Donald Berman Piano

Upcoming Performances Chamber Music with Violist Gilad Karni Nassau, Bahamas, and Newport, RI, February, 2012 From the Lower East Side to Carnegie Hall Boston Jewish Music Fesitval Music by Ernst Bloch, Yehudi Wyner, David Schoenfield, and Jonathan Leshnoff. Jennifer Elowitch and Gabriela Diaz, violins; Mary Ruth Ray, viola, Joshua Gordon, cello; Michael Norsworthy, clarinet. March 7, 2012, Killian Hall at MIT, 7:30 pm Pierrot Lunaire Centennial performance with soprano Susan Narucki, Joanna, Kurkowicz, vln, Emmanuel Feldman, vcl, Sarah Brady, fl, and Diane Heffner, cl. April 5, 2012, Granoff Music Center, Tufts University New Music Beijing Performances in China of new music by composers Scott Wheeler, Yu-Hui Chang, and others with Dinosaur Annex. May, 2012 Review: Transfigured Schönberg, Transcendent Shostakovich - Sept. 27, 2011
Recordings
Piano Concerto by Christopher Theofanidis with the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra released November 2011
Scott Wheeler: Wasting the Night Wonderful songs by Scott Wheeler featuring 4 fabulous singers: Susanna Phillips, Krista River, Joseph Kaiser, and William Sharpe “Accompanying at the piano throughout [on Scott Wheeler’s CD of songs] is Donald Berman in one marvelously subtle performance after another, gracefully reciprocating the contrasting styles of the four singers while responding to the emotional ebb and flow of the material with perfectly pitched nuance and knowingness.” - Classical Review Wheeler's music is imaginative, varied, pungent, lyrical... Donald Berman is the constant pianist. He is immensely experienced in this kind of repertoire, and is undaunted by the difficulty of much of the music. - Musicweb International
Music by Su Lian Tan Featuring U-Don Rock and Jamaica’s Songs Jamaica Kincaid & John Elder, Readers Brenda Patterson, Mezzo-soprano Szilvia Schranz, Soprano David Bowlin, Violin Darrett Adkins, Cello Margo Garrett & Donald Berman, Piano
Americans in Rome: Music by Fellows of the American Academy in Rome (Bridge Records) November 2008 This FOUR-CD SET of music by Rome Prize-winning composers from 1920 to 2000 offers a compelling glimpse of the history of American music, with American masters side by side with younger innovators and fresh discoveries from the past. Fanfare has named "Americans in Rome: Music by Fellows of the American Academy in Rome" on its 2009 "Want List". "Americans in Rome," a BBC Magazine North American CD of the month Gramophone Review, March 2009 Fanfare, May/June 2009 Newmusic Box Review "Donald Berman Shakes Off Some Roman Dust" In 1997, the American pianist Donald Berman forced open three old file cabinets in a musty attic above the Janiculum, the highest hill within walled Rome, and found enough years of work for each of his 10 fingers...Berman is a terrific pianist... In short, an impressive resurrection. —JEFF DUNN San Francisco Classical Voice (June 2009) "I cannot think of another set of recordings that so deftly and thoughtfully attempts an overview of the evolution of American art music, in all of its range and great energy." —PETER BURWASSER FANFARE MAGAZINE (May/June 2009)	WOSU-FM interview The four-CD set, Americans in Rome, attempts an overview of the evolution of American art music, in all of its range and great energy, with music from the American Academy in Rome from 1929 and continuing to nearly the present. With nearly five hours of material, the listener is tempted to answer the very question of what defines American music. It may ultimately be unanswerable, but it is an exhilarating journey nevertheless. -Fanfare Magazine, November 09
*The Light That is Felt: Songs by Charles Ives* Susan Narucki, Soprano Donald Berman, Piano (New World Records) October 2008 27 songs by Charles Ives representing a wide range of his compositions. Each song, in its own way, evokes memory through stories and characters drawn from Ive's life. Susan Narucki and I have each had a lifelong involvement with the music of Ives and together are developing an evening-length performance piece based on this CD. An American Voice, CD Reviews, Nov. 19, 2010 BBC Magazine, February 09, Choice of the Month The New Yorker's Russell Platt on the best classical CD's of late includes "The Light That is Felt: Songs of Charles Ives". The New York Times Review, January 16, 2009. Diverdi, February 09 Wire, February 09 "There's probably no finer introduction to Ives's songs, or indeed to his output as a whole." - Andy Hamilton, "Wire" February 2009 "From the first line of Songs my Mother Taught Me, I am captivated by this New World release" - James North, FANFARE March 2009
View Archived Performances, Reviews, Programs, and Audio Clips here