Key Pianists, Now In Its Fourth Season, Returns To Weill Recital Hall At Carnegie Hall

The imaginative and increasingly important Key Pianists concert series, founded by pianist Terry Eder in 2015, embarks on its fourth season with a recital by Norman Krieger, who "owns a world of technique" (Los Angeles Times), on Wednesday evening, October 17, 2018 at 8 pm at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. His program will include Brahms' Sonata in C Major and Beethoven's Sonata in D minor, as well as works by Chopin, Lazaroff, and Fine. On Tuesday evening, February 26, 2019 at 8 pm, pianist Jason Hardink-dubbed "a pianist of such extraordinary power-and memory-that he is difficult to forget" by ConcertoNet's Harry Rolnick (14 Dec 2015)-will give a recital of 19th- and 20th-century gems by Eckardt, Debussy, Liszt, Xenakis, and Messiaen. To close out the season, series founder Terry Eder, noted for her "fascinating [performances] full of life and risk" (New York Concert Review, Summer 2006), performs Schubert's Impromptu in F Minor, Op. 142, No. 1 and Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 28, as well as works by Debussy, Dohnanyi, and Kodály.

"Many wonderful pianists playing with wisdom, insight, sensitivity and beauty are not heard in New York," says Ms. Eder. "These stellar artists, as well as New York audiences, deserve an event to share this extraordinary music-making." This new concert series presents pianists in repertoire of special significance to them.

The first season in 2015-16 featured three recitals by celebrated pianist Peter Takács. His series, "The Beethoven Experience," explored some of the composer's most influential works from his early, middle, and late career, in both solo and chamber works. Mr. Takács earned praise from noted music critic George Grella of New York Classical Review: "Takács led the music brilliantly...fluid and supremely elegant...sensitive and agile" (19 Oct 2015).

In Season 2, additional critical praise followed for the artists and series. Writing for New York Classical Review, Eric Simpson described Ann Schein's rendition of Chopin's Sonata No. 3 in B Minor: "There was almost a Beethovenian confidence in Schein's approach to the music, as she combined a firm attack with splendid, singing melody. [...] In the trio she made the instrument glow. The Largo showed a strong affinity for the quiet intensity of Chopinian bliss, sublime and rolling" (6 Oct 2016). In reviewing Terry Eder's recital, Frank Daykin of New York Concert Review termed Terry Eder "a musician's musician" and wrote: "Ms. Eder, who is the generous patron of, and visionary behind, the Key Pianists series, showed us why she is herself 'key'" (2 Mar 2017). The season concluded with a recital by internationally renowned pianist Sara Davis Buechner, a multifaceted recital of Japanese and French music in collaboration with mime dancer and Japanese mask maker Yayoi Hirano. Reviewing this event for The New York Times, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim wrote, "It showcased the breadth of Ms. Buechner's artistry, spanning thundering fortissimos and chiseled passagework, as well as lyrical moments colored by a poetic sensitivity that was tempered by wit and judicious restraint" (2 Jun 2017).

During the 2017-18 season, Key Pianists presented brilliant virtuoso Cecile Licad, hailed by The New Yorker as "a pianist's pianist." Ms. Licad's recital included works of Elie Siegmeister, Edward MacDowell, and the Liszt B Minor Sonata. Of the performance, George Grella of New York Classical Review wrote: "Licad's pianism was excellent throughout, but it was the sense that this music mattered to her that was most striking; there was a little sense of personal urgency to the audience that was quite moving. / Why else would a musician perform? Cynics might answer, "for the money," but the point of Key Pianists is that the musicians are performing because that's what they do and who they are. They breathe life into art and share it with the listener" (19 Jan 2018).

The series continued with renowned pianist Misha Dichter performing two Études by Scriabin and Schubert's Sonata in A Major, D. 959, and as a duo piano team with pianist Cipa Dichter, Schubert's Fantasie in F Minor and Copland's El Salon México, arranged by Leonard Bernstein for two pianos. Frank Daykin of New York Concert Review stated: "The Dichters' flair for dialogue between the two instruments was in full display, aided by the clever and faithful arrangement" (26 Feb 2018).

More about the artists for the 2018-19 season follows:

Norman Krieger, Wednesday evening, October 17, 2018 at 8 pm

Tickets are $35. Student and senior discounts are available at the box office.

