BIOGRAPHY

Antoinette Van Zabner was born in Austria, raised in the United States and began her musical studies at the age of four; her childhood was formed by her prodigious talent as shown by prizes in numerous competitions and public performances as well as rewarded by a scholarship to study piano with Jean and Robert Casadesus and harmony with Nadia Boulanger in Fontainebleau, France. At Vassar College, she was named Presser Scholar for her assiduous work in pursuit of excellence in the field of music; moving on to the Yale School of Music, she received her master’s degrees in Music and Musical Arts, winning, among other awards for outstanding performance, a Fulbright Grant for piano study at the Hochschule für Musik (now the University of Music and Performing Arts) in Vienna, Austria, where she studied with Dieter Weber and Hans Graf and earned her Diploma in piano performance. Master classes with such distinguished pianists as Byron Janis, Gina Bachauer and Claude Frank were rounded out by studies with Philippe Entrement and Gaby Casadesus at the Ravel Academy in St. Jean de Luz where she performed with the Toulouse Orchestra under the direction of Michel Plasson.
Miss Van Zabner’s well-received American debut at the Pan American Union, Washington, D.C., was followed by her debuts in London’s Wigmore Hall and the Konzerthaus in Vienna. She has appeared in the Vienna Summer Music Festival, the Vienna International Festival, in the Festival Klangbogen, the Norfolk Music Festival in Connecticut, the Vienna Musikverein and with her piano duo in the Konzerthaus, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing and the Frutillar Festival in Frutillar, Chile.
Miss Van Zabner has toured with numerous leading orchestras and performed throughout Europe, Japan, Chile, the United States, South America and China where she and her duo partner opened the summer Cultural Olympics 2008.
Master classes and solo and chamber music concerts at Brown University, Converse College, Furman University, Emory University (where she was Artist in Residence), St. John’s College, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Gifted in the Arts, Conservatorio Giuseppe Tartini di Trieste, Italy, Conservatorio di Jacopo Tomadini in Udine, Italy, Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella in Naples, Italy, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy, Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Italy, Conservatorio Superior Granada, Spain, the Toho College of Music in Tokyo, Japan, and at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing have propelled Miss Van Zabner’s popularity as a teacher and performer. She has been a full professor of piano and has been made Emeritus at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.
As an accompanist, she has worked with renowned artists including Angelika Kirschlager, Birgid Steinberger, Norbert Ernst, Georg Lehner, Nigel Rogers, Patricia Wise, Peter Matzka, Andreas Stöhr, the Istropolis Quintett, the Amadeus Ensemble, and the Koehne Quartett.
Miss Van Zabner works closely with the Austrian Organisation of Contemporary Composers for which she has premiered countless works for the National Austrian Broadcasting-Station ORF.
Her recordings include collaboration with members of the Munich Philharmonic. The Austrian label Gramola produced her solo CD »Bridges to Beyond« – a recording of exquisite lesser-known impressionist piano works which present the artist as a specialist for sensitive interpretation and soulful sound quality. Her two duo CDs »Profiles« and »Tales from Vienna« have also received rave reviews.
She and her university colleague and piano duo partner Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth co-authored the international best-sellers »Piano Fitness« and »Piano Fitness with Etudes« (Universal Edition), and »TWOgether« (Breitkopf und Haertel) – publications which have invigorated the traditional pedagogical literature scene and which have already become »classics« in modern teaching literature. She has been a long-term member of the Austrian Fulbright Commission, a founding member of the Fulbright Round Table for women and president of the Yale Club of Austria. In addition to her many honors, Antoinette Van Zabner is a recipient of the Ian Mininberg Award – the highest award of distinction for alumni of the Yale School of Music.