Leon Bates (pianist)

Last updated
Leon Bates (pianist)
Born1949 (age 7475)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States
GenresClassical
Occupation(s) Pianist
Instrument(s) Piano, violin

Leon Bates (born 1949) is an American pianist.

Early life

Leon Bates was born in Philadelphia, where by the age of six he had excelled in the study of music, specifically at playing the piano and violin. As a young artist, Bates was an understudy of Irene Beck. He also was a student of Natalie Hinderas at the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia. [1]

Contents

While growing up, Leon Bates divided his time between two disparate passions: the pursuit of music and the physically demanding sport of body building. According to Karima A. Haynes, Leon Bates grew up defying stereotypes. Bates claims that the two disciplines have synergistic benefits. "The last piece on the program is the one that is the most demanding and dynamic. You don’t want to run out of energy as you are coming to the piece that demands the most from you. [2] (Haynes qtd Bates 164)."

Career

Bates has toured the world, performing with many symphonies. In the United States, he has performed with both Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, as well as New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics. He also performed with various symphonies such as Atlanta, Boston, Detroit and the San Francisco Symphonies. In Europe, he has performed with various orchestras including Vienna and Basel Symphonies, the Radio-Orchestra of Dublin, the Strasbourg Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony of Sweden and more. One of his most highly regarded performances was with Lorin Maazel at the Orchestra of France. [3] This concert was in celebration of the 500,000th piano built at Carnegie Hall but was held at La Scala in Milan. He has also composed prominent pieces of music with the accompaniment of Janet Vogt for a method book entitled Piano Discoveries. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leopold Stokowski</span> British-born American conductor (1882–1977)

Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-American conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was especially noted for his free-hand conducting style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from the orchestras he directed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmanuel Pahud</span> Franco-Swiss flautist (born 1970)

Emmanuel Pahud is a Franco-Swiss flautist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esa-Pekka Salonen</span> Finnish conductor and composer (born 1958)

Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lang Lang</span> Chinese pianist (born 1982)

Lang Lang is a Chinese pianist who has performed with major orchestras around the world and appeared at many leading concert halls. Active since the 1990s, he was the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and many of the top American orchestras. A Chicago Tribune music critic called him "the biggest, most exciting young keyboard talent I have encountered in many a year of attending piano recitals." Lang is considered by many as one of the most accomplished classical musicians of modern times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">André Watts</span> American pianist (1946–2023)

André Watts was an American classical pianist. Over the six decades of his career, Watts performed as soloist with every major American orchestra and most of the world's finest orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, and London Symphony Orchestra. Watts recorded a variety of repertoire, concentrating on Romantic era composers such as Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, but also including George Gershwin. In 2020, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. He won a Grammy Award for Best New Classical Artist in 1964. Watts was also on the faculty at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Fan</span> American pianist

Joel Fan is an American pianist and Steinway Artist "who has won praise for his technical expertise, lyrical playing, and outstanding interpretation". The New York Times has described Joel Fan as an "impressive pianist" with a "probing intellect and vivid imagination." "Fan has a flourishing international career as a performing and recording artist, notable for his fluency in the standard repertoire and contemporary works." Consistently acclaimed for his recitals and appearances with orchestras, Mr. Fan scored two consecutive Billboard Top 10 Debuts with his solo CDs World Keys and West of the Sun, while Dances for Piano and Orchestra earned a Grammy nomination.

<i>Symphonic Dances</i> (Rachmaninoff) 1940 orchestral suite composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, is an orchestral suite in three movements completed in October 1940 by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is his final major composition, and his only piece written in its entirety while living in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustin Hadelich</span> Italian-German-American violinist (born 1984)

Augustin Hadelich is an Italian-German-American Grammy-winning classical violinist.

Tolga Kashif is a British born musical conductor, composer, orchestrator, producer and arranger of Turkish Cypriot descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yannick Nézet-Séguin</span> Canadian conductor and pianist

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC is a Canadian conductor and pianist. He is currently music director of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), the Metropolitan Opera, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was the principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tossy Spivakovsky</span> Musical artist

Nathan "Tossy" Spivakovsky, a Jewish, Russian Empire-born, German-trained violin virtuoso, was considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century.

Helen Huang is a classical pianist. She began studying piano in 1987, performing and touring with major symphony orchestras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nobuyuki Tsujii</span> Japanese pianist and composer (born 1988)

Nobuyuki Tsujii is a Japanese pianist and composer. He was born blind due to microphthalmia. Tsujii performs extensively, with a large number of conductors and orchestras, and has received critical acclaim for his unique techniques for learning music and performing with an orchestra while being unable to see.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yuja Wang</span> Chinese pianist (born 1987)

Yuja Wang is a Chinese pianist. Born in Beijing, she began learning the piano there at age six, and went on to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. By the age of 21, she was already an internationally recognized concert pianist and signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. She has since established herself as one of the leading artists of her generation. Wang currently lives in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mario Brunello</span> Italian cellist and musician

Mario Brunello is an Italian cellist and musician, who is currently Artistic Director of the International String Quartet Competition Premio Paolo Borciani and of the Reggio Emilia String Quartet Festival. Brunello plays a 17th century Maggini cello which, in the 20th century, belonged to Benedetto Mazzacurati and then to Franco Rossi, cellist of the "Quartetto Italiano". He has played with many orchestras internationally and has performed with various artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniil Trifonov</span> Russian pianist and composer (born 1991)

Daniil Olegovich Trifonov is a Russian pianist and composer. Described by The Globe and Mail as "arguably today's leading classical virtuoso" and by The Times as "without question the most astounding pianist of our age", Trifonov's honors include a Grammy Award win in 2018 and the Gramophone Classical Music Awards' Artist of the Year Award in 2016. The New York Times has noted that "few artists have burst onto the classical music scene in recent years with the incandescence" of Trifonov. He has performed as soloist with such orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony and the Munich Philharmonic, and has given solo recitals in such venues as Royal Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Berliner Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Concertgebouw, and the Seoul Arts Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Fedorova</span> Musical artist

Anna Borysivna Fedorova is a Ukrainian concert pianist. Fedorova performs as soloist, chamber musician and with symphony orchestras in the major concert halls of the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, UK, Ukraine, Poland, the US, Mexico, Argentina, and parts of Asia. Fedorova is a David Young Piano Prize Holder supported by a Soiree d'Or Award and Keyboard Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrad Tao</span> American composer and pianist

Conrad Yiwen Tao is an American composer and pianist and former violinist. Tao's piano and violin performances since childhood brought him early recognition at music festivals and competitions. At age 13, he was featured on the PBS TV series From the Top – Live from Carnegie Hall as violinist, pianist and composer. He won eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Among his compositions have been commissions by the New York Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony and Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Danny Driver is a British classical pianist.

Stewart Goodyear (born February 1978) is a Canadian concert pianist and composer. He is best known for performing all 32 Beethoven sonatas in a single day, a feat he has done at Koerner Hall (Toronto), McCarter Theatre (Princeton), the Mondavi Center, the AT&T Performing Arts Center (Dallas), and Memorial Hall (Cincinnati).

References

  1. "Cheryl North Interviews Leon Bates". North Works . Retrieved November 14, 2011.
  2. "American Composers Orchestra". Artist Biographies. Retrieved November 19, 2011.
  3. "Leon Bates, Piano". Joanne Rile Artists Management. Archived from the original on September 10, 2011. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
  4. Johnson, Rebecca (January–February 2010). "A Survey of Current Methods: Piano Discoveries". Perspectives in Pedagogy . Heritage Music Press. 1.