Jeremy Denk
In Montreal, Quebec, Canada, at the MBAM Bourgie Hall
Born	( 1970-05-16 ) May 16, 1970 (age 54) Durham, North Carolina , U.S.
Occupation	Classical pianist

Jeremy Denk (born May 16, 1970 in Durham, North Carolina ) is an American classical pianist.

Early life [ edit ]

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 Gyorgy Seb?k . ^[1]

Career [ edit ]

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. ^{[5] [13]}

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 Etudes . ^[14] 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. ^[15]

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. ^[16] He discussed the work on BBC Radio 4 's Front Row in March 2019. ^[17]

Denk made his Edinburgh International Festival debut in August 2019 with a programme of piano works by Bach , Ligeti , Liszt , Berg and Schumann . ^[18]

Recordings [ edit ]

• 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 Gyorgy Ligeti's piano etudes and Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32 , Nonesuch Records
• January 2012: French Impressions , including sonatas of Franck , Ravel , and Saint-Saens 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 Faure Violin Sonata. Chausson Concert. Soovin Kim /Jupiter String Quartet. Azica Records
• Brahms and Dvo?ak 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 [ edit ]

This list is incomplete ; you can help by adding missing items . ( December 2015 )

• Denk, Jeremy (April 8, 2013). "Every good boy does fine : a life in piano lessons" . Personal History. The New Yorker . Vol. 89, no. 8. pp. 40?45 . Retrieved December 22, 2015 .
• Denk, Jeremy (2022). Every Good Boy Does Fine; A Love Story in Music Lessons . Random House.

References [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

• Jeremy Denk's official website
• Jeremy Denk's Opus 3 Artists page
• The Bard College Conservatory of Music
• Classical Archives Interview

• Profile on CBS Sunday Morning 3/20/22