Dr. Oksana Ezhokina
2022 Senior Division Judge
Dr. Oksana Ezhokina is Chair of Piano Studies at Pacific Lutheran University.
Russian-born pianist Oksana Ezhokina is Chair of the Piano Faculty and Associate Professor of Music at Pacific Lutheran University. An artist of great breadth and versatility, she appears frequently as guest recitalist and chamber musician on concert series across the United States and abroad. She has soloed with the Seattle Symphony, St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic in Russia, Tacoma Symphony, and performed in venues such as the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Davies Orchestra Hall in San Francisco, and Klassik Keyifler Festival in Turkey. A dedicated performer of new music, she has premiered works by Marilyn Shrude, Wayne Horvitz, Bern Herbolsheimer, and Laura Kaminsky, among others. She has been featured on multiple live radio broadcasts on such stations as WFMT-Chicago, KUOW and KING FM in Seattle, Maine Public Radio and NPR Performance Today. Her collaborations have included concerts with the Seattle Chamber Players, Avalon String Quartet, violinists Ian Swensen and Andrew Jennings, and cellists Johannes Moser and Anthony Elliott.
Ezhokina holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from Stony Brook University. She is the pianist of the Volta Piano Trio, whose recordings for Con Brio label received accolades in multiple international music magazines, such as The Strad, Gramophone and American Record Guide.
A sought-after teacher, she has given piano and chamber music masterclasses in colleges and universities across the US and is in demand as an adjudicator. Additionally, Ezhokina is Artistic Director of several flagship classical music programs at the Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, including the International Chamber Music Festival/Institute and Winter Piano Festival, which annually welcomes advanced pianists from the most prestigious colleges and conservatories in the US and Canada.
Dr. Arsen Gulua
2022 Youth & Junior Division Judge
Arsen Gulua holds degrees from The Juilliard School (BM), Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (MM) and the University of Oregon (DMA).
He began studying piano at the Kharkiv Music School in his native Kharkiv, Ukraine. In 1991 he studied music composition at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem. Gulua has performed throughout the United States, including at the Alice Tully Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York, as well as throughout Israel and Ukraine.
His wife, pianist Asya Gulua, has premiered his compositions in Lincoln Center. Gulua’s proficiency in composition and growing interest in improvisation leads him to recognize that both are an integral part of performing, and he incorporates these two elements in his teaching.
Dr. Gulua currently teaches and performs at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.
Check out Dr. Gulua’s performances on these YouTube links:
Prokofiev, Sonata no. 8 op. 84 in B-flat major – III mvt
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