Renowned Pianist Michael Stephen Brown To Return To Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival For Three Concerts

The internationally lauded American pianist Michael Stephen Brown will return to the 40th season of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival for three concerts, on July 27, 29, and 30, 2023. Full program details follow:

Festival of Color: Debussy/Martinů/Fauré

Thursday, July 27, 6 p.m. | Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church (2429 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton, NY)

Claude Debussy Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano

Bohuslav Martinů Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola

Gabriel Fauré Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 15

Annual Benefit: Turning a New Leaf

Saturday, July 29, 6:30 p.m. | Atlantic Golf Club (1040 Scuttle Hole Road, Bridgehampton, NY)

Antonin Dvořák "Goin' Home" arranged for ensemble

Traditional Peat Dance for String Quartet

Bruce MacCombie Light Upon the Turning Leaf for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Violin, Viola, Cello, Piano*

Antonin Dvořák Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81 (selections)

*BCM commission

Something Borrowed, Something Gained: Beethoven/MacCombie/Dvořák

Sunday, July 30, 6 p.m. | Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church (2429 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton, NY)

Ludwig van Beethoven Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 11

Bruce MacCombie Light Upon the Turning Leaf for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano*

Antonin Dvořák Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81

*BCM commission

For the July 27 and July 30 concert, tickets starting at $50 will be available online through Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival's website. For the July 29 Annual Benefit dinner, tickets starting at $1500 can be purchased through the event page.

Pianist and composer Michael Stephen Brown is frequent performer of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center series. Mr. Brown, whose artistry is shaped by his creative voice as a pianist and composer, will be featured on the Society 2023-24 season with a solo recital at Alice Tully Hall.

As a guest soloist, Mr. Brown has performed with the Seattle Symphony, the National Philharmonic, and the Grand Rapids, North Carolina, Wichita, New Haven, and Albany Symphonies. He has appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Lincoln Center. He regularly collaborates performs with his longtime duo partner, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and has been featured at numerous festivals including Tanglewood, Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Gilmore, Ravinia, Saratoga, Bridgehampton, Caramoor, Music in the Vineyards, Bard, Sedona, Moab, and Tippet Rise.

Mr. Brown recently toured his own Concerto for Piano and Strings (2020) throughout the United States and Poland with several orchestras. He has received commissions from the Gilmore Piano Festival; the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra; the New Haven and Maryland Symphony Orchestras; Concert Artists Guild; Chamber Music Sedona; Music in the Vineyards; Shriver Hall; Osmo Vänskä, pianists Jerome Lowenthal, Ursula Oppens, Orion Weiss, Adam Golka, and Roman Rabinovich.

A prolific recording artist, his latest album Noctuelles, featuring Ravel's Miroirs and newly discovered movements by Medtner was called "a glowing presentation" by BBC Music Magazine. He can be heard as soloist with the Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot in the music of Messiaen, and as soloist with the Brandenburg State Symphony in music by Samuel Adler. Other albums include Beethoven's Eroica Variations; all-George Perle; and collaborative albums each with pianist Jerome Lowenthal, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and violinist Elena Urioste. He is now embarking on a multi-year project to record the complete piano music by Felix Mendelssohn including world premiere recordings of music by one of Mendelssohn's muses, Delphine von Schauroth.

Recipient of many awards, Mr. Brown was the winner of the 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Other awards include the First Prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Bowers Residency from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (formerly CMS Two), and the Juilliard Petschek Award. Mr. Brown is a Steinway Artist.

Mr. Brown earned dual bachelor's and master's degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald and composers Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. Additional mentors have included András Schiff and Richard Goode as well as his early teachers, Herbert Rothgarber and Adam Kent. A native New Yorker, he lives there with his two 19th century Steinway D's, Octavia and Daria.

To post a comment, you must register and login.