Description
Coming to the public attention with his "fantastic display of a virtuoso technique that few in the world could attempt to match" (Piano World Forum), "a magnificent interpreter" (Le Figaro) Jozef Kapustka was born in Poland in 1969 and began his musical studies at the age of 3. Meeting Sviatoslav Richter shortly thereafter has set his vocation eversince. Upon graduating from the New York Juilliard School in 1992 with a straight A record (holding Olga Samaroff Stokowski Prize in Piano, Barbara Piasecka Johnson Foundation Scholarship (Princeton), The Kosciuszko Foundation Scholarship (New York);where he studied piano with Jerome Lowenthal, chamber music with Joseph Fuchs, music history,literature and materials with Michael White, Joel Sachs and John Mueller, keyboard studies and improvisation with Baruch Arnon) he has completed a Postgraduate Advanced Studies diploma specialising in piano performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London (piano with Martin Roscoe, musicology with Amanda Glauert), having worked subsequently with Dmitri Baskirov in Madrid and Vera Gornostaeva in Moscow .
Very early Kapustka started to appear in some of the world class premises such as New York Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Juilliard-IBM Concert series, Carnegie Hall ( Weill Hall "magical,amazing experience" as seen in "The New York Times"), Abravanel Hall ( now Hahn Hall) in Santa Barbara, California (Music Academy of the West Summer Festival), Salle Cortot and Le Ranelagh theater in Paris, United Nations on invitation from the Russian Federation permanent mission and has been featured on Voice of America International and New York classical radio WQXR live radio broadcasts ( "one of the most interesting radio programmings on the air"-New York Village Voice). Furthermore he has been featured on France Musique Classique and Europe1 broadcasts. A winner of 1991 New York Artists International Competition (chamber music section) he has later performed in almost every European country including the Russian Federation ; United States, South America and the near East, as seen in the press: ("what a talent! a true juke-box! ask the piece,he plays it"- Depeche du midi, "close to delirious" - Figaro, "great pianist keen on introspection, obsessed technician" - B.Hauptmann in Nurnberger Zeitung, " a particularly beautiful concert" - Christine Berbudeau for Radio France International ), "...a high voltage stuntman,inspired and talentuous" ,"highly entertaining playing" 20 minutes Europe,"..magnificent, extraordinary talent"- Virginie Lemoine with Olivier Bellamy on France's Musique Classique radio.
A highly respected American critic and writer, David Dubal ("Remembering Horowitz") has once called Kapustka a " great pianist who loves his art", leading American authority on Liszt playing Jerome Lowenthal "an excellent and very interesting artist" , Josef Raieff ( last pupil of Alexander Siloti who on his turn was Liszt student) " a man with million dollar hands", pianists Gyorgy Sandor and Oxana Yablonskaya respectively " true musical talent of an extraordinary potential " and " a very exciting and fully committed individual" . Valentine Smith of The Stratford Herald has hailed his "masterful rendering [of the Liszt piano concerto No.2 with the Leamington Sinfonia conducted by Jenny Barrie]" and his all-Chopin recital for the 2010 Chopin Year celebrations in France was a "cultural event of the year" : " a man, his piano and the magic begins" (Ouest-France) .
Nominated for the most prestigious French theater award Molière 2010 of the best musical play ("Diva of Sarcelles" written and directed by Virginie Lemoine, with Brigitte Faure, Marie Chevalot, Smail Mekki), he was also featured in Des Hamilton (award winning casting director for Lars von Trier "Melancholy","Nymphomaniac" and Nicolas Winding Refn "Valhalla Rising") music documentary project.
In 2010 Jozef Kapustka has released a critically acclaimed "P.I.Tchaikovski : Romances" with soprano Irina Tiviane for Scythe Studio, Kiev ;( ...exquisite piano playing , a voice of infinite refinement, timelessly beautiful... as recommended by Chronique Musicale, France) and "Jozef Kapustka and the Orquestra de Cordas da Grota conducted by Ubiratan Rodrigues play Bach live in Rio de Janeiro" (Otherwise Records, London) . In 2012 in collaboration with tonbak and santur virtuosos Pedram Khavarzamini and Bashir Faramarzi he has recorded his own oriental-style improvisations (... outstanding talent and excellent quality recording, William Penn , University of Arizona Recordings; sole distributor: DUX Records,Poland/Naxos America/Naxos Japan). A keen champion of contemporary production he has played the music of Victor Yellin ( 1990 Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York), Anton Rovner (The Juilliard School, New York) Karol Szymanowski, Morton Feldman, Galina Ustvolskaya (Sorbonne 4 Amphitheatre in Paris,France) and has been a soloist with the Three Valleys Symphony Orchestra (France) conducted by Jean Michel Henry in Jean Thierry Boisseau "Concertino for Piano and Trumpet" (solo trumpet: Richard Blanchet).
In the summer 2015 he has premiered in London a new cycle of his own piano improvisations ( Josephine Gambade on Culturetrip : " the 10 best upcoming classical concerts in London" ), presented later during performances in Paris and Berlin.
As a collaborative pianist Jozef Kapustka has worked with opera singers Mzia Nioradze, Irina Tchistiakova, Mikhail Petrenko, Dmitry Korchak, Sergei Stilmachenko, Vera (piano) and Sergei (trumpet) Nakariakov, David Galoustov (violin) and others. Passionnate traveller he has played in such far away places like Tahiti, Hawaii, Spitsbergen, ancient Roman theaters in Col. Qaddafi's Libya...
