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Stephen Drury piano

Photo by Lisa Kohler

biography

Pianist and conductor STEPHEN DRURY has performed

throughout the world with a repertoire that stretches from Bach

to Liszt to the music of today. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall,

the Kennedy Center, the Barbican Centre and Queen Elizabeth

Hall in London, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the Leipzig

Gewandhaus, and from Arkansas to Seoul. A champion of

contemporary music, he has taken the sound of dissonance into

remote corners of Pakistan, Greenland, and Montana.

In 1985, Stephen Drury was chosen by Affiliate Artists for its

Xerox Pianists Program and performed in residencies with

symphony orchestras in San Diego, Cedar Rapids, San Angelo,

Spokane, and Stamford. He has since performed or recorded

with the American Composers Orchestra, the Cologne Radio

Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Orchestra, the Brooklyn

Philharmonic, the Boston Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the

Springfield (Massachusetts) and Portland (Maine) Symphony Or-

chestras, and the Romanian National Symphony. Drury was a

prize-winner in the Carnegie Hall/Rockefeller Foundation Compe-

titions in American Music, and was selected by the United States

Information Agency for its Artistic Ambassador Program and a

1986 European recital tour. A second tour in the fall of 1988 took

him to Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Japan. He gave the first piano

recitals ever in Julianehaab, Greenland, and Quetta, Pakistan. In

1989, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Drury a Solo

Recitalist Fellowship which funded residencies and recitals of

American music for two years. The same year he was

named “Musician of the Year” by the Boston Globe.

Stephen Drury’s performances of music written in the last hun-

dred years, ranging from the piano sonatas of Charles Ives to

works by György Ligeti, Frederic Rzewski and John Cage have

received the highest critical acclaim. Drury has worked closely

with many of the leading composers of our time, including Cage,

Ligeti, Rzewski, Steve Reich, Olivier Messiaen, John Zorn, Lucia-

no Berio, Helmut Lachenmann, Christian Wolff, Jonathan Harvey,

Michael Finnissy, Lee Hyla and John Luther Adams. Drury has

appeared at the MusikTriennale Köln in Germany, the Subtropics

Festival in Miami, and the North American New Music Festival in

Buffalo as well as at Roulette, the Knitting Factory, Tonic and The

Stone in New York. At Spoleto USA, the Angelica Festival in

Bologna, and Oberlin Conservatory, he performed as both

conductor and pianist. He has conducted the Britten Sinfonia in

England, the Santa Cruz New Music Works Ensemble, and the

Harvard Group for New Music. In 1988-89, he organized a year-

long festival of the music of John Cage which led to a request from

the composer to perform the solo piano part in Cage’s 101,

premiered with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in April 1989. In

2009, Drury performed the solo piano part in the Fourth Symphony

of Charles Ives, again with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under

Alan Gilbert. In 1999, Drury was invited by choreographer Merce

Cunningham to perform onstage with Cunningham and Mikhail

Barishnikov as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Drury has also

appeared in New York at Alice Tully Hall as part of the Great Day in

New York Festival and on the Bargemusic series, in Boston with the

Boston Symphony Chamber Players and as soloist with the Boston

Modern Orchestra Project, and with the Seattle Chamber Players in

Seattle and Moscow at the International Music Festival “Images of

Contemporary American Music.” In 2003, he performed and taught

at the Mannes College of Music’s Beethoven Institute; in 2005, he

returned to Mannes to play and teach at the Institute and Festival


Stephen Drury piano

biography (cont.)


for Contemporary Performance. That summer, he was also the

piano faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute. In 2006,

Drury’s performance of Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United

Will Never Be Defeated!” at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival was a

sensation; he was invited back in 2008 to premiere Rzewski’s

Natural Things with the Opus 21 Ensemble at the Gilmore Festival

in Michigan and Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in New York as part of the

composer’s 70th birthday. That same summer Drury appeared at

Bard College’s SUMMERSCAPE Festival, and at the Cité de la

Musique in Paris for a week-long celebration of the music of John

Zorn. In 2007, he was invited to León, Mexico to perform music

by Rzewski, Zorn, and Cage at the International Festival of

Contemporary Art.

