Diego Caetano

Piano/Artistic Director

Brazilian pianist Diego Caetano was considered by the Italian newspaper La Stampa "a gifted pianist with a brilliant technique and musicality." He has been performing widely as soloist and chamber musician throughout the USA, Brazil, Chile, Europe, Asia, and Africa, including performances at New York's Carnegie Hall, Yokohama's Philia Hall, Lisbon's Palácio da Foz, Rio de Janeiro's Sala Cecília Meireles, and London's Royal Albert Hall.
He has worked with conductors such as Michael Palmer, Paul Hostetter, Neil Thomson, Rodrigo de Carvalho, Guilherme Bernstein, Joaquim Jayme, Daniel Guedes, and others. He has been featured in recitals and concerto appearances at the Grand Teton Music Festival, Louisiana International Piano Series, Durango's Conservatory Music of the Mountains, Bangkok's Asia Pacific Saxophone Academy, and Brasília's International Music Festival. An advocate for contemporary music, he has premiered works by composers Robert Spillman, Anne Guzzo, Marlos Nobre, Roger Goeb, and Guilherme Bernstein.
Dr. Caetano received the top prizes in more than fifty national and international piano competitions, including Bonn Prize International Music Competition (2020), Bucharest Pro Piano International Piano Competition (2018), London's Grand Prix Virtuoso (2016), Carnegie Hall Debut International Concerto Competition (2014), MTNA Young Artist - Steinway & Sons (2011), "Spartacco Rossi" Piano Competition (2010), "Arnaldo Estrella" Piano Competition (2008), and many more. He has also won special awards including Best Interpreter of Brazilian Composers, Best Interpreter of Spanish Composers, and Prix d'Excellence in Performance.
Dr. Caetano graduated with a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a Master of Music degree from the University of Wyoming, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Universidade Federal de Goiás (Brazil).
Diego Caetano maintains an active schedule as an educator. He is the co-founder and the Director of Keyboard Studies at Ávila International Music Festival in Ávila (Spain).
Dr. Caetano is an Assistant Professor of Piano at Sam Houston State University, and a Shigeru Kawai Artist.

Theresa Bogard

Piano

American pianist, Theresa Bogard, is a dynamic, versatile performer dedicated to expanding the canon of traditional piano repertoire. Her early career focused on performances of music by women composers, and she continues to include works by other lesser known composers in her varied programs. As a recipient of a coveted Fulbright grant, Bogard was able to explore her interest in historical performance practice and fortepiano studying at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague in the Netherlands. That same year she was a top-prize winner in the International Mozart Fortepiano Competition in Bruges, Belgium. A world traveler with a passion for other cultures, Bogard has performed on five continents in Belgium, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and throughout the United States. Her extensive discography includes a wide variety of recordings ranging from solo piano to chamber music collaborations, from music of living composers to her specialty in fortepiano and historical performance practice. She has served on the faculty of the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy and the Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival in Germany and has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and at the Ravinia Steans Institute with cellist Misha Quint. Since her first concert tour in Brazil in 2007, she has become obsessed with the music of Brazilian composers. Returning to Brazil whenever possible, she has given masterclasses and performances at universities in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Florianopolis, Goiânia and Porto Alegre. In 2022, Bogard spent four months in Brazil performing chamber music in São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Goiânia, Ituiutaba and Campinas and recording Brazilian duos for flute and piano with flutist, Sara Lima.

Internationally known as a pedagogue, she has been honored with numerous teaching awards. She attracts students from around the world as professor of piano at the University of Wyoming, where she also served as chair of the music department from 2010 to 2016. In 2008, she was chosen as the Wyoming Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation. Her students have distinguished themselves in numerous piano competitions and been accepted into the top graduate and undergraduate programs in the country including: The Julliard School, Eastman School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music and Peabody Conservatory of Music among others. She has also served as an adjudicator at numerous regional, national and international piano competitions. Dr. Bogard is a Steinway Artist.

Lorenzo Meseguer

Cello

Professor of cello and Artistic Director at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de
Castilla y León in Salamanca, Lorenzo Meseguer combines his teaching activity with his
performing career. He has been member of the prestigious City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra and currently performs as member at the Balthasar Neumann
Ensemble.
Born in Murcia, he earned a place at the city’s conservatory before continuing his
studies at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música in Madrid, Mozarteum University
Salzburg and Royal Academy of Music in London, achieving the highest honours on
each occasion. He has won prizes in more than a dozen national and international
competitions, including the Liezen International Cello Competition (Austria) and first
prize and Don Juan de Borbón Foundation special prize at the V Florián de Ocampo
National Cello Competition (Spain).
Having made his debut as a soloist at the age of 12, he has been expanding his career
ever since. He opened the 2011-12 season at the Auditorio de Murcia, performing
Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de
Murcia, with whom he more recently performed the Dvořák Cello Concerto, again to
great acclaim from audience and critics alike. He has recorded works by Haydn, C.P.E.
Bach and Saint-Saëns, as well as the concertos of Elgar and Lalo, for Radio Nacional de
España. Meseguer is a founding member of the Cuarteto Seikilos, which was awarded
the 2021 Festclásica Emerging Ensemble prize. This gives the quartet the opportunity
to perform at Spain’s leading music festivals.
The cellist’s interest in chamber music has led him to train with Wolfgang Redik
(Vienna Piano Trio), Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartett), the Brentano Quartet, Emerson
Quartet, Minetti Quartett and Trio di Parma, and at Montreal’s McGill University. He
has also performed with artists including Nicolas Altstaedt, Kolja Blacher, Guy
Braunstein, Gordan Nikolitch, Sir Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Redik, Elisabeth Scholl,
Arabella Steinbacher, and the Scharoun Ensemble Berliner Philharmoniker. Lorenzo
Meseguer plays a Richard Duke cello (London, 1770).

