Living the Classical Life

Zsolt Bognár is an award-winning pianist, writer, and Ted Talk presenter. European critics characterize his playing as “overwhelmingly visceral” and “of crystalline precision,” and his diverse projects have earned him an Arthur Loesser Prize and a Harvard Musical Association award. After studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Sergei Babayan, Bognár made his German debut in 2012 at Konzerthaus Berlin, a sold-out performance. The following year marked his recording debut, Franz & Franz, and his receipt of an International Festival Society Grant, which funded projects in Lugano with Martha Argerich and Sergei Babayan and studies with the Wilhelm Kempff Foundation in Italy. Mr. Bognár appears regularly with members of the Cleveland Orchestra, and on National Public Radio both as a commentator and performer.

Jonathan Eifert is the founder at Jonathan Eifert Public Relations, which executes strategic public relations and marketing/communications for classical music clientele throughout the U. S., U. K., and Europe. He previously worked at IMG Artists (London) and Astral (Philadelphia). He is an associate member of the Grammy Recording Academy and regular contributor to ArtsHacker.com. While living in London, Jonathan completed his Master of Arts degree in cultural policy and management (arts administration) from City, University of London—specializing in classical artists’ brands and their development. He holds a degree in piano (Bachelor of Music) from Cairn University.

An award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer, Peter Hobbs studied film at Hampshire College, and for many years taught scriptwriting at the New York Film Academy. He has won awards for his feature film "Bridge of Names" and his short film "Anniversary." His New York-based company Elyria Pictures has done filming for the American Bar Association, UNICEF, the New York Times, Steinway & Sons, and Bloomberg among other companies. The originator of "Living the Classical Life," he has also filmed and edited the entire series. He recently started a companion series “Living the Jazz Life” (LTJL), and he is currently writing a novel called "Bar Band."

Daniel is a specialist in the Franco-German Chanson repertoire of the early 20th Century and teaches a course about the history of the cabaret art form at NYU. His own one man shows have been featured at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater, the BAM Café at the Brooklyn Academy of Arts, Café Sabarsky at the Neue Galerie Museum, the Neuberger Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and SF MOMA. He has hosted and directed numerous cabaret-style variety shows at venues around New York City, including MoMa, the Gershwin Hotel and the Night Hotel in Times Square, where his multinational Foreign Affairs cabaret ran for over a year. He has staged operas with the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and, most recently, directed a concert series at the Sun Valley Music Festival. He privately coaches singers and performers in stage craft, interpretative skills, and mime.

Jutta Ittner is CWRU Professor Emerita of German and Comparative Literature. She received her M.A. from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, and her Ph.D. from Hamburg University. She lives in Oberlin, OH and taught at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, from 1992 to 2020. Her publications include exile studies ("Augenzeuge der Wahrheit" [Eye Witness of the Truth], a comprehensive intellectual biography of the Jewish writer/physician Martin Gumpert, 1998), contemporary literature, women’s literature, and comparative studies of the representation of animals in contemporary literature. Her translations from German into English of contemporary women writers focus in particular on the acclaimed Hamburg author Brigitte Kronauer and include two books ("Constructs of Desire," selections from Kronauer's short stories, novels, and critical essays with introductions, 2009; and "Women and Clothes," a collection of her short stories, 2011).

Attorney and Mediator at Kohrman Jackson & Krantz LLP, Cleveland.

Sean helps clients resolve disputes, mitigate risk, and grow their businesses. He serves as a mediator and represents clients in litigation, government investigations, and administrative proceedings. Sean also advises pro bono clients on housing, consumer protection, immigration and arts-related matters, serves on the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s Pro Bono Committee, and participates in the music ministry at St. Dominic Church. He is a member of Shaker Heights City Council, where he is Chair of the Finance Committee and the Human Relations Task Force, and a Member of the Recreation Committee, the Sustainable Shaker Task Force, and the Shaker Heights Development Corporation.

Caroline is a pianist, presenter and pedagogue. ‘A star in the piano world’ (Donald Hunt, Pianist Magazine), she reveals in her playing a deep connectivity between music and culture. Her impeccable musical phrasing combined with an engaging stage presence have attracted audiences both in the US and abroad.

Caroline has recorded six solo CDs on the Filia Mundi label. Her playing has been broadcast globally on radio and television stations. She serves as a jury member of national and international competitions including the Cleveland International Piano Competition and the Macao Piano Competition.

Caroline Oltmanns is a faculty member of the UK based residency program Piano Week, The Gilmore KeysFest and Summer Sonata at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2008 she founded Kammermusikfestival Kaufbeuren, a German chamber music festival. She is co-founder and co-director of the North East Ohio Keyboard Festival, an annual program dedicated to keyboard music.

As an International Steinway Artist, Steinway Spirio Recording Artist, Fulbright Scholar, and recipient of the Stipendium der Deutschen Wirtschaft, she is a Professor of Piano at Youngstown State University and holds degrees from the Staatliche Musikhochschule Freiburg and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Her musical mentors were Robert Levin, John Perry, Vitaly Margulis, and Malcolm Frager.

Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Technology at Borough of Manhattan Community College.

George teaches film history, scriptwriting, producing and video editing. He is a filmmaker whose works include The Sea in My Brother (2016) and But Enough About Me… (2000), and also an actor who has appeared in Dream Work (2015), Night of the Working Dead (2014) and Show Me the Aliens (2014). A sketch comedy writer and performer whose troupe, TunnelVision, has played major venues in New York City, he is also a widely published critic, writer, and editor, whose articles have been featured in The New York Daily News, Newsday, Variety, Business Week, among other publications.

Cinematographer and film director.

Ben is president of Topiary Productions, Inc., a Brooklyn-based boutique film and video production company. It takes projects from the script to the final edit, for example Portraits (Mary’s Story, a Brooklyn art glass studio's struggle to recover in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy; Making the Crooked Straight, an American doctor working in Ethiopia. Aired on HBO). Documentaries (Misty Copeland doc; Jim Dine Poet Singing, the making of an original work of art, commissioned by the Getty Villa Museum). Trailers and Teasers (for Lost in Europe, a documentary series celebrating artisanal production in Europe; Obit, a feature documentary about the obituary department of the New York Times); Music videos (featuring bands, as in Sirens, Stranger Cat, Kelby) and Drone Documentaries (Calatrava Bridge, Buenos Aires; Mexico City by Drone) among many others.