Drury has commissioned new works for solo piano from John Cage,

John Zorn, John Luther Adams, Terry Riley, and Chinary Ung with

funding provided by Meet The Composer. He has performed with

Zorn in Paris, Vienna, London, Brussels, and New York, and

conducted Zorn’s music in Bologna, Boston, Chicago, and in the

UK and Costa Rica. In March of 1995, he gave the first performance

of Zorn’s concerto for piano and orchestra Aporias with Dennis

Russell Davies and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. Later

that same season he gave the premiere of Basic Training for solo

piano, written for him by Lee Hyla. Drury has recorded the music of

John Cage, Elliott Carter, Charles Ives, Karlheinz Stockhausen,

Colin McPhee, John Zorn, John Luther Adams and Frederic

Rzewski, as well as works of Liszt and Beethoven, for Mode, New

Albion, Catalyst, Tzadik, Avant, MusicMasters, Cold Blue, New

World and Neuma.

Stephen Drury has given master classes at the Moscow Tchai-

kovsky Conservatory, Mannes Beethoven Institute, and Oberlin

Conservatory, and in Japan, Romania, Argentina, Costa Rica,

Denmark, and throughout the United States, and served on juries

for the Concert Artist Guild, Gaudeamus and Orléans Concours

International de Piano XXème Siècle Competitions. Drury is artistic

director and conductor of the Callithumpian Consort, and he

created and directs the Summer Institute for Contemporary

Performance Practice (SICPP) at New England Conservatory. Drury

earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, and has

also earned the New England Conservatory’s select Artist Diploma.

His teachers have included Claudio Arrau, Patricia Zander, William

Masselos, Margaret Ott, and Theodore Lettvin. He teaches at New

England Conservatory, where he has directed festivals of the music

of John Cage, Steve Reich, and Christian Wolff.


Stephen Drury piano

program offerings for 2011/12 season

AMERICAN MUSICAL GENIUS

Charles Ives, Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass. 1840 – 1860”

Carl Ruggles, Evocations

John Zorn, Carny

John Cage, Etudes Australes

Christian Wolff, Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida

Stephen Drury identifies the four great strands of the American

musical genius – the ecstatically mystical, the profoundly comic,

the social narrative, and the brazenly experimental – and weaves a

program which unifies them all in Charles Ives’s great masterwork.

PIANOFUTURE

Beethoven, Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Opus 111 (1822)

Debussy, Etudes for Piano (1915)

Helmut Lachenmann, Serynade (1998)

Peering into the future through the piano, three master composers

confided their most personal and timeless thoughts. Each of these

works, spread out over nearly 200 years, was ahead of its time

when created and to this day seems a prediction of a

continually receding future.

BRAHMS & RZEWSKI: VARIATIONS

Brahms, Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24

Rzewski, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!” –

36 Variations on ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

Over a century apart, Brahms and Rzewski both create vast land-

scapes from simple musical statements. These two monumental

epics each encompass the whole range of musical experience.

Brahms looks deeply into the past for both his theme (borrowed

from Handel) and his fugal conclusion, while Rzewski takes his

theme from the headlines of the day in a tribute to the revolutionary

movements of the 1970s, and creates a form both modern

and metaphorical.

Stephen Drury’s performances and recording of Rzewski’s

variations are legendary. Having worked frequently with the

composer, Drury brings intellectual discipline to the music’s

vast structure, technical authority to its ferociously virtuosic

writing, and emotional immediacy to its heart-breaking narra-

tive. The theme, known throughout Latin America as a rallying

cry for social justice, serves as the seed from which Rzewski

creates the widest imaginable range of personal experiences,

tender, melodic, violent, jazzy, and inspiring, uniting them all in

the end through his commanding structure.

