Winner of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Michael Brown has been described by the New York Times as a ‘young piano visionary’ and ‘one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers’. He is equally committed as a pianist and composer; his unique artistry is reflected in a creative approach to programming that often interweaves the classics with contemporary works and his own compositions. Recent works include a Piano Concerto for the Maryland Symphony Orchestra (with himself as the soloist) and four works for the Canellakis-Brown Duo.
Michael was selected by Sir András Schiff for his ‘Building Bridges’ series in 2016–17. He regularly performs concertos, solo recitals and chamber music, and joined the roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two programme in 2015.
A native New Yorker, Michael earned dual Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in piano and composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied with the pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald and composers Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. His early teachers were Herbert Rothgarber and Adam Kent, and he has worked with pianists Leon Fleisher and Richard Goode. He has appeared at the Alice Tully Hall (as winner of the 2012 Juilliard William Petschek Piano Debut Recital Award), the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, the Louvre, and at the Marlboro, Ravinia, and Gilmore Festivals. His awards include first prize in the 2010 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, the Juilliard School’s Gina Bachauer Award, and prizes in the Honens and New York International Piano Competitions. Michael Brown is a Steinway Artist.