A native of Los Angeles, Norman Krieger is one of the most acclaimed pianists of his generation and is highly regarded as an artist of depth, sensitivity and virtuosic flair. As the Los Angeles Times put it, "Krieger owns a world of technique-Take That for granted. He always knows exactly where he is going and what he is doing. He never for instant miscalculates. He communicates urgently but with strict control. He is alert to every manner of nuance and at every dynamic level his tone flatters the ear."

Myung-Whun Chung, Donald Runnicles, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Jaap van Zweden and Zubin Mehta are just a few of the conductors with whom Krieger has collaborated. Krieger regularly appears with the major orchestras of North America, among them the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra and the National Symphony. He has performed throughout Europe, Asia and South America including tours of Germany, France, Poland, Holland Scandinavia, Korea, China, New Zealand and Israel. He recently performed at the PyeongChang Music Festival in Korea. In September 2014, he recorded the Brahms Sonata Op. 1 and the Piano Concerto No. 2 with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Philip Ryan Mann, which will be released on Decca.

In recital, Krieger has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico and Asia, while chamber music collaborations have included appearances with soprano Sheri Greenawald, violinists Paul Huang, Sarah Chang, Pamela Frank and Mihaela Martin, violist Nobuko Imai, cellists Myung Wha Chung, Jian Wang, Edward Aaron and Frans Helmersen as well as the Tokyo string quartet. His debut at New York City's prestigious Carnegie Hall and Mostly Mozart Festival earned him an immediate invitation to Lincoln Center's Great Performers Series. Krieger made headlines by being named the Gold Medal Winner of the first Palm Beach Invitational Piano Competition.

He began his studies in Los Angeles under the tutelage of Esther Lipton. At age 15, he became a full-scholarship student of Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School where he earned both his Bachelor and Master degrees. Subsequently, he studied with Alfred Brendel and Maria Curcio in London and earned an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory, where he worked with Russell Sherman.

A champion of contemporary music, he features the music of John Adams, Leonard Bernstein, John Corigliano, Daniel Brewbaker, Donald Crockett, Judith St. Croix, Lukas Foss, Henri Lazarof and Lowell liebermann among his active repertoire.

Krieger is the founding artistic director of The Prince Albert Music Festival in Hawaii. Since 2008, he has served on the summer faculty at the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina. From 1997 to 2016 he was a professor at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. In August 2016 he was appointed Professor of Piano at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.

Jason Hardink, Tuesday evening, February 26, 2019 at 8 pm

Tickets are $35. Student and senior discounts are available at the box office.

A fearless interpreter of large-scale piano works both modern and historical, Jason Hardink's recent repertoire includes the complete Michael Hersch The Vanishing Pavilions, Olivier Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus, the Liszt Transcendental Etudes paired with the Boulez Notations, and Wolfgang Rihm's numbered Klavierstücke, all of which he performs from memory. Recent performances include his debut at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music as soloist in the North American premiere of Gerald Barry's Piano Concerto with conductor Cristian Macelaru. Next September he performs on the opening concert of the Utah Symphony 2018-19 season as soloist for Andrew Norman's piano concerto Suspend.

Much sought after as a chamber musician, Mr. Hardink has collaborated with violinists Augustin Hadelich, Nicola Benedetti, and Phillip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet. He has appeared on chamber music series all over the U.S., including Music in Context, fEARnoMUSIC, Music on the Hill, Aperio Music of the Americas, and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. Hardink has performed solo works of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms on period instruments, and he has toured Norway with violinist Tor Johan Bøen performing the Grieg Sonatas for Violin and Piano on an 1853 Blüthner. In Salt Lake City he has worked with noted guest composers such as Tristan Murail and Frederic Rzewski as a member of the Canyonlands New Music Ensemble, and he has premiered works by Utah composers Morris Rosenzweig, Steve Ricks, Miguel Chuaqui, and Steve Roens.

Mr. Hardink has appeared as guest recitalist and adjudicator for both the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition and the Oberlin International Piano Competition. He has recently served as guest artist for the University of Utah Summer Chamber Music Workshop and the Idaho State University Summer Piano Institute. A graduate of both Oberlin Conservatory and the Shepherd School of Music, Hardink holds a DMA from Rice University, where he studied with Brian Connelly; his Doctoral thesis "Messiaen and Plainchant" explores the varying levels of influence that Gregorian chant exerted on the music of Olivier Messiaen.