Photo by Andrew Hurlbut


Stephen Drury piano

concerto offerings (chronological by composer)

Mozart (1756-1791)

Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488

Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466

Beethoven (1770-1827)

Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15

Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37

Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, “Emperor”

Choral Fantasy for Piano, Orchestra and Choir, Op. 80

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

Liszt (1811-1886)

Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, S. 124

Brahms (1833-1897)

Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

Concerto in A minor, Op. 16

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Concerto in G major

Concerto for the Left Hand

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)

Nuits dans les jardins d’Espagne

Bartók (1881-1945)

Concerto No. 3, Sz. 119

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Concerto for Piano and Wind Orchestra

Wallingford Riegger (1885-1961)

Variations for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 54

Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Concerto in F major

Rhapsody in Blue

Colin McPhee (1900-1964)

Concerto for Piano and Winds

Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra, Op. 35

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Oiseaux Exotiques

Elliott Carter (b. 1908)

Double Concerto (piano part)

John Cage (1912-1992)

Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra

Concert for Piano and Orchestra

Fourteen

Lee Hyla (b. 1952)

Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra No. 2

John Zorn (b. 1953)

Aporias: Requia for Piano and Orchestra

In addition to concert work, Stephen Drury is available to give piano master classes, lecture/demonstrations, and outreach programs

including performances for young audiences. Mr. Drury offers specialized lecture/demonstrations on Charles Ives and John Cage

(including demonstrations of extended techniques such as the “prepared” piano), and frequently lectures on contemporary music and

the avant garde in general.

additional offerings


Stephen Drury piano


current & recent solo recital programs (selected)

BEETHOVEN AND RZEWSKI Beethoven, Sonata No. 29 in Bb, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier”

Frederic Rzewski, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”

– 36 Variations on ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

CHARLES IVES: THE PIANO SONATAS First Sonata

Three Page Sonata

Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass. 1840 – 1860”

GETTING PERSONAL Debussy, Suite Bergamasque

Helmut Lachenmann, Serynade

Schumann, Davidsbündlertänze

WRITTEN FOR STEPHEN DRURY John Luther Adams, 4000 Holes

(for piano and recorded sounds)

John Zorn, Carny

Zorn, Fay Ce Que Vouldras

Lee Hyla, Basic Training

THE MUSIC OF JOHN CAGE Cheap Imitation

Etudes Australes (selections)

Sonatas & Interludes (selections)

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART (León, Mexico)

John Cage, Seven Haiku

John Zorn, Carny

Frederic Rzewski, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”

– 36 Variations on ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

SUMMER INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE PRACTICE Jo Kondo, A Dance for Piano ‘Europeans’

Helmut Lachenmann, Serynade

John Zorn, Fay ce que Vouldras

Toshio Hosokawa, Nacht Klange

FAITH, THE LOSS OF FAITH, AND THE RETURN OF FAITH Liszt, Etudes d’exécution transcendante, S. 139 (selections)

Stockhausen, Klavierstücke IX

Charles Ives, Celestial Railroad

Beethoven, Sonata No. 31 in Ab major, Op. 110

FACULTY RECITAL Beethoven, Sonata No. 29 in B flat, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier”

John Cage, Winter Music

Ravel, Miroirs

FACULTY RECITAL Debussy, Etudes, Book 1 and Book 2 (complete)

Alvin Lucier, Music for piano with slow sweep pure wave

oscillators

Debussy, Suite bergamasque

FACULTY RECITALHelmut Lachenmann, Guero

Morton Feldman, Extensions 3

John Cage, Etudes Australes III, VI

György Ligeti, Etude X: Der Zauberlehrling

Etude XIII: L’escalier du diable

Schumann, Papillons, Op. 2

Ravel, Valses nobles et sentimentales

John Zorn, Carny

FACULTY RECITALBeethoven, Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13

György Ligeti, Etudes, Book 2 (complete)

Paul Elwood, Vigils

Beethoven, Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111


Stephen Drury piano

upcoming & recent concert appearances (selected, 2001-2011)

Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston, MA

(annual solo recitals)

