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| Ursula Oppens |
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| Short Biography |
| Ursula Oppens is one of the few pianists before the public today who has won equal renown as an interpreter of the established repertoire and a champion of contemporary music. Her performances of music old and new are marked by a powerful grasp of the composer’s musical intentions and an equally sure command of the keyboard’s resources; qualities placing her in the ranks of the world’s foremost interpreters. In the summer of 2007, Ms. Oppens performed at the University of California, Berkeley’s EdgeFest, at Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, New York, and at the Ravinia Festival in performances of Mozart Dances with the Mark Morris Dance Group, as well as appearing in masterclasses at Tanglewood’s Contemporary Music Festival. As a friend and colleague of Elliott Carter, she participates in his 100th Birthday celebrations this season with programs featuring his complete music of solo piano at New York City’s Symphony Space and elsewhere. In other 07/08 highlights, Ms. Oppens records the complete solo piano music of Tobias Picker for Wergo Records, performs the world premiere of William Bolcolm’s “Ballade”, and is featured at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s renowned Green Umbrella Festival, performing the world premiere of Harold Meltzer's piano concerto and Carters’s “Dialogues”. The 2006/07 season included Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 with the DuPage Symphony orchestra; the Shostakovich Piano Quintet with the Rossetti String Quartet for Maverick Concerts; a recital for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society including the Ligeti Trio for violin, piano and horn; a duo program with jazz clarinettist Don Byron at Merkin Hall; an appearance at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University in an all-Julius Hemphill program; a program of music of Tania Leon at Symphony Space; a duo recital with Jerome Lowenthal at Queen College; recital and masterclasses at Williams College and the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Music. Under the auspices of the Adams Foundation she performed recitals in Thomaston, CT, Bozeman, MT, Auburn, NY, and at Providence and Elon Colleges. In recent seasons Ms. Oppens performed new works by Frederic Rzewski at the Miller Theatre and a Meredith Monk program at Zankel Hall. She appeared in recital at the at the Perimeter Institute of Waterloo, Ontario; in Tucson, Arizona with the Pacifica Quartet; in Elliott Carter’s “Dialogues” at Pittsburgh University’s “Music on the Edge” Festival. Other highlights include performances with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in its Elliott Carter Festival; performances of Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto at the Pacific Symphony Orchestra’s American Composers Festival; Elliott Carter’s “Dialogues” at the Tanglewood Festival; and recitals at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at the Mannes College of Music, the Southeastern Piano Festival at the University of South Carolina, at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, at the Las Vegas Music Festival, at Maverick Concerts, and at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Michigan, where she was also heard in six chamber music concerts. Ms. Oppens has performed with virtually all of the world’s major orchestras. In previous seasons she has been heard with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, and the orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Milwaukee. Abroad, she has appeared with such orchestras as the Berlin Symphony, Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, the Deutsche Symphonie, the Scottish BBC and the London Philharmonic Orchestras. She has also played at the Aspen, Tanglewood, Santa Fe, Edinburgh, Bath and Holland Festivals, among others. An enduring commitment to integrating new music into regular concert life has led Ms. Oppens to commission and premiere many compositions, including works by Anthony Braxton, Elliott Carter, Anthony Davis, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, Tania Leon, György Ligeti, Witold Lutoslawski, Conlon Nancarrow, Tobias Picker, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Singleton, Joan Tower, Lois V Vierk, Christian Wolff, Amnon Wolman, and Charles Wuorinen. A co-founder of Speculum Musicae, Ms. Oppens has an extensive recording catalogue and can be heard on Angel, Arista, Audivis, BMG, Bridge, CBS Masterworks, CP2, CRI, De Note, Koch International Classics, Music and Arts, Vanguard, New Albion, New World, Nonesuch, and Watt Works. She received two Grammy nominations: for her Vanguard recording of Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated,” and for “American Piano Music of Our Time,” a classic compilation of piano works by 20th century American composers for the Music & Arts label. The latter was also named in John Rockwell’s “Best of the Year” survey for The New York Times, along with her recording for New World Records of Elliott Carter’s Piano Concerto. Ms. Oppens’s recent releases include a disc of chamber music by Elliott Carter with the Arditti Quartet on the Audivis label and Charles Wuorinen’s Piano Quintet on Koch International Classics. Other recordings include Joan Tower’s Piano Concerto on De Note Records; Rzewski’s “Night Crossing with Fishermen” and a disc of Schoenberg’s vocal music with soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, both for Music and Arts; and the Brahms Viola Sonatas with Barbara Westphal on Bridge Records. Throughout her career Ms. Oppens has played at many of the world’s major festivals, including those in Aspen, Tanglewood, Santa Fe, Ojai, Music Academy of the West, Edinburgh, Bonn, Cabrillo, Stresa, Bath, Bergamo, Brescia, Japan, and the Holland Festival. She has also been heard in recital and concerto performances at many European music centers, including the South Bank Center and the BBC Broadcasting House in London, the Vienna Radio Orchestra, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, and in Stockholm, Brussels, Geneva, and Bonn. Ursula Oppens studied piano with her mother, the late Edith Oppens, as well as with Leonard Shure and Guido Agosti. She received her master’s degree at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Felix Galimir and Rosina Lhévinne. As an undergraduate at Radcliffe College, she studied English literature and economics. A native New Yorker, Ms. Oppens made her New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1969 under the auspices of Young Concert Artists. She won first prize in the Busoni International Piano Competition that same year, and was awarded the Diploma d’onore of the Accademia Chigiana in 1970. In 1976 she won an Avery Fisher Career Grant, which led to a performance with the New York Philharmonic. Ms. Oppens, who was appointed John Evans Distinguished Professor of Music at Northwestern University in 1994, divides her time between Evanstown, IL and New York City. 2007/2008 If you wish to revise this biography, please contact Mark Stephan Buhl Artists Management. Please use material of the current season only. |
