Donald Berman / Photo by Gil Gilbert

Essential American pianist Donald Berman will return to Bargemusic, the scene of his sold out and rapturously received concert of August 2014, with a recital of Berio, Fauré, Wheeler and Ives on Friday, 29 May 2015 at 7pm. Bargemusic, a concert series presented on a renovated barge floating in New York City's East River and known for its curatorial prowess, invited Mr. Berman back after the success of his 2014 venue debut.

"For this year's program, I'm starting with a conversation between Berio and Fauré, with water as the theme, which segues into eight miniatures by Scott Wheeler. I've chosen the Wheeler pieces for their variety - styles drawing on everything from neoclassic to jazz to rhythmic settings that brush up against modern American musical theater - and for their elegant compatibility with one another. The second half of the program is devoted to Ives, to whom I've happily devoted decades of scholarship and performance" says Mr. Berman.

As General Editor of the 3-volume Complete Short Works for Piano of Charles Ives, Mr. Berman has collaborated with three different publishers to issue a new edition of these important works. The first volume - Shorter Piano Works Volume I (Marches) - was issued in 2014 by Peer Music. Volume II (Studies) will be published in 2015 by Theodore Presser, and Volume III (Miscellaneous Short Works) in 2016 by G.Schirmer / AMP. Selections from all three volumes will be included in May's Bargemusic program.

Mr. Berman is currently at work recording the complete solo piano works of Scott Wheeler. Comprising 25 pieces in all, the program will be committed to CD by Bridge Records in Fall 2015. His CD Martin Boykan / Music for Piano (1986-2007) (Bridge 9434), characterized by the New York Times as a "wonderful recording of Mr. Boykan's piano music, played by the brilliant and sensitive pianist Donald Berman", was also included on the Boston Globe's year-end "Best of Boston 2014" list. In the Fall, he will record George Perle's Serenade for Piano & Orchestra with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, for release on BMOP Sound.

Mr. Berman is based in Boston, serving on the faculty of Tufts University teaching contemporary music. In September 2015 he will also join the faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge as Artist Teacher. "I am excited to be joining marvelous colleagues to work with aspiring pianists as part of the innovative curriculum recently established at Longy," says Mr. Berman.

Donald Berman is a pianist of rare gifts - a musician with dazzling chops whose every expressive gesture is supported by the kind of profound stylistic authority which can only come from years of scholarly research and insight. Starting with his years as the great John Kirkpatrick's last pupil, Mr.Berman's passions as a player have inspired his passions as a scholar, and vice versa. On the strength of the chance discovery of hundreds of forgotten musical manuscripts while snooping through a filing cabinet while a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, Mr. Berman spent ten years curating an immense project which ultimately resulted in a highly praised series of four concerts of unknown and under-appreciated American music at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and a subsequent 4-CD set, Americans in Rome (Bridge 9271). He has been a Fellow at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, guest lecturer on minimalism at Northeastern University, Director of New England Conservatory's Summer Piano Institute, Advisor to the Boston Jewish Music Festival, General Editor of The Complete Short Works for Piano of Charles Ives, and Vice-president, Treasurer, Chair of Subventions, and Co-Chair of the Editorial Committee of the Charles Ives Society. All while pursuing an active performing career.

Performance highlights in recent years have focused primarily on solo and chamber music repertoire, combining familiar works by such composers as Scarlatti, Fauré, Chopin, Copland, Bloch, Schubert, Poulenc, Rieger, Kagel and Schoenberg with premieres and seldom performed works by Stucky, Wyner, Chang, Theofanidis, Saariaho, McDonald, Boulez, Cage, Schoenfield, Harbison, Zare, Lieberson, Lerdahl and many others. Mr. Berman's recordings can be found on Naxos, ARSIS Audio, Bridge, New World, CRI, Koch, Centaur, Newport Classics, Accurate and Capstone Records. 

Luciano Berio (1925-2003)	Luftklavier (1985)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)	Barcarolle No. 1, op. 26 (1881)
Luciano Berio	Wasserklavier (1965)
Gabriel Fauré	Barcarolle No. 5, op. 66 (1894)
Scott Wheeler (b. 1952)	Alphabet Dance (1992)
	Birthday Card for Tony (1998)
	Epithalamion (1998)
	Pseudo-Rag: GS (1985)
	The Fifth of July (2007)
	Cowley Meditation (2009)
	Cliff Walk (2006)
	Life Study (2014)
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Charles Ives (1874-1954)	Study No. 6  (1909)
	Emerson, from Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-1860 (1912)
	Waltz-Rondo (1911)
	March No. 5, with Annie Lisle (1895)

For more information about Donald Berman, call 831-620-1332

and visit kathrynkingmedia.com and donaldbermanpiano.com

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