Mr. Hardink resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he holds the position of Principal Keyboard with the Utah Symphony and Visiting Guest Artist at the Caine College of the Arts, Utah State University. He is married to pianist Kimi Kawashima, and they are parents of twin boys, Luc and Derek.

Terry Eder, Monday evening, April 8, 2019 at 8 pm

Tickets are $35. Student and senior discounts are available at the box office.

Series Founder Terry Eder is a pianist who aims to touch her audiences in a personal way. She brings total involvement and interpretive insight to her performances. "A live performance should be a special event for the audience; they should depart with lasting, vivid impressions; music should affect us as life-affirming, a reminder that there is beauty to be shared."

Born in Detroit of Eastern European heritage, Terry showed prodigious talent by age 4, when she began studying piano, At 16, she was awarded the Louise Smith Petersen Memorial Award and solo recital at the Detroit Art Institute and was a finalist in the Detroit Piano Technician's Guild/Detroit Symphony concerto competition. Trained at the Oberlin Conservatory and Indiana University School of Music, Ms. Eder was also Associate Instructor at the latter conservatory, as well as Resident Pianist at Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri's experimental community in Arizona. After earning her Master of Music with Distinction, Ms. Eder won a research grant from the International Research and Exchanges Board that sponsored her year-long residency at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. There Ms. Eder specialized in twentieth-century piano music by Hungarian composers, working under the tutelage of Zoltán Kocsis. She immersed herself in Hungarian life and culture, learned to speak Hungarian, and developed a deep and natural understanding of this soulful music. Today she is recognized as an exceptional advocate of the music of Béla Bartók. She won the top Bartók prize in the 2008 IBLA Grand Prize and Bartók-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev competitions. Her CD of Bartók piano works (MSR Classics) has been acclaimed by critics around the globe. Of the recording, Robert Cummings of Classical.net thought Ms. Eder, "seems quite at home in these works, playing with a crispness and wit, and an innate grasp of the ethnic character of the music" (2015). Gapplegate Modern-Classical Music Review found this a fine recording, writing: "Pianist Terry Eder gives us a sparkling interpretation of these pieces, with an open rubato that expresses the free invention of the Bartokian musical mind more than sentiment...Terry Eder shines too in her interpretations. This is a treat for the ears!" (30 Dec 2015). Earlier releases include a disc of Dohnányi piano works on the Hungaroton label and a self-released recital program, "Portrait" available at CD Baby.

Ms. Eder performed her New York solo recital début in 2004 at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, followed by her Lincoln Center recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in 2006, and a recital at Carnegie's Zankel Hall in 2008, all presented by Artists International. The critics lavished praise on these performances, describing her 2004 debut as "excellent, perceptive, sensitive, idiomatic, clear, rhythmically secure and solid, convincing and vigorous," and "reminiscent of Annie Fischer's way" (Harris Goldsmith, New York Concert Review Summer 2004). Her Lincoln Center recital impressed as a "fascinating performance full of life and risk" in which "those lucky souls were rewarded with an exceptional recital from an artist who transmits the music she plays with an entirely natural authority." Ms. Eder was further described as "a big pianist with big ideas and a warmly engaging rapport" (Timothy Gilligan, New York Concert Review Summer 2006). Her Bartók performances at Zankel Hall were described as "mesmerizing" (Anthony Aibel, New York Concert Review Summer 2008), and Chamber Music Today described her Zankel Hall recital as "wonderful, inspired and inspiring" (2 Jun 2008).

Subsequently, Ms. Eder has performed in Europe at such venues as Momenti Musicali in Cassano Valcuvia, Italy, at the Cathedrale Americaine in Paris, Munich's Gasteig, Berlin's Philharmonie, and as far afield as the Shanghai Performing Arts Centre. Terry Eder's repertoire encompasses much of the major piano literature, as well as seldom performed works of Bartók, Dohnányi, Kodály, and others. She has been recognized for her outstanding performances of Beethoven and Ravel, including 3 prizes awarded in Germany for Beethoven performances there, and a Ravel special mention at the 2008 IBLA Grand Prize Competition in Sicily. She is at home performing in a variety of settings, from the largest and most prestigious concert halls to small neighborhood events held in private homes, art galleries and churches. She has also been lauded as a lecturer and has been invited to such venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Berklee College of Music in Boston, the New School University and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore.

In addition to her Key Pianists concert series, Ms. Eder is curating live performances at the North Of History art gallery and performance space on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She is also a teacher and an attorney.