Lana Kuščer

Flute

Lana Kuščer performed as concerto soloist in Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and Houston’s Jones Hall. She has given recitals throughout Europe, United States and Asia, including performances at London’s Houses of Parliament and Lizbon’s Palácio Foz. She performed Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto at the Sarasota Music Festival, and was a featured artist at Festival ARTIS, Imago Sloveniae, London August Music Festival, Shanghai Conservatory Jazz Music Season, and as contemporary chamber musician at Opus XXI Festival in France and Germany.

Kuščer is the Flute Professor at Sam Houston State University and a member of Richardson Symphony Orchestra, with past positions including Orchester Jakobsplatz München, Classical Concert Chamber Orchestra, and collaborations with English National Opera. Prizes include Elise Meyer Competition (Germany), Euritmia (Italy), TEMSIG (Slovenia), UNT Concerto Competition, and the National Presser Foundation Music Award (USA).

Kuščer is an Honors graduate of Royal College of Music London (BM), Hochschule für Musikund Theater Hamburg (MM), Royal Danish Academy of Music (MM exchange), and holds a Doctorate degree from the University of North Texas, where she was a Toulouse Fellowship Scholar.

Bernardo Santos

Piano

Portuguese pianist Bernardo Santos has been performing widely as a recitalist and
chamber musician, with performances ranging over more than twenty countries in
venues such as the Casa da Música, Convento de São Francisco in Portugal,
Palau de la Música Catalana and Teatro Liceo in Spain, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf,
National Concert Hall in Dublin, Fairfield Halls in London, Sala São Paulo, Sala
Cecília Meireles, Teatro Amazonas and Palácio das Artes in Brazil, Sala Sudasiri
Sobha in Thailand, Teatro Degollado in Mexico, among many others, having been
invited to festivals all over Europe, South America and Asia. Several of his concerts
were recorded by Portuguese classical radio Antena 2 and his recordings have
been featured in Colombian radio Señal Clásica, Brazilian Radio MEC and TV
Brasil and Classic FM. The Guardian mentions him as a virtuoso prodigy.

As an invited soloist with orchestra, Bernardo had the opportunity to play with the
Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Barcelona Metropolitan Orchestra, Podkarpacka
Philharmonic Orchestra, Cali Philharmonic Orchestra, Vidin State Philarmonic
Orchestra, Beiras Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Clássica do Centro, among
others. He has played under the baton of conductors such as António Vassalo
Lourenço, Daniel Nery, Ernst Schelle, Hilo Carriel, Jorge Mario Uribe, Kira
Omelchenko, Pedro Carneiro, Sílvio Viegas, and others.

Bernardo complements his artistic career with research on Portuguese composers,
being responsible for the c ritical edition and publishing of works by Berta Alves de
Sousa and Frederico de Freitas and Ruy Coelho, the latter being the latest focus of
research. Bernardo gave masterclasses in several universities and music schools
in Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia, Mexico and Vietnam.

As a chamber musician, Bernardo studied under guidance of Antonio Chagas
Rosa, Eugene Asti and Martino Tirimo. Bernardo frequently collaborates with artists
in several forms of chamber ensembles, having taken part in chamber projects
such as the CD “Curtas” of the composer and guitar player Israel Costa Pereira.
For Italian-Japanese label Da Vinci Publishing, Bernardo recorded the complete
sonatas for violin and piano of Edvard Grieg alongside David Lloyd, the piano
quintets by Saint-Saëns and Dvorak with Belém Quartet and two piano works by
Piazzolla, Infante and Ravel with Martim Almeida. For MPMP label, Bernardo
recorded piano works by Ruy Coelho.

Bernardo Santos is currently taking part of the Doctoral Programme in Music
Performance (PhD) at the University of Aveiro, being a research fellow at INET-md.
Bernardo graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in
London, Ljubljana Academy of Music, Conservatori del Liceu in Barcelona and from
the University of Aveiro (Aveiro City Prize), having studied with Dubravka Tomsic,
Deniz Gelenbe, Josep Colom, Álvaro Teixeira Lopes and Klara Dolynay.

Bernardo Santos is the president of the World Piano Teachers Association (WPTA)
Portugal and Artistic Director of the “Ciclos Lua Nova” concert series, hosted by
Fundação Dionísio Pinheiro e Alice Cardoso Pinheiro, in Águeda, Portugal.
Bernardo is also the co-founder and director of Festival Internacional de Piano y
Orquesta de Guadalajara (FIPOG).