Ory Shihor is an Israeli-American pianist, pedagogue, and co-founder of the Los Angeles based , which encompasses piano performance training and exams for students of all levels, teacher training and certification, and a pre-college program for advanced young pianists with a focus on college audition preparation. Shihor is an award winning pianist and well-respected pedagogue who performs, lectures, holds masterclasses and serves on the juries of prestigious international piano competitions. He is renowned for his teaching methods that prepare young pianists for the world stage. Shihor was the founder of the Colburn Music Academy and served as its dean between 2010-2017. He also served as piano professor at the Colburn Conservatory between 2008-2019. Shihor was born in Tel Aviv. Success as a pianist came early for him. At the age of twelve he began receiving scholarships from the America Israel Cultural Foundation and within three years he was studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in the United States. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
Early life and education
As a child in Tel Aviv, Shihor studied under Neima Rosh and later with Dr. Emanuel Krasovsky. He was a recipient of America Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships from the age of twelve. At fifteen, he came to the United States to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under the legendary pianist Jorge Bolet. Shihor graduated from the Juilliard School in New York City with a Bachelor of Music after studying under renowned pianist and pedagogue, Russell Sherman.
Career
Shihor’s professional career has included performances at prestigious venues and festivals around the world, including The Kennedy Center, Ravinia Festival in Chicago, The Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, Dusseldorf’s Tonhalle in Germany, 92nd Street “Y” in New York, and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, among many others. Shihor’s many awards and competition prizes include the Gina Bachauer Prize while at the Juilliard School, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition and first prize at the Washington International Piano Competition. Shihor joined the faculty of the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles in 2008 and served as professor of piano until 2019, while there, he founded the Colburn Music Academy and served as its dean from 2010 until 2017. As an outgrowth of Shihor’s own experiences as a student and performer, he developed a teaching style and method that has proven to be effective for his many students who have themselves garnered impressive credentials, winning top prizes in numerous international competitions such as Walter W. Naumburg International Piano Competition, Hilton Head International Piano Competition and Bösendorfer and Yamaha USASU International Piano Competition in the United States, Montreal International Piano Competition in Canada, James Mottram International Piano Competition in the UK and Piano Campus and Long Thibaud Crespin in France, among many other achievements. His students are regularly accepted to prestigious conservatoires and universities such as Curtis, Juilliard, Colburn, NEC, Peabody, Eastman, Yale and Royal Academy of Music. As an educator, Shihor has given lectures and masterclasses at conservatories, universities and festivals throughout the world, including Chautauqua Music Festival, Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, the Frick Museum in Pittsburgh, Oberlin Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, Emory University, Colburn School, Manhattan School of Music, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Boston Conservatory, Boston University, The Tanglewood Institute, Lynn University, Royal Northern College of Music, Chetham’s School of Music, Shanghai Conservatory, Beijing Central Conservatory, Seoul National University, Soul Performance Art Academy, and Taiwan National Normal University. Shihor regularly serves as juror at many international competitions, including the James Mottram International Piano Competition, the Arthur Rubinstein Junior Piano Competition, the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition and the Young Artist Piano Competition at Emory University. In 2017 he was invited to join the judging panel of the TV series "Wonderkids," which was filmed in Ho Chi Minh City and aired on Vietnam's HTV3. As a performing artist, Shihor is noted for being ‘boldly individualistic’ and ‘not afraid to take risks’. He is a Bösendorfer and Yamaha artist.
Awards
1986, 1st Prize Winner, Young Concert Artists 1988, 1st Prize Winner, Gina Bachauer Prize, Juilliard 1998, Prize Winner, Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition 1999, 1st prize, Washington International Piano Competition
Projects
In 1993, Shihor toured as soloist with the Liege Philharmonique of Belgium for their 15-city North American tour. Shihor performed all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas during a series of 8 concerts in Zipper Hall in Los Angeles between 2005 and 2007. Judge, Wonderkids TV Series, HTV3, Vietnam, 2017 Shihor’s concert-drama ‘Last Thoughts: Schubert’s Final Works’, written by Hershey Felder, premiered in 2018 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. Shihor’s 'Beethoven’s Most Beloved Sonatas,' will premiere at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in April 2020.
