| Bryce Morrison,
Gramophone Magazine |
|
Photo: Nancy Horton
|
Keith Powers,
Boston Herald |
|
Michael Lewin enjoys a distinguished international reputation
as one of America’s most abundantly gifted and charismatic
concert pianists, performing to acclaim in 30 countries as orchestral
soloist and in recital.
Highlights of Mr. Lewin’s 2008-09 concert season include
solo and orchestral engagements throughout the United States,
Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, Puerto Rico and Mexico.
In England, he will make his London recital debut at Wigmore
Hall, followed by a recital at Oxford University. Many of his
recital programs will feature music spanning three centuries
that is inspired by birds, from his upcoming recording “If
I Were a Bird.”
Commanding a repertoire of 40 piano concertos, Michael Lewin
has appeared as soloist with orchestras worldwide, including
the Netherlands Philharmonic, Cairo Symphony, Bucharest ‘Enescu’ Philharmonic,
Filharmónica de Guadalajara, the Thessaloniki State Symphony
of Greece, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Symphonies of Phoenix,
Indianapolis, Miami, Colorado, Nevada, West Virginia, Puerto
Rico, Illinois, North Carolina, Sinfonia da Camera, the Jupiter
Symphony, and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. In 2000
he gave the world premiere of the David Kocsis Concerto for
the New Millennium. He has performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody
in Blue over 50 times.
He has concertized in such venues as New York’s Lincoln
Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium,
the Library of Congress, the Great Hall in Moscow, Hong Kong's
City Hall Theater, Taipei's National Concert Hall, Beijing’s
Forbidden City Concert Hall, Wilmington's Grand Opera House,
the Athens Megaron, the Opera House of Cairo, Holland’s
Muziekcentrum Vredenburg and at the Spoleto Festival. Television
appearances include a PBS Television recital hosted by Victor
Borge that has been aired often throughout the United States.
He has been featured in Clavier and Piano & Keyboard Magazines,
and edited piano music of Griffes for C.F.Peters. A Steinway
Artist, he was Artistic Director of Steinway’s
Gala 150th Anniversary Concert held in 2003 in Boston’s
Symphony Hall.
Michael Lewin’s career was launched with victories in
the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in the Netherlands,
the American Pianists Association Beethoven Fellowship and the
William Kapell International Competition. He has also won prestigious
career grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation, National
Endowment for the Arts, and the Aaron Copland Recording Fund. Mr.
Lewin made a notable New York recital debut in Lincoln Center
in 1984, on which occasion the New York Times wrote
that “his immense technique and ability qualify him eminently
for success”.
Michael Lewin’s discography has received extraordinary
critical praise, and reflects the great scope of his musical
interests and personality. Bamboula!,
his recording of piano music by Louis Moreau Gottschalk,was chosen
as a “Top 10 Pick” by the Boston Herald,
while the Boston Globe enthused that “Lewin
has the chops and the charm for these pieces.” His Naxos
releases include a best-selling collection of Keyboard Sonatas
by Domenico Scarlatti and the complete piano music of American
composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes (in two volumes). Mr.
Lewin's recordings on Centaur Records include Michael Lewin
plays Liszt and A Russian Piano Recital, featuring
music of Scriabin, Glazunov andBalakirev. His recording of the
Violin and Piano Sonatas of William Bolcom with violinist Irina
Muresanu was released on Centaur in 2007. The Lewin-Muresanu
Duo has maintained an active performance schedule since their
formation in 2003. His newest compact disc, “If I Were
a Bird,” a selection of bird-themed pieces by 19 varied
composers, is scheduled for release in early 2009. His next recording
project will be Piano Sonatas and Variations by Franz Josef Haydn.
Deeply
committed to guiding and nurturing gifted young pianists, Michael
Lewin is one of America’s most sought-after teachers. He
is on the Piano Faculty of The Boston Conservatory, where he
maintains a select studio of prize-winning students and is the
Artistic Director of the Piano Masters Series. A native of New
York, he studied at the Juilliard School. His teachers included
Leon Fleisher, Irwin Freundlich, Adele Marcus, and Yvonne Lefébure.
Michael
Lewin appears by arrangement with Jonathan Wentworth Associates,
Ltd