Event Details

Native New Yorker Michael Brown is one of today’s most up-and-coming pianist-composers. Winner of the 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center, he also received a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prize at the 2010 Concert Artists Guild Competition. He earned dual bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano and composition from Juilliard, where he studied piano with Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald and composition with Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. His composition style often blends new elements with classical ones, and he has received commissions from Poland’s NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä, Shriver Hall, Concert Artists Guild, and Bargemusic, among others. Besides composing, he performs frequently as a soloist and as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His recordings on various labels reflect the broad scope of his musical passions and include Messaien with the Seattle Symphony, collaborative CDs with a number of prominent artists, including his duo-partner cellist Nicolas Canellakis, and solo discs of George Perle (Bridge Records), Mendelssohn and Beethoven (2018), and Ravel and Medtner (2019), both on First Hand Records. In addition to performing, the Canellakis-Brown partnership is known for ‘Conversations with Nick Canellakis,’ a popular online series of satirical interviews with stars of the classical music world.

“…a performance of compelling artistry and power.” —The Seattle Times

“…one of the most refined of all pianist-composers” —International Piano

“…a young piano visionary” – The New York Times

PROGRAM

HAYDN  Fantasia (Capriccio) in C Major, HOB. XVII: 4
BROWN  Folk Variations
MENDELSSOHN  Variations sérieuses, Op. 54 and selected Songs Without Words (Op. 30/6 and Op. 62/5)
BROWN  Mini Barcarolle
LISZT  Legend No. 2 (“St. Francis of Paola Walking on the Waves”)

Intermission

CHOPIN  Barcarolle, Op. 60
BROWN  Surfaces
BROWN  Constellations and Toccata
BARTÓK  Out of Doors