The film series, also titled “Dvorak’s Prophecy,” has generated an ongoing series of 50-minute “More than Music” National Public Radio documentaries, produced by Horowitz for the daily newsmagazine “1A.”

Horowitz’s ten previous books mainly deal with the history of classical music in the United States. Understanding Toscanini: How He Became an American Culture-God and Helped Create a New Audience for Old Music (1987) was named one of the year’s best books by the New York Book Critics Circle. Wagner Nights: An American History (1994) was named best-of-the-year by the Society of American Music. Both Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall (2005) and Art- ists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts (2008) made The Economist’s year’s-best-books list.

Horowitz’s forthcoming books are The Propaganda of Freedom (a study of the Cultural Cold War), The Marriage (a novel about Gustav and Alma Mahler in New York), and Not Event Past: When the Arts Mattered.

Horowitz was a New York Times music critic (1976–80) before becoming executive director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. During his 1990s tenure, the BPO was reconceived as a “humanities institution,” producing thematic, cross-disciplinary festivals in collaboration with schools and museums. In 2003, Horowitz cofounded PostClassical Ensemble, an experimental chamber orchestra based in Washington, D.C.; he served as Executive Director, then Executive Producer before leaving PCE in Fall 2022.

From 2011 to 2020 he directed Music Unwound, a National Endowment for the Humanities–funded national consortium of orchestras and universities dedicated to curating the American musical past (etc)

In 1979, because of his growing discontent with the restrictions on artistic freedom under the Soviet regime, Mr. Feltsman signaled his intention to emigrate by applying for an exit visa. In response, he was immediately banned from performing in public and his recordings were suppressed. After eight years of virtual artistic exile, he was finally granted permission to leave the Soviet Union. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987, Mr. Feltsman was warmly greeted at the White House, where he performed his first recital in North America. That same year, his debut at Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on the American and international scene. Since then, Mr. Feltsman has performed with major American and European orchestras and appeared at the most prestigious concert venues and music festivals worldwide. His vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroque to the twenty-first-century.  

Mr. Feltsman expressed his lifelong devotion to the music of J.S. Bach in a cycle of concerts that presented the major clavier works of the composer and spanned four consecutive seasons (1992-1996) at the 92nd Street Y in New York. His project “Masterpieces of the Russian Underground” unfolded a panorama of Russian contemporary music through an unprecedented survey of piano and chamber works by fourteen different composers from Shostakovich to the present day and was presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in January 2003 with great success. Mr. Feltsman served as Artistic Director for this project as well as performing in most of the pieces presented during the three-concert cycle. These programs included a number of world and North American premieres and were also presented in Portland, Oregon and in Tucson, Arizona at the University of Arizona. In the fall of 2006, Mr. Feltsman performed all of Mozart’s piano sonatas in New York at the Mannes School of Music and the New School’s Tishman Auditorium on a specially built replica of an eighteenth-century Walter fortepiano. His most recent project, “Russian Experiment,” included works of lesser-known Russian composers of the first half of the twentieth century and was presented at the Aspen Music Festival in 2017.

A dedicated educator of young musicians, Mr. Feltsman holds the Distinguished Chair of Professor of Piano at the State University of New York, New Paltz, and is a member of the piano faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the International Festival-Institute, PianoSummer at New Paltz, a three-week-long intensive training program for advanced piano students that attracts major young talent from all over the world. In 2012 Vladimir and his wife Haewon established the Feltsman Piano Foundation, which helps young musicians to realize their potential and advance their careers. Since 2017 every student accepted to PianoSummer receives free tuition and housing.
Released on the Sony Classical and Nimbus labels, Mr. Feltsman’s extensive discography includes more than 60 CDs and is still growing. He has recorded all of the major clavier works of J.S. Bach, the complete Schubert sonatas, major works of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, and Brahms, concertos by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev. He has also recorded six tribute recordings dedicated to Russian composers: Tributes to Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Silvestrov, and “Forgotten Russians.”

Mr. Feltsman is the author of Piano Lessons, a book published in 2019 that presents insights drawn from a lifetime of devotion to music and addresses such vitally important topics as practicing, performing, learning, and recording. Also included in the book are highly informative and detailed liner notes written to accompany his many recordings, and a study of the Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach.

Born in Moscow in 1952, Mr. Feltsman debuted with the Moscow Philharmonic at the age of 11. In 1969, he entered the Moscow Conservatory to study piano under the guidance of Professor Jacob Flier. He also studied conducting at both the Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatories.

In 1971, Mr. Feltsman won the Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris; extensive tours throughout the former Soviet Union, Europe, and Japan followed.

