Pianist Henry Kramer performs Debussy’s Suite bergamasque and Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy live from the Chicago Cultural Center.
The winner of the 2015 William Petschek Recital Debut Award from The Juilliard School and the Second Prize winner of the 2016 Queen Elisabeth Competition, pianist Henry Kramer is establishing himself as one of the foremost pianists of his generation. His performances have been praised by critics as “triumphant” and “thrilling” (The New York Times), “technically effortless” (La Presse, Montreal), and the Philadelphia Inquirer described him as a “pianist of enormous talent” after his recital debut. A Maine native, he has earned top prizes in the 2015 Honens International Piano Competition, the 2011 Montreal International Music Competition, and the Sixth China Shanghai International Piano Competition. He was also a prizewinner in the Eighth National Chopin Competition in Miami and received the 2014 Harvard Musical Association Arthur Foote Award. He is a winner of Astral’s 2014 National Auditions. He has appeared with the National Belgian Orchestra, Bilkent (Turkey) Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain, and the Brussels, Calgary, and Shanghai philharmonics. He has collaborated with conductors Marin Alsop, Stéphane Denève, Yan Pascal Tortelier, and Hans Graf. In 2012, he gave his European debut in solo recital at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and made an appearance in Havana, Cuba, as a cultural ambassador. Festival appearances include Verbier, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, and La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest. He appeared on Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute tour, which included performances at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and New York’s Morgan Library. His first recording, dedicated to the oratorio transcriptions of Liszt, was recently released on the Naxos label. Mr. Kramer holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale School of Music (where he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree). He currently serves as the L. Rexford Whiddon Distinguished Chair of Piano at the Schwob School of Music at CSU.
Artist biography courtesy of the International Music Foundation Chicago
