American classical pianist
Jeremy Denk
In Montréal, Québec, Canada, at the
MBAM Bourgie Hall
Born (1970-05-16 ) May 16, 1970 (age 53) Occupation Classical pianist
Jeremy Denk (born May 16, 1970 in
Durham, North Carolina ) is an American classical pianist.
Early life
Denk did not come from a musical family. After several years in New Jersey, his family settled in
Las Cruces, New Mexico , where he grew up. He attended
Oberlin College and did graduate work at Indiana University where he studied with
György Sebők .
[1]
Career
Denk has been awarded a
MacArthur Fellowship
[2] won the
Avery Fisher Prize and
Musical America ' s Instrumentalist of the Year award,
[3] and has been elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
[4]
Denk has performed throughout the US and Europe in recital and with major symphony orchestras and has toured with
Academy of St Martin in the Fields .
[5]
[6]
Denk's releases from
Nonesuch Records include the
opera
The Classical Style with music by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. He joined his long-time musical partners,
Joshua Bell and
Steven Isserlis , in a recording of Brahms'
Trio in B-major .
[7] His previous disc of the
Goldberg Variations reached number one on
Billboard ' s Classical Chart .
[8]
In 2014 Denk served as music director of the
Ojai Music Festival , for which, besides performing and curating, he wrote the
libretto for a comic opera, The Classical Style , with music by
Steven Stucky .
[9] The opera was later presented by Carnegie Hall and the
Aspen Festival . Denk is known for his original and insightful writing on music, which
Alex Ross praises for its "arresting sensitivity and wit."[
This quote needs a citation ] His writing has appeared in
The New Yorker ,
The New Republic ,
The Guardian , and on the front page of
The New York Times Book Review .
[10]
[11] One of his New Yorker contributions, "Every Good Boy Does Fine" (cf.
EGBDF ), forms the basis of a book published by
Random House in the US, and
Macmillan in the UK.
[12] Recounting his experiences of touring, performing, and practicing, his blog, Think Denk, was recently selected for inclusion in the
Library of Congress web archives.
[13]
[14]
In 2012, Denk made his Nonesuch debut with a pairing of masterpieces old and new: Beethoven's final
Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111 , and
Ligeti 's
Études .
[15] The album was named one of the best of 2012 by The New Yorker ,
NPR , and
The Washington Post , and Denk's account of the Beethoven sonata was selected by
BBC Radio 3 's Building a Library as the best available version recorded on modern piano. Denk has a long-standing attachment to the music of American visionary
Charles Ives , and his recording of Ives's two piano sonatas featured in many "best of the year" lists.
Denk graduated from
Oberlin College ,
Indiana University , and the
Juilliard School . He lives in New York City.
[16]
In 2019, Denk released an album entitled c.1300–c.2000 , of piano versions of pieces by composers from circa the years 1300 to 2000. The album was released on Nonesuch Records.
[17] He discussed the work on
BBC Radio 4 's
Front Row in March 2019.
[18]
Denk made his
Edinburgh International Festival debut in August 2019 with a programme of piano works by
Bach ,
Ligeti ,
Liszt ,
Berg and
Schumann .
[19]
Recordings
September 2013: J.S. Bach:
Goldberg Variations , Nonesuch Records
November 2012: American Mavericks , including
Henry Cowell 's Synchrony and Piano Concerto with
Michael Tilson Thomas , SFS Media
May 2012: Ligeti/Beethoven , including Books I and II of György Ligeti's
piano études and Beethoven's
Piano Sonata No. 32 , Nonesuch Records
January 2012: French Impressions , including sonatas of
Franck ,
Ravel , and
Saint-Saëns with violinist
Joshua Bell , Sony Classical
October 2010: Jeremy Denk Plays Ives , which features Charles Ives' Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, on his Think Denk Media Label
Bach Partitas 3, 4, 6. Azica Records
Works for Solo Piano by
Leon Kirchner . Sonata No. 2 for Piano. Albany Records
Tobias Picker 's Piano Concerto No. 2 ("Keys to the City"). Russian Philharmonic.
Thomas Sanderling , conductor. Chandos Records
John Corigliano Violin Sonata. Joshua Bell, violin. Sony Records
Gabriel Fauré Violin Sonata. Chausson Concert.
Soovin Kim /Jupiter String Quartet. Azica Records
Brahms and Dvořák Quintets, with Concertante Chamber Ensemble. Meridian Records
February 2019: c. 1300–c. 2000, Nonesuch Records
September 2021: Mozart Piano Concertos , with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Nonesuch Records
Bibliography
References
^ Denk, Jeremy. Every Good Boy Does Fine; A Love Story in Music Lessons , Random House: 2022.
^
"Jeremy Denk – MacArthur Foundation" . Retrieved September 30, 2013 .
^
"MusicalAmerica – Instrumentalist of the Year" .
^
"Academy Member Connection" . www.amacad.org . Archived from
the original on March 26, 2018.
^
"Jeremy Denk" .
^
"Jeremy Denk, Pianist" . www.jeremydenk.net . Archived from
the original on January 15, 2012.
^
"For the Love of Brahms" .
^
"Jeremy Denk's Recording of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations Lands at #1 on Billboard Classical Chart" .
Nonesuch Records . October 28, 2013.
^
"2014 Festival" . Archived from
the original on February 23, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2012 .
^ Jeremy Denk (February 6, 2012).
"Flight of the Concord" .
The New Yorker . Retrieved February 27, 2012 .
^ Jeremy Denk (April 15, 2012).
"Earth Music: The Great Animal Orchestra by Bernie Krause" .
The New York Times . Retrieved April 15, 2012 .
^
"Jeremy Denk, Pianist | Jeremy Denk Signs Book Deal with Random House" . jeremydenk.net . Archived from
the original on January 11, 2014.
^
"Jeremy Denk" .
^
Think Denk It's a
pun : "
denk " is German for "think".
^
"Ligeti/Beethoven: Piano Études; Sonata No 32 – review" .
TheGuardian.com . May 12, 2012.
^
"Oberlin Conservatory | Oberlin in New York 2013 Illumination Tour" .
^ Tom Huizenga (January 31, 2019).
"Jeremy Denk Maps Centuries of Music History on 'c.1300-c.2000' " . NPR . Retrieved March 17, 2019 .
^ Presenter:
Stig Abell ; Producer: Hannah Robins (March 26, 2019).
"A history of classical music in ten minutes - plus tragedy on today's stage" .
Front Row . BBC.
BBC Radio 4 . Retrieved March 28, 2019 .
^
"Jeremy Denk" . Edinburgh International Festival . May 21, 2019. Retrieved May 22, 2019 .
External links
International National Artists Other