Jeremy Denk Explained

Jeremy Denk
Image Upright:0.7
Birth Date:16 May 1970
Birth Place: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

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 György Sebők.[1]

Career

Denk has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship[2] won the Avery Fisher Prize and Musical Americas 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 Billboards 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." 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 Études.[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

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Denk, Jeremy. Every Good Boy Does Fine; A Love Story in Music Lessons, Random House: 2022.
  2. Web site: Jeremy Denk – MacArthur Foundation. Macfound.org. September 30, 2013.
  3. Web site: Instrumentalist of the Year. Musicalamerica.com .
  4. Web site: Academy Member Connection . Amacad.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20180326202657/https://www.amacad.org/peerCollaboration/profile.aspx?c=psa&q=Jeremy_Denk . 2018-03-26.
  5. Web site: Jeremy Denk. Opus3artists.com.
  6. Web site: Jeremy Denk, Pianist . Jeremydenk.net . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120115032525/http://jeremydenk.net/schedule.php . 2012-01-15.
  7. Web site: For the Love of Brahms. Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
  8. Web site: Jeremy Denk's Recording of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations Lands at #1 on Billboard Classical Chart. October 28, 2013 . Nonesuch Records.
  9. News: 2014 Festival. 2012-02-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20120223171736/http://www.ojaifestival.org/festivals/2014-festival/. February 23, 2012. dead.
  10. Flight of the Concord. The New Yorker. Jeremy Denk. February 6, 2012. 2012-02-27.
  11. News: Earth Music: The Great Animal Orchestra by Bernie Krause. The New York Times. Jeremy Denk. April 15, 2012. 2012-04-15.
  12. Web site: Jeremy Denk, Pianist Jeremy Denk Signs Book Deal with Random House . jeremydenk.net . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140111111332/http://jeremydenk.net/NR-JD-randomhouse.php . 2014-01-11.
  13. https://blog.jeremydenk.com/ Think Denk
  14. Web site: Ligeti/Beethoven: Piano Études; Sonata No 32 – review. TheGuardian.com. May 12, 2012.
  15. Web site: Oberlin Conservatory | Oberlin in New York 2013 Illumination Tour. 2.oberlin.edu.
  16. News: Jeremy Denk Maps Centuries of Music History on 'c.1300-c.2000'. NPR. Tom Huizenga. January 31, 2019. 17 March 2019.
  17. A history of classical music in ten minutes - plus tragedy on today's stage . Front Row. Presenter: Stig Abell; Producer: Hannah Robins. BBC. BBC Radio 4. 26 March 2019. 28 March 2019 .
  18. Web site: Jeremy Denk. 2019-05-21. Edinburgh International Festival. en. 2019-05-22.

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