Pianist Howard Aibel, was a winner of the 1959 Walter W. Naumburg Competition, launching his career with a New York debut in Town Hall on November 3, 1959. Aibel graduated from Juilliard as a scholarship student in the class of Mme. Rosina Lhevinne; later becoming her assistant for 10 years.
He also was awarded a Fulbright and top prizes in the International Busoni and Casella Piano Competitions.
He has performed throughout the world including in Russia where a critic stated, "His playing was remarkable, evoking the memory of a golden age of piano playing." His concerts also led him on tours of Asia, Europe, Mexico and the U.S. On a tour to the Philippines, playing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, Aibel shared the stage with his son, conductor Anthony Aibel.
Aibel has given master classes in Ireland,Tbilsi, Republic of Georgia, and Salzburg, Austria. He is listed in Benjamin Saver's book, The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA, and in The International Who's Who in Music.
Excerpt from The New York Times review, November 4, 1959
Piano Debut Made by Howard Aibel
"Mr. Aibel is a very sound pianist. His playing was neat, crisp and to the point. Obviously he has excellent musical as well as technical training. His ideas about the music were sensible and unmarred by eccentricity. His well-regulated technique carried him easily through everything on the program... it was a pleasure to hear this easy-going nonchalant kind of keyboard approach." Harold C. Schonberg
1959 Naumburg Competition
First Prize