In 1979, because of his growing discontent with the restrictions on artistic freedom under the Soviet regime, Mr. Feltsman signaled his intention to emigrate by applying for an exit visa. In response, he was immediately banned from performing in public and his recordings were suppressed. After eight years of virtual artistic exile, he was finally granted permission to leave the Soviet Union. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987, Mr. Feltsman was warmly greeted at the White House, where he performed his first recital in North America. That same year, his debut at Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on the American and international scene. Since then, Mr. Feltsman has performed with major American and European orchestras and appeared at the most prestigious concert venues and music festivals worldwide. His vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroque to the twenty-first-century.

Mr. Feltsman expressed his lifelong devotion to the music of J.S. Bach in a cycle of concerts that presented the major clavier works of the composer and spanned four consecutive seasons (1992-1996) at the 92nd Street Y in New York. His project “Masterpieces of the Russian Underground” unfolded a panorama of Russian contemporary music through an unprecedented survey of piano and chamber works by fourteen different composers from Shostakovich to the present day and was presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in January 2003 with great success. Mr. Feltsman served as Artistic Director for this project as well as performing in most of the pieces presented during the three-concert cycle. These programs included a number of world and North American premieres and were also presented in Portland, Oregon and in Tucson, Arizona at the University of Arizona. In the fall of 2006, Mr. Feltsman performed all of Mozart’s piano sonatas in New York at the Mannes School of Music and the New School’s Tishman Auditorium on a specially built replica of an eighteenth-century Walter fortepiano. His most recent project, “Russian Experiment,” included works of lesser-known Russian composers of the first half of the twentieth century and was presented at the Aspen Music Festival in 2017.

A dedicated educator of young musicians, Mr. Feltsman holds the Distinguished Chair of Professor of Piano at the State University of New York, New Paltz, and is a member of the piano faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the International Festival-Institute, PianoSummer at New Paltz, a three-week-long intensive training program for advanced piano students that attracts major young talent from all over the world. In 2012 Vladimir and his wife Haewon established the Feltsman Piano Foundation, which helps young musicians to realize their potential and advance their careers. Since 2017 every student accepted to PianoSummer receives free tuition and housing.
Released on the Sony Classical and Nimbus labels, Mr. Feltsman’s extensive discography includes more than 60 CDs and is still growing. He has recorded all of the major clavier works of J.S. Bach, the complete Schubert sonatas, major works of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, and Brahms, concertos by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev. He has also recorded six tribute recordings dedicated to Russian composers: Tributes to Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Silvestrov, and “Forgotten Russians.”

Mr. Feltsman is the author of Piano Lessons, a book published in 2019 that presents insights drawn from a lifetime of devotion to music and addresses such vitally important topics as practicing, performing, learning, and recording. Also included in the book are highly informative and detailed liner notes written to accompany his many recordings, and a study of the Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach.

Mr. Feltsman also studied conducting at both the Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatories.

In 1971, he won the Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris; extensive tours throughout the former Soviet Union, Europe, and Japan followed.

In 1979, because of his growing discontent with the restrictions on artistic freedom under the Soviet regime, Mr. Feltsman signaled his intention to emigrate by applying for an exit visa. In response, he was immediately banned from performing in public and his recordings were suppressed. After eight years of virtual artistic exile, he was finally granted permission to leave the Soviet Union. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987, Mr. Feltsman was warmly greeted at the White House, where he performed his first recital in North America. That same year, his debut at Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on the American and international scene. Since then, Mr. Feltsman has performed with major American and European orchestras and appeared at the most prestigious concert venues and music festivals worldwide. His vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroque to the twenty-first-century.

Mr. Feltsman expressed his lifelong devotion to the music of J.S. Bach in a cycle of concerts that presented the major clavier works of the composer and spanned four consecutive seasons (1992-1996) at the 92nd Street Y in New York. His project “Masterpieces of the Russian Underground” unfolded a panorama of Russian contemporary music through an unprecedented survey of piano and chamber works by fourteen different composers from Shostakovich to the present day and was presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in January 2003 with great success. Mr. Feltsman served as Artistic Director for this project as well as performing in most of the pieces presented during the three-concert cycle. These programs included a number of world and North American premieres and were also presented in Portland, Oregon and in Tucson, Arizona at the University of Arizona. In the fall of 2006, Mr. Feltsman performed all of Mozart’s piano sonatas in New York at the Mannes School of Music and the New School’s Tishman Auditorium on a specially built replica of an eighteenth-century Walter fortepiano. His most recent project, “Russian Experiment,” included works of lesser-known Russian composers of the first half of the twentieth century and was presented at the Aspen Music Festival in 2017.

