michael.tsalka@lillaakademien.se

Keyboard performer Michael Tsalka has won numerous prizes and awards in Rome, Bayreuth, Bonn, Paris, Genoa, Calabria, Sardinia, Tel-Aviv, Chicago, Minneapolis, Berlin, Mexico City, and Philadelphia. A versatile musician, he performs solo and chamber music repertoire from the Early Baroque to Contemporary on the modern piano, harpsichord, fortepiano, clavichord, square piano and chamber organ.  He often plays chamber music with keyboard performer Joyce Lindorff, violinist Hugo Ticciati, cellist Dmitry Eremin, harpsichordist Sonia Lee, and pianist Maria Teresa Frenk.  Dr. Tsalka has performed throughout Europe, the U.S.A., Canada, Israel, Asia, and Latin America. Recent engagements include the Chicago radio, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Filharmonika Orchestra in Manila, the Hermitage Festival in St. Petersburg, Konzerthuset in Stockholm, the Early Keyboard Series in Buenos Aires, the Cervantino Festival in Mexico, and Saint-Denis Festival in Paris.

Engagements for 2012 include tours in Asia, New Zealand, and Europe, and a recording at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Tsalka was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel.  After obtaining a bachelor’s degree from Tel-Aviv University, he continued studies in Germany and Italy.  In 2001, he received a diploma from the Scuola Superiore Internazionale del Trio di Trieste. From 2002 to 2008, he studied at Temple University, Philadelphia, fortepiano and chamber music with Lambert Orkis, piano with Harvey Wedeen, and clavichord, harpsichord, and chamber organ with Joyce Lindorff. Tsalka holds three degrees from that institution: a master’s degree in chamber music/accompanying, a master’s degree in harpsichord performance and a doctorate in piano performance.

Dr. Tsalka often presents master-classes and lectures around the world, and has been invited to judge at music competitions including the Angélica Morales Piano Competition (México City, 2009), the International Duo Competition (Stockholm, 2010), and the Amsterdam Square Piano Competition (Amsterdam, 2011).  He formerly taught at Temple University and at the National Center for the Arts in Mexico City. Tsalka is recording D. G. Türk’s 48 keyboard sonatas for NAXOS, and working on a critical edition of these works for Artaria Editions in New Zealand. Three of his articles have appeared in specialized early music journals in the U.S.A, Taiwan, and Italy. Russian, Israeli, German, Italian, Argentinean, Swedish, and Mexican composers have dedicated pieces to Michael Tsalka. He is on the board of directors of SEHKS and MHKS, U.S.A. Tsalka was the artistic director of a concert cycle dedicated to J. S. Bach, presented in Beijing, Qingdao, and Wuhan, March-December, 2011. For further details, please see: www.michaeltsalka.com