Summer Institute for Contemporary

Performance Practice (SICPP), New England Conservatory,

Boston, MA (annual 10-day festival with nightly

concert performances)

LiveARTS Concert Series, Franklin, MA

(upcoming, 2011)

NUMUS Piano Festival, Waterloo, ON

(upcoming, 2011)

Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

(upcoming, 2011)

Missouri Western State University,

St. Joseph, MO

(upcoming, 2011)

Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2010)

University of Richmond, Richmond, VA (2010)

The Stone, New York, NY (2010)

Urban Alchemy Concert Series, St. Louis, MO (2010)

New England Conservatory,

First Monday Series, Boston, MA (2009)

Scandinavia House, New York, NY (2009)

New Gallery Concert Series,

Community Music Center of Boston, MA (2009)

Drums Along the Pacific Festival,

Cornish School, Seattle, WA (2009)

University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO (2009)

Cité de la Musique, Paris, FRANCE (2008)

Sejong Chamber Hall, Sejong Center

for the Performing Arts, Seoul, KOREA (2008)

Zankel Hall, New York, NY (2008)

New Albion Records at Bard SummerScape Festival,

Annadale-on-Hudson, NY (2008)

Santa Fe New Music, Santa Fe, NM (2008)

Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL (2008)

New Music & Art Festival, Bowling Green State University, Bowling

Green, OH (2008)

The Music Gallery, Toronto, CANADA (2008)

Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Kalamazoo, MI (2008, 2006)

Chapel Performance Space,

Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, WA (2008)

Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA (2008, 2004)

Central Washington University Concert Hall,

Ellensburg, WA (2008)

Manuel Doblado Theatre, León, MEXICO (2007)

University of Mexico School of Music,

Mexico City, MEXICO (2007)

University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (2007, 2004)

Bemidji State University, Bemidji, MN (2006)

Fromm Festival, Paine Hall, Harvard University,

Cambridge, MA (2006)

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (2005)

Bang on a Can Summer Institute, North Adams, MA (2005)

New Music Miami ISCM Festival, Miami, FL (2005)

Subtropics Festival, Miami, FL (2005)

IFCP (Institute & Festival for Contemporary Performance),

New York, NY (2005)

Zeitgeist Gallery, Cambridge, MA (2005)


Stephen Drury piano

upcoming & recent concert appearances (selected, 2001-2011)

Fine Arts Recital Hall, University of Maryland,

Baltimore County, MD (2004)

Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY (2004)

San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco, CA (2004)

UC Santa Cruz Recital Hall, Santa Cruz, CA (2004, 2003)

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, ENGLAND (2003)

Pick-Staiger Concert Hall,

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (2003)

The Mannes Beethoven Institute,

Mannes College of Music, New York, NY (2003)

Tonic, New York, NY (2003)

Oregon Festival of American Music, Eugene, OR (2003)

First Parish Church, Lexington, MA (2003)

Wilbur Cohen Auditorium, Voice of America Building,

Washington, DC (2002)

Merkin Concert Hall, New York, NY (2002)

DOM Cultural Centre, Moscow, RUSSIA (2001)

Photo by Robert j Kirkpatrick


Stephen Drury piano

recent concerto performances

BOSTON PHILHARMONICConducted by Benjamin Zander, Boston, MA

(upcoming, Oct 2010)

Ravel, Concerto in G major

NEW ENGLAND PHILHARMONICConducted by Richard Pittman, Boston, MA (2009)

Manuel de Falla, Nuits dans les jardins d’Espagne

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conducted by Alan Gilbert, Boston, MA (2009)

Charles Ives, Symphony No. 4 (solo piano part)

JORDAN HALL Conducted by Stephen Drury (with the Callithumpian Consort),

Boston, MA (2008)

Carter, Double Concerto (piano part)

THE BOSTON MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECT

Conducted by Gil Rose, Boston, MA (2006)

Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue

THE CONCORD ORCHESTRA Conducted by Richard Pittman, Concord, MA (2006)

