Critics have hailed her performances as "masterful." Concert pianist Aglaia Koras made her debut at age eleven with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Recognition by her mentor, Greek pianist Gina Bachauer, drew the attention of Rudolf Serkin, then Director of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where Ms. Koras studied for several years on full scholarship with Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. After receiving the Curtis Alumni Award for three consecutive years, she graduated from Curtis with a bachelor’s degree in piano. Rudolf Serkin called her "an excellent pianist, a fine musician," and Horszowski called her "a great artist" at her graduation.

In 1983, the City of New York and the Queens Council on the Arts sponsored her New York Debut at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, where she received a standing ovation. She has returned several times to Lincoln Center, and also performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, at the Kennedy Center, at Merkin Concert Hall, and in major concert halls throughout the United States as well as concerts in France, England, Switzerland, Greece, Spain, Canada, and Mexico, including European and American television and radio broadcasts.

During the 2009-10 season, Ms. Koras performed her fifth consecutive "Beethoven and Chopin Plus" Series at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, sponsored by MidAmerica Productions. Her sold-out concert on March 1, 2010, on Chopin’s 200th birthday, was so successful that she decided to repeat it in this special anniversary year. Chopin reigns again in tonight’s concert.

Last season, Ms. Koras performed as guest soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in a special Beethoven Festival Orchestra performance, which included newly-discovered works by Beethoven. This season, she has been invited to perform with the St. Petersburg (Russia) Symphony Orchestra and to perform again with the Beethoven Festival Orchestra at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. In recent seasons, she was invited to perform an all-Chopin recital in Mexico City, and at the Wolf Trap Ball, among other appearances. Ms. Koras was also lauded last season as a selective recipient of an individual artist grant award from the Maryland State Arts Council. She has been a frequent performer at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, including an all-Mozart 250th Birthday Concert; she also performed in a special program for the United States Ambassadors in Washington, DC; in recitals at the Kennedy Center; in concerts sponsored by the National Symphony Orchestra; the Recording Industry’s Music performance Trust Fund as arranged by the American Federation of Musicians; in programs in Spain, Greece, and Brazil; on the Smithsonian’s website; and in concerts sponsored by the Curtis Alumni and Leschetizky Associations.

Ms. Koras has received top prizes in several international and national piano competitions, including the International Chopin Young Pianists Competition, first prize; the International American Music Scholarship Association Piano Competition, first prize; International Concert Artists Guild Competition, "Fine Artistry and Musical Excellence Award; National Young Musicians Foundation Competition, first prize; Koszciusko Foundation Competition; La Gesse Foundation Fellowship of France; Adopt-An-Artist Award of New York City; Ruth Slenszynska Award for Piano, as well as other awards.

Ms. Koras’ musical lineage can be traced to Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Cortot. Horszowski studied with Leschetizky, who studied with Carl Czerny, a pupil of Beethoven. Horszowski’s mother studied with Mikuli, a pupil of Chopin. Bachauer studied with Rachmaninoff and Cortot. This rich heritage, combined with her own unique passion, intelligence, imagination, and tremendous capacity for expression brings an extraordinarily wide range of stylistic insight to her unusually broad repertoire.

In addition to being an active performing artist, Ms. Koras has served on the faculties of Temple University (where she simultaneously received a master’s degree on full scholarship) and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Ms. Koras' CD is available for purchase from Amazon.com.

Listen to Ms. Koras' sample recordings: Prokofieff: Etude in D minor, Opus 2 No. 1 (2.1 MB) Mozart: Fantasy in D minor, KV397 (1.3 MB) Brahms: Rhapsody in B minor, Opus 79 (1.9 MB) Chopin: Etude in C-sharp minor, Opus 25 No. 7 ("Cello") (3.6 MB) More sample recordings are available at Ms. Koras' website http://www.aglaiakoras.com/audio.htm