FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - University of Arkansas assistant professor of music Jura Margulis will spend much of his summer overseas, teaching and performing in Germany in July and in Italy in August.

Margulis will teach at the Russian School Masterclasses for Pianists at the Freiburg Kaufhaus in Freiburg, Germany, July 14-27, and will then teach at the "Corso di Perfezionamento Pianistico" at the Villa Medici in Milan, Italy, August 12-17.

"I'm thrilled to continue the tradition of excellence at the Freiburg Kaufhaus and the Villa Medici, and I'm honored to join a series of master classes featuring such renowned international pianists as Paul Badura Skoda and Boris Berman," Margulis said. "Since I'm involved with imparting musical traditions to future generations, it's a special privilege to teach in locales with such rich histories.  I will try to capture that spirit and bring it back to Fayetteville in the fall, to share a little bit of the inspiration and environment with my UA students."

Students from all over the world (14 countries last year, including students from Europe, Asia, North and South America) have been traveling to Freiburg every summer for 26 years to participate in a rigorous schedule of lessons, master classes and performances -- all set in the Historic Kaufhaus at the center of the old city, a 500-year-old building across from the gothic cathedral.  

Margulis said the Milan master classes are held in the Villa Medici-Giulini, a building that dates from 1643 and houses a collection of rare harpsichords, organs, and fortepianos.  The collection affords students the special opportunity of studying early works on the instruments for which they were originally written.

"The classes provide me an excellent opportunity to recruit students to the University of Arkansas, as well as an opportunity to enjoy inspiring locales while sharing my love for music," he said.

Last summer Margulis taught in Freiburg's Russian School and in the International Piano Masterclasses in Obidos, Portugal -- a 12th century walled-in town overlooking the Portuguese coast.

This October, Margulis will travel to Russia to perform and to give a master class at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Margulis has been called by the Los Angeles Times as "steel-fingered and highly musical.""  The Washington Post has applauded his "titanic reserves of sheer power"" and his "effortless spontaneity,"" and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram termed his performance of a sonata "the perfect Beethoven."" 

He has performed with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit and with the Russian National Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl.  He has played in numerous festivals, including the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, the Berliner Festwochen, the ZMF Festival, the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and the Argerich-Beppu Music Festival in Japan. He has performed chamber music recitals with Dimity Sitkovetsky, the soloists of the Moscow Virtuosi and the Moscow String Quartet. He has performed as a duo pianist with Martha Argerich in Germany, Japan and the United States. Active as a recording artist, he has recorded four CDs as well as numerous concerts for radio as a soloist, as a chamber musician and with orchestra.

    Margulis studied with his father, Vitaly Margulis, at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg, Germany, and with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory of music. He was also a student in the prestigious Fondazione per il Pianoforte in Cadenabbia at Lake Como in Italy. He served for a semester as a Visiting Professor at UCLA and has given master classes in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Japan, Russia and the United States.  

In 1999 he was appointed professor of music at the University of Arkansas.

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