Michael Slavin

I am very much looking forward to performing at the 2026 iteration of the PianoTexas festival. I was so happy to play in the 2018 festival and perform the first movement of the Chopin Piano Concerto in F minor, and again in 2025 playing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto number 1 with the Ft. Worth Symphony.

I began playing the piano at age 5, and from age 9-18 attended the Juilliard School of Music pre-college division. After that I continued on in college receiving a bachelor’s degree in Physics, and afterward 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 took a backseat to the rigors of a medical profession.

My retirement from ophthalmology over a decade ago now 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 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 the Piano-link international competition 2023 in Milan.

I was awarded second prize in the Colorado Springs international competition and twice in the Van Cliburn competitions 2016 and 2022, the latter events being the highlight of my musical career.

I was thrilled to have been designated the “ultimate pianist” in August 2025 after winning a competition which was solely offered to those 25 past annual winners of the WIPAC event- i.e. the winner of the winners!

I was honored by my performance of the complete Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto number 1 with the Washington Symphony chamber Orchestra.