Greg has successfully combined a career as a radio professional and concert pianist. At the Fourth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs in 2004, Greg’s performances were called “mesmerizing” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) and “boldly hewn” (Dallas Morning News), and garnered him semifinalist status. His 2006 performance of Kaintuck’ by William Grant Still with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Chelsea Tipton II conducting, was broadcast nationwide on National Public Radio’s Performance Today.
Currently Broadcast Producer Manager at KBACH in Phoenix, Greg previously served as Content Director at WBAA Public Radio from Purdue University, and Classical Music Director and Senior Radio Host at WGTE Public Media in Toledo, where he received the 2007 Ohio Public Broadcasting Award for “Radio Producer of the Year” for the monthly in-studio performance program Live From FM 91, and produced nationally-distributed special programs celebrating the lives and music of composers William Grant Still and Samuel Adler. He has also worked at KRPS in Pittsburg, Kansas and at WGUC in Cincinnati.
Greg has made three recordings on the Kickshaw Records label. His most recent, Voyageurs (Kickshaw 1003), features music for clarinet, cello & piano by Rick Sowash performed by the Upland Trio. His previous album, Music for Flute, Cello & Piano by Women Composers (Kickshaw 1002), features the Sylvan Trio in works by Mel Bonis, Clara Schumann, Judith Lang Zaimont, Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee, and others. His debut recording (Kickshaw 1001) includes the Brahms Horn Trio, the world premiere recording of Indiana Dunes by Harry Bulow, and other works for violin, horn & piano performed by the Trio Quelque Chose. Other releases include Seasonal Breezes: Five Chamber Works by Rick Sowash (RSP-13), which includes two suites for cello and piano (Dark Forest and October Reveries) with cellist Josh Aerie and Seasonal Breezes with the Sylvan Trio; the Toledo Clarinets debut recording on Cambria Master Recordings, and two recordings of quartets by Rick Sowash (Vistas and A Christmas Gift) with members of the Toledo Symphony.
Greg has performed throughout the Midwest, including appearances with orchestras in Ohio (Toledo, Lima, Perrysburg, and University of Toledo Symphonies) and Indiana (Lafayette, Columbus, and Purdue Symphonies), the Monroe County (Michigan) Community College/Community Band, and the Purdue Wind Symphony. He has also given solo piano and chamber music performances at the 2008 William Grant Still Festival in Dayton, OH, Ohio State University-Lima campus, Bowling Green State University, Bluffton University, Owens Community College, Adrian College, Oakland University, and St. Joseph’s College in addition to the Great Gallery of the Toledo Museum of Art, the Performing Arts Series at Firelands, Defiance Community Cultural Council Performance Series, the St. Roch Chamber Music Festival in Caseville, MI, the Tippecanoe Chamber Music Society, and Chamber Music Toledo.
Dr. Kostraba also founded and served as President & Artistic Director of the Tippecanoe Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Toledo. He holds masters and doctoral degrees in piano performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a degree in international relations from American University in Washington, DC. He has studied piano and chamber music with Dorothy Bolognini, Alan Mandel, Richard Morris, Sandra Rivers, and the late Richard Fields, and participated in master classes with pianists Eugene Istomin, Eugene & Elizabeth Pridonoff, Frank Weinstock, William Black, and Michael Brown, as well as members of the La Salle, Audubon, and Tokyo String Quartets.
