began his musical studies at the age of six, in his native Brazil. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP, 2001), as a student of pianist Fúlvia Escobar. At that university, he developed intensive work as a chamber musician, participating with one of his ensembles in a workshop lead by musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also a teaching assistant for the opera department in that school.

 

Awarded a CAPES Foundation Scholarship, he later received his Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from the Federal University in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, 2004). He was then a teaching assistant for Piano Pedagogy, and among his published work is his dissertation on 20th Century Fugue and Brazilian composer Bruno Kiefer, completed under supervision of Dr. Any Raquel Carvalho and Dr. Cristina Capparelli Gerling. He was awarded in national piano competitions, and took master-classes with pianists Claude Helfer, Cristina Ortiz, Arnaldo Cohen, Kyoko Hashimoto, Dang Thai Son, among others. Before coming to Los Angeles, he was a student of pianist Vera Astrachan, in São Paulo, and served as assistant faculty at the School for Music and Fine Arts of the State of Paraná (EMBAP), in Curitiba.

 

In 2012 he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from the Flora L. Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California, as a student of Dr. Stewart L. Gordon, with supporting areas of Music Education, Keyboard Collaborative Arts and Electroacoustic Media. At USC Thornton, he was a teaching assistant for the Keyboard Studies Department, with full scholarship, and has worked as an accompanist for the studios of mezzo-soprano Cynthia Munzer, tenor Gary Glaze, and sopranos Elizabeth Hynes and Shigemi Matsumoto. He also taught in an outreach program coordinated by the Music Education Department of USC and sponsored by the L.A.Phil - Y.O.L.A. Program, providing music education for children at a preschool in south-central LA. Honors include the Keyboard Ensemble Award (2011), recognition as one of the outstanding graduates from the Keyboard Studies Department (2012), as well as induction into the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honors Society, by the Eta Chapter of USC Thornton (2012).

 

Dr. Liebich is an active scholar, having presented one of his papers at the International Society of Music Education World Conference in Beijing (August 2010). His endeavors in alternative keyboard literature with electroacoustic media lead to performances with HEAR NOW Music Festival, "Microfest" (Los Angeles' Microtonal Music Festival), ""What's Next?" Ensemble", and Jacaranda Concert Series. From 2012 to 2019, Dr. Liebich also acted as assistant director to "People Inside Electronics" concert series. As a recording artist, he has collaborated with Helix Collective Ensemble, and was also a scoring musician  for short documentary movies. He remains active as a performer throughout southern California, acting occasionally as a rehearsal pianist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and managing his own private teaching studio. He has taught at University of La Verne (where from the Fall of 2017 until the Spring of 2020 he also carried the title of  "Artist-In-Residence"). Currently, Dr. Rafael Liebich teaches at El Camino College, California State University - Los Angeles (CalStateLA), and Neighborhood Music School in Boyle Heights - where he is also Director of Programs and Evaluation.