Faculty & About

Macedonian clarinetist, composer, and improviser Vasko Dukovski is based in Shanghai, China, where he serves as Distinguished Clarinet Professor at the Nanjing University of the Arts. He has previously taught at the Juilliard School through its Global Initiative and Music Advancement Program and at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College (CUNY).

An advocate for contemporary music, Dukovski has collaborated with leading ensembles including the International Contemporary Ensemble(ICE), Talea Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Metropolis Ensemble, and AXIOM. His chamber music collaborations include performances with the Grammy Award–winning Attacca Quartet and the Kronos Quartet.

Widely recognized for his virtuosic interpretations of new repertoire, he has collaborated with composers such as John Adams, Helmut Lachenmann, Du Yun, Huang Ruo, and John Corigliano, and has premiered more than 300 new works.

Dukovski has recorded over 30 albums for labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, and New Focus Recordings. He studied atthe Interlochen Arts Academy and later earned his Bachelor’sand Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School.

Pianist and educator Evgenia Pilyavina was born in Kyiv,Ukraine, and began studying piano at the age of six. After emigrating to the United States in 1989, she continued her studies at the Manhattan School of Music, where she later earned her Master’s degree. Early in her career she won the First Chopin Competition in New York and made her debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.

As both a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at major venues including Alice Tully Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Hall, and Weill Recital Hall, and has appeared throughout the United States,Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, and France.

She is a founding member of the Barton Piano Quartet, which made its acclaimed international debut at the Cervantino International Festival in Mexico. Pilyavina has also performed atfestivals including AIMS in Spain, the Gotland Chamber Music Festivalin Sweden, and the Kfar Blum Music Festival in Israel.

She currently teaches at the École Internationale de Genève and the Conservatoire de Nyon in Switzerland.

“She is a very fine cellist and has a lot of musical imagination and sensibility, always searching for different possibilities to express the music.” — Gautier Capuçon

Born in Istanbul in 1989, cellist Nil Kocamangil is recognized for her powerful, expressive performances as both a soloist and achamber musician. Since her solo debut at age 15, she has appeared with orchestras including the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, the Tekfen Philharmonic, and the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra.

Her career highlights include collaborations with Fazıl Say, the Dutch premiere of Marie Jaëll’s Cello Concerto at the Wonderfeel Festival, recital tours across Europe including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and performances of J.S. Bach’s cello suites for the ballet production Bach Tanzt in Germany.

Kocamangil has performed at leading venues such as the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and the Gewandhaus Leipzig and has appeared atfestivals including the Verbier Festival and the Istanbul Music Festival. She is the founder and artistic director of the Istanbul International Chamber Music Festival and Music Academy and servesas Associate Professor at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.

Violist Ezgi Pikayzen, a native of Izmir, Turkey, performs internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral artist. She has appeared at many prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing,Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and the BBC Proms.

In 2025 she performed with the Utopia Orchestra at major venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Santa Cecilia Auditorium in Rome, the Megaron in Athens, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and the Salzburg Festival.

As a soloist she has appeared with orchestras including the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, Başkent Chamber Orchestra, Łomża Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Bellas Artes Chamber Orchestra. She also performs regularly with the Colorado Symphony, Opera Colorado,and Colorado Ballet.

Pikayzen holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Ankara State Conservatory and currently lives in Denver, where she serves on the chamber music faculty of the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver.