with romantic cello pieces from the 19th century also featuring world premiere works by cellist-composer Daniel Van Goens, and pieces from the Suite Populaire Espagnole by Manuel De Falla. Laszlo joined iPalpiti first in 2008; his brother, violinist Peter Mezo, participated in iPalpiti Los Angeles & Salzburg tours in 2017,  and we are happy to welcome Laszlo again.