Shai Wosner, Piano August 26, 2010

Downtown Piano Works is deeply honored to welcome back International Concert Pianist, Shai Wosner to our Fine Artist Concert Series for an evening of works by Schubert and Ravel. As always, there is no charge for admission to our series, but space is limited to 65. Please RSVP to downtownpianoworks@yahoo.com, or call (301) 631-1234 to guarantee a seat for this performance.

Shai Wosner continues to attract international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity and creative insight. With imaginative programming that communicates his intellectual curiosity, Wosner performs a wide-ranging repertoire from Mozart and Beethoven to Ligeti and composers of his own generation. Hailed by the Financial Times as "an artist to follow keenly", Wosner’s virtuosity and perceptiveness have increasingly made him a favorite among audiences and critics.

In the 2008-2009 season Mr. Wosner appears in recitals throughout the US and Europe, including London's Wigmore Hall, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and The 92nd Street Y in New York. Recent and upcoming orchestral engagements include his critically-acclaimed debut with The Cleveland Orchestra, his return to the Atlanta and Houston symphonies, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Fresno Philharmonic, the Indianapolis and North Carolina symphonies. He also continues his extensive performing and recording activity as a BBC New Generation Artist, which he was named in September 2007. His residency this season, to be broadcast throughout the BBC Radio 3 network, encompasses recital, chamber-music and concerto repertoire, as well as directing two Mozart concerti from the keyboard.

Highlights of his 2009-2010 season include his subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, engagements with the BBC Scottish Symphony (a Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall as well as subscription concerts), recitals as a soloist and in duos with violinists Jennifer Koh and Viviane Hagner.

In 2005, Wosner won an Avery Fisher Career Grant. In the same year, he received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award which led to the joint commission (by the Trust and The 92nd Street Y) of Michael Hersch's Chamber Concerto, a work for piano and 13 players, based on poetry by Zbigniew Herbert.

In recent seasons, Wosner has appeared with numerous major orchestras in North America and Europe, including re-engagements with The Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Hollywood Bowl, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Baltimore, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Milwaukee, Columbus and Memphis; the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia; Staatskapelle Berlin, the Gothenburg Symphony, the Barcelona Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Orchestre National de Belgique, among others. In 2006 he debuted with the Vienna Philharmonic during the 250th anniversary celebrations of Mozart's birth, in Salzburg. He has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, Donald Runnicles, Hans Graf, Alan Gilbert, Peter Oundjian, James Conlon, James Judd and Yan Pascal Tortelier.

Wosner is widely sought after by his colleagues for his versatility and spirit of partnership. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with numerous esteemed artists including Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell, Cho-Liang Lin and Christian Tetzlaff. From 2002-2004, he was a member of Lincoln's Center's Chamber Music Society Two. He regularly performs at various chamber music festivals, including Chamber Music Northwest in Portland and La Jolla's SummerFest. Other summer festival appearances include the Ravinia Festival, Hollywood Bowl, Mostly Mozart, Grand Teton Music Festival, and Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. His many chamber music engagements in the 2008-2009 season include a performance with members of The New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall. Other collaborations this season include a performance of the Mozart concerto for three pianos with Joseph Kalichstein and Alon Goldstein and the New York String Orchestra with Jaime Laredo at Carnegie Hall. For several consecutive summers, Wosner was also involved in the West-Eastern Divan Workshop led by Daniel Barenboim and toured as soloist with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Born in Israel, Mr. Wosner enjoyed a broad musical education from a very early age, studying piano with Emanuel Krasovsky, and composition, theory and improvisation with André Hajdu. He later studied at Juilliard with Emanuel Ax.

Shai lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.