College of Charleston Artist Certificate piano student, Dotan Nitzberg, has won an International Young Soloist Award from VSA – The International Organization on Arts and Disability. He will join the three other winners as they perform together on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, in Washington D.C. The concert will broadcast live at http://www.kennedy-center.org/ on Tuesday, June 8, 2010, at 6:00 p.m.
The VSA International Young Soloists Award annually recognizes outstanding young musicians with disabilities and supports and encourages them in pursuit of their careers. All types of music are accepted from applicants, including country, classical, jazz, rap, rock, bluegrass, and world. A committee of distinguished music professionals selects the award recipients, who receive $5,000 and the opportunity to perform at the Kennedy Center.
VSA was founded more than 35 years ago by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to create a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. The organization provides educators, parents and artists with the resources and tools to support arts programming in schools and communities. (VSA was long known as Very Special Arts. Words such as ‘special’ and ‘handicapped’ do not reflect current language trends in the United States and many other countries. The organization’s name has evolved to VSA—The International Organization on Arts and Disability.)
Dotan Nitzberg was born in Ashkelon, Israel in 1987. He began his formal piano training with Yanina Kudlik, who remained his teacher for twelve years, first in the “Akadma” Conservatory in Ashdod, and later at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv, where he earned his Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance. Currently, Nitzberg has a full scholarship to pursue an Artist Certificate in Piano at the College of Charleston’s School of the Arts, studying with Enrique Graf.
Nitzberg is a laureate of several competitions: the Music Teachers National Association State Piano Competition (Spartanburg,SC-Honorable Mention); three-time recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship; “Lions” Organization All-Israeli Piano Competition; National Piano Competition in Ashdod; and three-time First Prize winner at a regional piano competition in Ashdod.
Nitzberg has taken part in master-classes with acclaimed pianists such as Daniel Pollack, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Jorge Luis Prats, Vladimir Krainev, Ilana Vered and Matti Raekallio. He has appeared as soloist with the Ashdod String Orchestra, the Ashkelon Chamber Orchestra and the Perugia Symphony and has performed recitals in Israel, Italy and the U.S.