2018年5月16日

【Piano Master Class】 Joanne Polk

Piano Master Class

主講人: Joanne Polk
 (Member of the piano faculty of Manhattan School of Music)




日期:20180521()
時間:13:30~15:10
地點:北藝大音樂廳(請由音樂廳後台進入)

※北藝大鋼琴組必到
歡迎有興趣者前往聆聽

L. v. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.3 Op.2 no.3 

Piano:陳皓川   Hao-Chuan, Chen



Schumann:Kreisleriana, op.16

Piano:李洸頡  Kuang-Chieh, Li



JOANNE POLK was catapulted into the public eye with her recordings of the complete piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) on the Arabesque Recordings label. She celebrated the centennial of Beach’s Piano Concerto by giving the work its London premiere with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Center, under the baton of Paul Goodwin, and subsequently performed it with the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco, under conductor Apo Hsu, in a performance described as “brilliant” by critic Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle. He further lauded her performance as “an enormously vital, imaginative reading. Her playing was expansive in the opening movement, brittle and keen in the delightful scherzo. She brought a light touch to the foreshortened slow movement and fearless technical panache to the showy conclusion.” 


As a result of her work to date, promoting the music of women composers, Joanne Polk was named one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year (2014) in an article titled, “Profiles in Courage.” In September 2014, Ms. Polk’s CD The Flatterer, solo piano music of French Romantic composer Cécile Chaminade, was released on the Steinway and Sons Label. The CD was a “Pick of the Week” on New York’s classical radio station, WQXR, and debuted at Number 1 on the Classical Billboard Chart.  In September, 2017, Polk’s recording titled Gershwin and Wild was released on the Steinway and Sons Label.  Featured on this CD are Earl Wild’s Seven Virtuoso Etudes on Gershwin Songs, his Variations on Someone to Watch Over Me, as well as Wild’s Piano Sonata.

Her first recording in the Amy Beach series, by the still waters, received the 1998 INDIE award for best solo recording. Empress of Night, the fifth volume of Ms. Polk’s survey of Beach’s piano works, includes the Piano Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul Goodwin conducting, and Beach’s renowned Piano Quintet with the Lark Quartet. The sixth volume, Morning Glories, partners Ms. Polk again with the Lark Quartet in three of Amy Beach’s chamber music works. Two all-Beach performances at Merkin Concert Hall, also with the Lark Quartet, were applauded by the New York Times, as they deemed Polk’s performances “polished and assured.” The American Record Guide reported, “Polk and the Larks played their hearts out. We in the audience shouted ourselves hoarse with gratitude.” Her 2007 CD titled Songs of Amy Beach, recorded with baritone Patrick Mason for Bridge Records, was nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award. 

In 2010, Ms. Polk’s two-CD set of solo piano music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Songs for Pianoforte, was released on the Newport Classic label. Her solo piano CD, titled Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, was released in 2012 on the Bridge Records label. Other recordings include Completely Clara: Lieder by Clara Wieck Schumann, her debut CD for Arabesque Recording, featuring Metropolitan Opera soprano Korliss Uecker. This CD was selected as a “Best of the Year” recording by The Seattle Times and was featured on New York Public Radio’s Performance Today. Ms. Polk’s CD for Albany Records, Callisto, features the solo piano music of Judith Lang Zaimont.

Joanne Polk received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music. She has given master classes and recitals at many summer festivals and universities across the globe.  Ms. Polk is one of three directors of Manhattan in the Mountains Summer Music Festival, a three-week summer music festival in the Catskill Mountains, devoted to chamber music, solo performing, and community engagement.  Ms. Polk’s recent concert engagements, both as a soloist and a chamber musician, have taken her from concert halls in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Italy, to Smith College in Massachusetts to, in 2018, Guangzhou, China.

Ms. Polk is a member of the piano faculty of Manhattan School of Music, and is an exclusive Steinway artist.  Please visit Joanne Polk’s website at www.joannepolkpianist.com