Celebrating the career and legacy of Vladimir Feltsman, longtime PianoSummer artistic director

Master pianist Vladimir Feltsman—professor of piano studies and artistic director of PianoSummer at New Paltz—retired from SUNY New Paltz in December 2024, after nearly four decades on the Department of Music faculty.

His retirement also marks the end of PianoSummer at New Paltz, as Feltsman and his wife Haewon, PianoSummer coordinator, are relocating the annual festival to the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, Massachusetts.

“Looking back to the last 37 years, I am grateful for my long tenure here and content with the general outcome,” said Feltsman. “Haewon—an alumna of our college—and I wish SUNY New Paltz and all our community only the best of things, and hope that our small contribution of bringing PianoSummer to New Paltz has had a positive impact on our college’s reputation and provided a meaningful musical experience to all people who attended our concerts.”

Feltsman was born in Russia and trained at the Moscow Conservatory. He has performed with major American and European orchestras and at prestigious venues and festivals worldwide. His discography includes more than 60 albums, and his book, “Piano Lessons,” was published in 2019. In addition to teaching at New Paltz, Feltsman is on the faculty of Mannes School of Music in NYC. With Haewon, he established the Feltsman Piano Foundation to help young pianists realize their full potential.

Feltsman’s relationship with New Paltz began in Moscow in the mid-1980s, where he met former college president Alice Chandler. The encounter would profoundly change Feltsman’s life, as Chandler invited him to join the New Paltz faculty in 1987.

“This teaching job provided a security and safe haven for me and my family,” reflected Feltsman. “It was here in New Paltz that the project dear to my heart, PianoSummer at New Paltz, was initiated with the blessings and support of then-President Alice Chandler and Provost William Vasse.”

Since 2017, PianoSummer has offered students free tuition and housing for its three-week duration, as well as entry into the Flier competition—reflecting the Feltsmans’ belief that the only criterion to participate in performing arts should be the ability to play, not merely to pay.

“Many of our former students won major international piano competitions and got appointed as faculty in major universities and music schools in the U.S. and abroad,” said Feltsman. “It is hard to overestimate the impact PianoSummer had on those who have been lucky to be accepted to our program.”

Since the Flier competition launched in 1998, first-place winners have been awarded a debut recital at Weill Recital Hall, located inside NYC’s famed Carnegie Hall. The 2024 winner, Yifan Wu, will appear there at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 22; the performance will serve as the final event of PianoSummer’s decades-long run at New Paltz.

“I wish to thank Professor Feltsman, an accomplished musician and instructor, for his long years of service to SUNY New Paltz, its students and the broader New Paltz community,” said President Darrell P. Wheeler.

“PianoSummer has been an important event at SUNY New Paltz for more than 25 years,” said Jeni Mokren, dean of the School of Fine & Performing Arts. “We are sad to see the end of it here, but wish the best for Vladimir, Haewon, and PianoSummer.”

For more information on future PianoSummer events at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, visit the Feltsman Piano Foundation website at www.feltsmanpianofoundation.org.