Joanne Polk is a pianist with Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees from The Juilliard School, and a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Manhattan School of Music. She holds master classes at many universities and festivals across the country and in Asia. [1]
Pianist Joanne Polk was introduced to the public when she appeared on the Arabesque Recordings label with her recordings of the complete piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867–1944). Polk celebrated the centennial of the premiere of Beach's piano concerto performing the piece under the baton of Paul Goodwin with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London. The first solo recording for the Beach series in 1998 won the INDIE Award for Best Solo Recording. [2] [3]
One year earlier, she recorded the CD Completely Clara: Lieder by Clara Wieck Schumann for Arabesque Recordings together with soprano Korliss Uecker. This CD was chosen as "Best of the Year" by The Seattle Times. Joanne Polk, together with baritone Patrick Mason, recorded the CD Songs of Amy Beach for Bridge records, which was nominated in 2007 for at Grammy Award. [4] Polk has released a two-CD set of the music of Fanny Mendelssohn as well. These CDs, titled Songs for Pianoforte with solo piano music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel were recorded for the Newport Classic label. Polk also recorded a CD titled Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn which featured solo piano music of Fanny and her brother Felix, and was released on the Bridge Records label. [5]
In 2014, Polk recorded a CD titled The Flatterer for the Steinway & Sons Label, which included solo piano music by French romantic composer Cécile Chaminade. The CD debuted at number 1 on the Classical Billboard Chart and was a “Pick of the Week” on New York's classical radio station WQXR. [1] In the same year, Joanne Polk was named one of Musical America's Top 30 Professionals of the Year. [6] In 2017, Joanne Polk released a CD titled Gershwin & Wild for the Steinway & Sons label. The CD contains Earl Wild's transcriptions of Gershwin's songs, as well as Wild's Piano Sonata. [3] In 2018, Polk embarked on a three-week tour of concerts and masterclass in five cities in China and Taiwan. [7]
In February 2020, Polk released a CD titled Louise Farrenc Etudes and Variations for Piano Solo on the Steinway & Sons Label. [8] The same year in December, this CD was on the New York Times' "Best Classical Music of 2020" list.. [9] Polk 's recording "The Silence Between the Notes: Louise Farrenc Solo Piano Music Volume 2" was released on September 1, 2023, on the Steinway & Sons label. [8] On September 6, 2024, Polk’s most recent recording, Nostalgia: Piano Music of Cécile Chaminade Volume 2 was released on the Steinway & Sons Label. [10]
Polk returned to China in 2024 for a three-week, 8-city tour. In summer, 2024, Polk performed recitals and masterclasses in Guadalajara, Mexico. She is on the piano faculty of Manhattan School of Music and is an exclusive Steinway artist. [11]
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Her "Gaelic" Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman. She was one of the first American composers to succeed without the benefit of European training, and one of the most respected and acclaimed American composers of her era. As a pianist, she was acclaimed for concerts she gave featuring her own music in the United States and in Germany.
Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade was a French composer and pianist. In 1913, she was awarded the Légion d'Honneur, a first for a female composer. Ambroise Thomas said, "This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman."
Dame Moura Lympany DBE was an English concert pianist.
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Yeol Eum Son is a world renowned South Korean classical pianist. She is particularly esteemed as an interpreter of the Classical era of composers, especially Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, as well as such later composers as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Ravel. Son regularly performs as soloist with prominent orchestras and eminent conductors.
The Labèque sisters, Katia and Marielle, are an internationally recognised French piano duo.
Louise Farrenc was a French composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher of the Romantic period. Her compositions include three symphonies, a few choral works, numerous chamber pieces and a wide variety of piano music.
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Wolfram Lorenzen was a German pianist.
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Coenraad Bloemendal is a Dutch-born Canadian cellist, who has performed, taught and recorded primarily in the field of classical music during a career that has spanned more than four decades.
Vyacheslav Gryaznov is a Russian classical pianist and arranger. His diverse repertoire ranges from Baroque figures such as Domenico Scarlatti to Russian composers and more recent music. He is particularly well known for his many piano transcriptions of older masterworks.
Barbara Nissman is an American pianist. She is especially known for her interpretations and performances of the works of Alberto Ginastera and Sergei Prokofiev which feature prominently in her repertoire. She is also a writer and a producer of a new DVD series, and a guest clinician presenting concerts, master classes and lectures world-wide.
Babette Hierholzer is a German American pianist.
Joseph Robert Smith was an American pianist, author, and lecturer. The son of Robert Paul Smith and Elinor Goulding Smith, Smith was a long-time student of pianist Seymour Bernstein.
Liana Șerbescu, is a Romanian pianist, piano pedagogue and musicologist, a pioneer in the field of women's music. Through her many-sided activity as a performing pianist, researcher and writer, she contributed to enriching the repertoire of classical piano music.
The Abegg Trio was a German piano trio. Since its foundation in 1976, it played in the original line-up.
Peter Jacobs is an English pianist.
Dominic Ferris is a British pianist, conductor, music producer, musical director, and singer. The son of pop songwriter and former Beatles sound engineer Roger Ferris and singer-songwriter Glo Macari, he is a Global Ambassador for Steinway & Sons. He is active in classical music, pop, and musical theatre, and performs as a solo artist, in the duo The Piano Brothers, as an accompanist and studio musician, and with orchestral shows. He is also an active producer and arranger known for working with a wide variety of artists, and as a conductor.