Michael Slavin

I am very happy to have been accepted as a performer for the 2025 iteration of the PianoTexas festival. I was fortunate to be chosen to play in the 2018 festival and perform the first movement of the Chopin Piano Concerto in F minor with the Ft. Worth Symphony and maestro Alejandro Gomez Guillen. 

I began playing the piano at age 5, and from ages 9-18, attended the Juilliard School of Music pre-college division. I then studied at an academic university where I received a bachelor’s degree in Physics and afterwards attended Medical School. I was a practicing ophthalmologist specializing in neuro-ophthalmology for 25 years. All the while, I continued on with my piano studies although music necessarily took a backseat to the rigors of a medical profession. 

My early planned retirement from ophthalmology over a decade ago has afforded me the opportunity to again study music and practice the piano seriously. Since then, I have recorded all 4 Chopin Scherzi and have performed extensively throughout the world including events in the USA, Japan, Poland, Germany, Warsaw and Milan. I was awarded first prize in multiple international amateur piano competitions including: Chicago 2012 (piano concerto competition), Washington (WIPAC) 2014, Paris 2015, the Chopin competition (Warsaw) 2015, St. Petersburg, Russia 2021 and Piano-link international competition 2023. 

I was also awarded second prize in the Colorado Springs international competition and twice in the Van Cliburn competitions 2016 and 2022. The Cliburn competitions are no doubt the highlights of my piano career!