Geoffrey Burleson
Geoffrey Burleson, pianist, has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America, and is equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and jazz performer. The New York Times has hailed his solo performances as “vibrant” and “compelling”, and has praised his “command, projection of rhapsodic qualities without loss of rhythmic vigor, and appropriate sense of spontaneity and fetching colors”. His numerous acclaimed solo appearances include prominent venues in Paris (at the Église St-Merri), New York, Rome (American Academy), Helsinki (Sibelius Academy), Athens (Mitropoulos Hall), Mexico City (National Museum of Art), Rotterdam (De Doelen), Chicago (Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series), Boston, Washington, Switzerland, England, Spain, and elsewhere. He has also appeared as featured soloist at the Mostly Modern Festival, Bard Music Festival, Monadnock Music Festival, Mänttä Music Festival (Finland), Santander Festival (Spain) and the Talloires International Festival (France) and the International Keyboard Institute & Festival (New York).
Mr. Burleson made his New York City solo recital debut at Merkin Hall in 2000, sponsored by the League of Composers/ISCM. Concerto appearances include the Buffalo Philharmonic, Boston Musica Viva, Arlington Philharmonic, New England Philharmonic, and the Holland Symfonia in the Netherlands, performing repertoire ranging from Mozart, Weber and Saint-Saëns to Gershwin, Yehudi Wyner, David Rakowski and Klaas de Vries. Mr. Burleson is a core member of the American Modern Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, The Tribeca New Music Festival, and David Sanford’s Pittsburgh Collective. Recent touring projects include Akoka: Messiaen Remix, a CD and program featuring Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, and including new works commenting on it by David Krakauer and DJ Socalled, with David Krakauer, clarinet; Matt Haimovitz, cello; and Todd Reynolds, violin. The “Akoka” CD was nominated for a 2015 Juno Award for Classical Album Of The Year. As a jazz pianist, Mr. Burleson has performed extensively at home and abroad, both as soloist and in many ensembles.
Currently, Mr. Burleson is recording the complete piano works of Camille Saint-Saëns, being released on 5 CD volumes on the Naxos Grand Piano label. The first 5 volumes have been released, beginning with Saint-Saëns: Piano Works 1: Complete Piano Études, in 2012, and most recently, in September 2019, Saint-Saëns Complete Piano Works 5: Rarities and Transcriptions, which includes several unpublished works Mr. Burleson found in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Mr. Burleson is also the editor for Saint-Saëns: Solo Piano Rarities, published by Carl Fischer in December 2020, a volume containing all of the never-before published works by Saint-Saëns that Mr. Burleson has recorded.
Other solo releases include Roy Harris-Complete Piano Music (Naxos), and Vincent Persichetti: Complete Piano Sonatas (New World Records), a 2-CD set on which all twelve of Persichetti’s piano sonatas are united on one release for the first time. The Persichetti recording was accorded high acclaim from the BBC Music Magazine (“BBC Music Choice”; 5/5 stars), a laudatory feature review in Gramophone, and was listed among the best recordings released in 2008 by Fanfare and the American Record Guide. His extensive chamber music discography includes Odd Couple (Oxingale Records), a duo CD of American works with cellist Matt Haimovitz, featuring the Barber and Carter Sonatas, as well as newer works by David Sanford and Augusta Read Thomas.
A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, New England Conservatory, and Stony Brook University (D.M.A.), his principal teachers include Gilbert Kalish, Leonard Shure, Veronica Jochum, Lillian Freundlich, and Tinka Knopf. Mr. Burleson teaches piano at Princeton University, and is Professor of Music and Director of Piano Studies at Hunter College-City University of New York.