A dedicated educator of young musicians, Mr. Feltsman holds the Distinguished Chair of Professor of Piano at the State University of New York, New Paltz, and is a member of the piano faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the International Festival-Institute, PianoSummer at New Paltz, a three-week-long intensive training program for advanced piano students that attracts major young talent from all over the world. In 2012 Vladimir and his wife Haewon established the Feltsman Piano Foundation, which helps young musicians to realize their potential and advance their careers. Since 2017 every student accepted to PianoSummer receives free tuition and housing.
Released on the Sony Classical and Nimbus labels, Mr. Feltsman’s extensive discography includes more than 60 CDs and is still growing. He has recorded all of the major clavier works of J.S. Bach, the complete Schubert sonatas, major works of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, and Brahms, concertos by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev. He has also recorded six tribute recordings dedicated to Russian composers: Tributes to Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Silvestrov, and “Forgotten Russians.”

Mr. Feltsman is the author of Piano Lessons, a book published in 2019 that presents insights drawn from a lifetime of devotion to music and addresses such vitally important topics as practicing, performing, learning, and recording. Also included in the book are highly informative and detailed liner notes written to accompany his many recordings, and a study of the Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach.

Assistant to the impresario Mario Dradi between 1992 and 1994, Ettore F. Volontieri was involved for three consecutive years in the multi-media production of “Christmas in Vienna”, an event featuring stars as Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick and Charles Aznavour. In 1995 he joined AGR, the agency of his lifetime friend Antonio Gnecchi Ruscone in Milan and started his activity as independent manager and producer, acquiring the Italian Management of the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev, as well as signing for General Management – among others – the Armenian tenor Gegam Grigorian and the young Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda and Japanese conductor Yutaka Sado, as well as pianist Alexander Toradze for local management.

In 1997 he founded the management and production company AMP (Artists Management and Productions) in Milan and until 2001 he realized significant projects as the Festival “Da Roma a San Pietroburgo” with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Festival “Le Notti Bianche a Milano” and the Festival “Pushkin a Milano” in cooperation with the Municipality of Milan, the project “Parsifal in Ravello” featuring Placido Domingo, in cooperation with RAI and RM Arts, as well as a number of projects with the Toradze Piano Studio. In also produced important tours and residencies with the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev in Italy, culminating with the presentation of the monumental production of War and peace by Prokofiev directed by Andrei Konchalovsky at Teatro alla Scala in October 2000 and the opening event of the Verdi Festival in Parma for the 100th anniversary of the death of the composer in 2001.

From 2002 he focused on the activity of artist manager, increasing the importance of his roster signing for General Management the young Daniele Rustioni in 2006. He also served as representative of the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev in Italy until the end of 2006, when he produced the “Shostakovich Festival” in collaboration with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for the centenary of the composer. In 2005 he produced the documentary “An Italian journey with Rachmaninoff” in cooperation with RAI, featuring the Toradze Piano Studio.

In 2008 he moved to Switzerland as founding member of Interarts Lausanne, where he developed and consolidated his activity of artist manager, focusing on the general management of conductors, with the only exception of his lifetime friend, pianist Alexander Toradze, who he has represented worldwide until his death in 2022. In January 2014 he incorporated his activities with Artists Management Company, founding the Conductor Division of the company and signing new conductors for General Management as Jérémie Rhorer (2017), Donato Renzetti (2018), Alevtina Ioffe (2019) and Alessandro Bonato (2020).

Between 2005 and 2022 he served as producer and later General Manager of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation, contributing to the preservation of Villa Senar as cultural heritage.

Ettore F. Volontieri is father of four children, Federico (28), Jacopo (26), Anastasia (20) and Caterina (18).

Ettore F. Volontieri started working at the age of 25 as personal assistant to the founder of the agency Old and New Montecarlo, the controversial Valentin Proczynski. Born in Milan in 1964, he studied singing and music at the Scuola Civica di Musica “Claudio Abbado” in Milan and graduated in History of Music (cum Laude) under the guidance of Prof. Sergio Martinotti at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of his native city, with a dissertation on the methods of singing in the first half of the XIX century, later published as Le regole della Canora Repubblica in 1995.

Assistant to the impresario Mario Dradi between 1992 and 1994, he was involved for three consecutive years in the multi-media production of “Christmas in Vienna”, an event featuring stars as Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick and Charles Aznavour. In 1995 he joined AGR, the agency of his lifetime friend Antonio Gnecchi Ruscone in Milan and started his activity as independent manager and producer, acquiring the Italian Management of the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev, as well as signing for General Management – among others – the Armenian tenor Gegam Grigorian and the young Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda and Japanese conductor Yutaka Sado, as well as pianist Alexander Toradze for local management.

