65th Chopin Festival – Opening Concert

Born in Riga, Latvia, Dina Yoffe began her musical education in her hometown and continued her studies at the Central School in Moscow. As a master pupil of Vera Gornostaeva, one of the most important representatives of the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus school, she also studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Dina Yoffe’s concert activity has taken her to every continent. She has performed with such distinguished orchestras as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, the NHK Japan Radio Orchestra under Neville Marriner, and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Valery Gergiev.

In addition to her extensive solo and orchestral career, Dina Yoffe can also be heard as an active chamber musician with renowned musicians such as G. Kremer, Y. Bashmet, V. Repin and M. Kaiman. She has also taught at many masterclasses and her years of experience have made her an honorary member of the Japan Piano Teachers Association, a guest professor at the Summit Music Festival in New York and at the Yamaha Masterclasses in Paris. She is a sought-after jury member at international piano competitions such as the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, the Cleveland Competition in the USA and the Hamamatsu Competition in Japan.

Vito Clemente is the winner of the Franco Capuana International Competition for Conductors of European Community Orchestras. At the Conservatory of Niccolò Piccinni in Bari, he graduated with honours in orchestral conducting, composition, piano, chamber singing, band instrumentation and choral conducting, and later honed his skills at the Chigiana Academy. He is the artistic and music director of Traetta Opera Festival, AMIFest, Japan Apulia Festival in Tokyo, Tokyo Academy of Music and Idea Press Musical Editions USA in New York. He serves as artistic advisor to the Tokyo Musica Association, and has been music director of the opera season at Teatro della Fortuna in Fano, the Lucana Symphony Orchestra, and guest conductor of companies such as Orchestra Rossini, Tokyo Chamber Opera Theatre, and OperaSai in Tokyo, In Italy he has conducted orchestras such as Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Arena di Verona, Teatro Petruzzelli, Filarmonica Toscanini, Teatro Marrucino di Chieti, Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina, Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, Pro Arte, Milano Classica and others. Since 2004 he has been conducting in the most prestigious Japanese theatres. He has recorded more than twenty CDs and DVDs for Dynamic, Bongiovanni, Tactus and DigressioneMusic and has approximately 150 world premieres to his credit. He has made television and radio recordings for Rai1, Rai3, Raisat, Canale5, Rete4. He conducts international masterclasses for orchestra conductors and singers. He is also professor of harmony theory and analysis at the Niccolò Piccinni Conservatory in Bari. He is currently the artistic director of the I.C.O. Sinfonica della Città Metropolitana di Bari.