Our Experienced Pianists
Having experience as collaborative pianists with renowned solo artists or as an accompaniment for famous symphonies, the collaborative pianists at the Stulberg International String Competition will help each competitor perform to the best of their abilities. Always focused on delivering the best collaborative performance possible for the young artists competing, our pianists provide the best support to every young artist in our competition. To learn more about our collaborative pianists, see a short bio of each below.
Alicja Basinska
Is a Polish-born collaborative pianist, chamber musician and orchestral keyboardist. Ms. Basinska is a Collaborative Piano Coordinator and staff pianist at the Cleveland Institute of Music as well as a Lecturer at Case Western Reserve University. As an orchestral player, she has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Basinska is also an Assistant Director and a score reader for the Cleveland Orchestra video production team at Severance Hall and Blossom Music Center. Every year, the team produces numerous concerts, streamed live on multiple platforms including Adella and European-based Medicitv.
Ms. Basinska earned her bachelor’s degree from McGill University in Montreal and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Elizabeth DeMio
Elizabeth DeMio is well-known as a collaborative pianist, recitalist and soloist in the Cleveland area. Besides appearing in over 100 concerts annually with local aspiring musicians, she performs frequently with renowned soloists such as Triple Grammy winner Zuill Bailey, Massimo La Rosa, John Mack, Andrew Sords, Umberto Clerici, the Cavani Quartet and has appeared in tours and given master classes throughout the U.S., Korea, Mexico and the Carribean.
In 2008 she was the pianist for two finalists in the Naumberg International Cello Competition, resulting in her Carnegie Hall debut and subsequent U.S. tour with first place winner David Requiro. She performs often as a soloist with the Trinity Cathedral Chamber Orchestra, having performed twenty Mozart concerti and the five Beethoven concerti, among many others. Donald Rosenberg of the Cleveland Plain Dealer called her “a superb interpreter of Mozart” when she appeared as soloist with the Blue Water Chamber Orchestra in 2012. She is a member of the Pantheon Ensemble which has performed for CityMusic Cleveland, bringing classical concerts to underserved areas of Northeast Ohio. Also, a frequent performer for El Paso Pro Musica and Northwest Bach Festival, she recently performed the complete sonatas by Beethoven for cello and piano with cellist Zuill Bailey. She has appeared as soloist for the Orquesta Sinfonica de Veracruz and the Orquesta de la UNAM in Mexico.
As a recording artist she can be heard on Crystal, Yaffe and Azica labels, most recently on the debut album “Cantando” and subsequent album “Sempre Espressivo” with virtuoso trombonist Massimo La Rosa, produced by multiple Grammy winner Thomas Moore. Other recent projects have been a debut album with cellist David Requiro and an album with solo and duo works by Bernard Garfield with Cleveland Orchestra principal bassoonist John Clouser. DeMio is on the collaborative piano faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. She is a collaborative pianist for the Stulberg International String Competition, the Sitka Cello Seminar and the John Mack Oboe Camp. She holds degrees from CIM and the University of Michigan. Her teachers have included Vitya Vronsky and Theodore Lettvin.