In 1997 he founded the management and production company AMP (Artists Management and Productions) in Milan and until 2001 he realized significant projects as the Festival “Da Roma a San Pietroburgo” with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Festival “Le Notti Bianche a Milano” and the Festival “Pushkin a Milano” in cooperation with the Municipality of Milan, the project “Parsifal in Ravello” featuring Placido Domingo, in cooperation with RAI and RM Arts, as well as a number of projects with the Toradze Piano Studio. In also produced important tours and residencies with the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev in Italy, culminating with the presentation of the monumental production of War and peace by Prokofiev directed by Andrei Konchalovsky at Teatro alla Scala in October 2000 and the opening event of the Verdi Festival in Parma for the 100th anniversary of the death of the composer in 2001.

From 2002 he focused on the activity of artist manager, increasing the importance of his roster signing for General Management the young Daniele Rustioni in 2006. He also served as representative of the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev in Italy until the end of 2006, when he produced the “Shostakovich Festival” in collaboration with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for the centenary of the composer. In 2005 he produced the documentary “An Italian journey with Rachmaninoff” in cooperation with RAI, featuring the Toradze Piano Studio.

In 2008 he moved to Switzerland as founding member of Interarts Lausanne, where he developed and consolidated his activity of artist manager, focusing on the general management of conductors, with the only exception of his lifetime friend, pianist Alexander Toradze, who he has represented worldwide until his death in 2022. In January 2014 he incorporated his activities with Artists Management Company, founding the Conductor Division of the company and signing new conductors for General Management as Jérémie Rhorer (2017), Donato Renzetti (2018), Alevtina Ioffe (2019) and Alessandro Bonato (2020).

Between 2005 and 2022 he served as producer and later General Manager of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation, contributing to the preservation of Villa Senar as cultural heritage.

Ettore F. Volontieri is father of four children, Federico (28), Jacopo (26), Anastasia (20) and Caterina (18).

Ettore F. Volontieri graduated in History of Music (cum Laude) under the guidance of Prof. Sergio Martinotti at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of his native city, with a dissertation on the methods of singing in the first half of the XIX century, later published as Le regole della Canora Repubblica in 1995.

Assistant to the impresario Mario Dradi between 1992 and 1994, he was involved for three consecutive years in the multi-media production of “Christmas in Vienna”, an event featuring stars as Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick and Charles Aznavour. In 1995 he joined AGR, the agency of his lifetime friend Antonio Gnecchi Ruscone in Milan and started his activity as independent manager and producer, acquiring the Italian Management of the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev, as well as signing for General Management – among others – the Armenian tenor Gegam Grigorian and the young Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda and Japanese conductor Yutaka Sado, as well as pianist Alexander Toradze for local management.

In 1997 he founded the management and production company AMP (Artists Management and Productions) in Milan and until 2001 he realized significant projects as the Festival “Da Roma a San Pietroburgo” with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Festival “Le Notti Bianche a Milano” and the Festival “Pushkin a Milano” in cooperation with the Municipality of Milan, the project “Parsifal in Ravello” featuring Placido Domingo, in cooperation with RAI and RM Arts, as well as a number of projects with the Toradze Piano Studio. In also produced important tours and residencies with the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev in Italy, culminating with the presentation of the monumental production of War and peace by Prokofiev directed by Andrei Konchalovsky at Teatro alla Scala in October 2000 and the opening event of the Verdi Festival in Parma for the 100th anniversary of the death of the composer in 2001.

From 2002 he focused on the activity of artist manager, increasing the importance of his roster signing for General Management the young Daniele Rustioni in 2006. He also served as representative of the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev in Italy until the end of 2006, when he produced the “Shostakovich Festival” in collaboration with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for the centenary of the composer. In 2005 he produced the documentary “An Italian journey with Rachmaninoff” in cooperation with RAI, featuring the Toradze Piano Studio.

In 2008 he moved to Switzerland as founding member of Interarts Lausanne, where he developed and consolidated his activity of artist manager, focusing on the general management of conductors, with the only exception of his lifetime friend, pianist Alexander Toradze, who he has represented worldwide until his death in 2022. In January 2014 he incorporated his activities with Artists Management Company, founding the Conductor Division of the company and signing new conductors for General Management as Jérémie Rhorer (2017), Donato Renzetti (2018), Alevtina Ioffe (2019) and Alessandro Bonato (2020).

Between 2005 and 2022 he served as producer and later General Manager of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation, contributing to the preservation of Villa Senar as cultural heritage.

Ettore F. Volontieri is father of four children, Federico (28), Jacopo (26), Anastasia (20) and Caterina (18).