Donald Berman is a multi-dimensional American pianist, scholar, and educator who has consistently placed an emphasis on 20th and 21st century music, and on American composers in particular. He has made dozens of recordings on a variety of labels, both as soloist and as collaborative pianist. An enthusiastic commissioner of new music, he has added over 200 works to the contemporary canon. His body of work as a recording artist demonstrates both the breadth and depth of his engagement with music of our time. Many of his recordings are world premieres, but he has also illuminated historic and previously unknown works of American composers (Americans in Rome/Bridge; The Unknown Ives vols. 1 & 2 /CRI, New World; The Uncovered Ruggles/New World), performed with orchestras (George Perle: Serenades/BMOP, Christopher Theofanidis’ Piano Concerto/Summit), collaborated with singers (This Island and The Edge of Silence with Susan Narucki /Avie), and with chamber ensembles (The Worlds Revolve with Borromeo Quartet/Avie). His recording of Ives’ Concord Sonata was met with international acclaim in 2024.
Mr. Berman, a Radcliffe scholar, is general editor of three volumes of Charles Ives’ Shorter Works for Piano, a project finished in 2022 that took 30 years to complete. He is chair of keyboard studies at The Longy School of Music of Bard College and directs the New Music Ensemble at Tufts University. In his position as president of the board of The Charles Ives Society, he is curating an extensive expansion of the Society’s Ives archive, a treasure trove of in-depth information accessible to all via charlesives.org.
Mr. Berman’s trajectory as a musician and scholar was set in motion by four important teachers: Mildred Victor, George Barth, and principally John Kirkpatrick (who premiered the Concord Sonata in 1939) and legendary pedagogue Leonard Shure.
Donald Berman will perform with The Orchestra Now on November 16, 17 & 21, 2024.
Bio: Oct 2024