Ravel, Concerto for the Left Hand

PRO ARTE CHAMBER ORCHESTRAConducted by Isaiah Jackson,

Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, MA (2005)

Shostakovich, Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet

and String Orchestra, Op. 35

JORDAN WINDS Conducted by William Drury, Boston, MA (2004)

Colin McPhee, Concerto for Piano and Winds

GLENS FALLS SYMPHONY

Conducted by Charles Peltz, Glens Falls, NY (2004)

Ravel, Concerto in G major

SPOKANE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conducted by Eckart Preu, Spokane, WA (2004)

Beethoven, Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15

NEW ENGLAND PHILHARMONICConducted by Richard Pittman,

Tsai Performance Center, Boston, MA (2003)

Wallingford Riegger, Variations for Piano and Orchestra

OBERLIN CONSERVATORY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAConducted by Timothy Weiss, Oberlin, OH (2002)

John Cage, Concerto for Prepared Piano

and Chamber Orchestra



Stephen Drury piano

critical praise

“This listener cannot imagine more persuasive performances than the ones Drury played…” -TheNewYorkTimes

“Drury’s performances were magisterial, and each note was a sounding point of light…” -TheBostonGlobe

“The most scintillating, honest and pianistically impressive performance of Ravel’s demanding ‘Miroirs’ suite I have ever heard…” -BostonReview

“Drury is a true original whose supremely disciplined fingers are at the service of a rigorous, questing, imaginative mind. It is unlikely that the season will hold a piano event more astonishing than Drury’s performance…” -TheBostonGlobe

“Stunningly fresh and spontaneous…” -BostonHerald

“Drury’s Ives remains a serious contender for the year’s most extraordinary keyboard achievement…” -ThePhoenix

“A sensitive, highly intelligent musician with fire in his soul…Pianism of tremendous intensity…” -TheBostonGlobe

“Astonishing! ...none of our important pianists is more exploratory and versatile. Drury’s magnificent performance left nothing to chance…” -TheBostonGlobe

“Drury’s playing masterfully combines a virtuoso technique, intellectual thoughtfulness, and a commanding sense of the piano’s tone colors.” -TravisRivers,SpokaneSpokesman-Review

“[Last night] the increasingly stupendous Stephen Drury played Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G,…It’s not possible that anyone has played the solo part more flawlessly or with more beautiful tone. The harder the technical challenges, the more subtle the colorations Drury creates. You can hear each note, no matter how many of them are coming at you per second, yet the sense of continuity leaves you gasping.” -LloydSchwartz,TheBostonPhoenix


Stephen Drury piano

critical praise (cont.)

“[Beethoven’s] C-minor ‘Pathetique’ Sonata is probably not one that immediately springs to mind when thinking of Drury, who is the least sentimental of performers. But the pianist opened the program with it and infused it with much fresh air. The introductory Grave was gorgeously contemplative, the succeeding Allegro full of diamond-edged brilliance. The great Adagio cantabile featured beautifully voiced harmonies and a rhythmic lilt that precluded any smoochiness. The finale…had a mercurial dazzle.” -EllenPfeifer,BostonGlobe

Stephen Drury, that freest spirit among pianists, has recorded a CD no one else could have imagined…Drury is a superb pianist who enters fully not only into the different sound world of each piece but also into its personal space, its imaginative territory…There is no one like Stephen Drury, an individual in a conforming world whose work insists that music matters.” -RichardDyer,BostonGlobe

“Mr. Drury’s playing is extraordinary. He plays the entire program with technical command, keen ear for color, vivid imagination and probing intelligence.” -AnthonyTommasini,NewYorkTimes

“A tour-de-force reading of a contemporary classic brought a crowd to its feet at yesterday’s Piano and Friends recital by Stephen Drury.” -TucsonCitizen

“I continue to marvel at Stephen Drury’s imagination, technique, and expressiveness. Drury plays [Cage’s music] sometimes reverently, sometimes mercurially, but always with grace and serenity.” -RobHaskins,AmericanRecordGuide

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