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The American pianist, David Korevaar, was born in in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in La Jolla, California. He began his piano studies at age six in San Diego with Sherman Storr, and at age 13 he became a student of the great American virtuoso Earl Wild. By age 20 he had earned his Bachelor of Music (1982) and Master of Music (1983) degrees from the Juilliard School, where he continued his studies with Earl Wild and studied composition with David Diamond. In 1998 he returned to Juilliard School of Music to complete his Doctor of Musical Arts with Abbey Simon. Another important mentor and teacher was the French pianist Paul Doguereau, who had been a student of Egon Petri, and who had studied the music of Gabriel Fauré and Debussy with Roger-Ducasse (a pupil of Gabriel Fauré's), and the music of Ravel with the composer. He won top prizes at the Peabody-Mason Music Foundation (1985), and the University of Maryland William Kapell International Piano Competition (1988). In 1988 he was a winner of the Young Concert Artists Auditions. He also won a special prize for his performance of French music from the Robert Casadesus Competition (1989). In May 2000, he received the Richard French award from the Juilliard School, honoring his doctoral document on Ravel's Miroirs.
Since his New York debut at Town Hall in 1985, David Korevaar has performed throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia as soloist and chamber musician. He has been heard at major venues in New York including Weill Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, and Merkin Concert Hall. He has performed across the USA from Boston, New York and Washington, DC to Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Dallas and San Diego, and he plays frequently in his home state of Colorado with orchestras, in chamber ensembles and in solo recitals. International performances have included appearances in Australia, Japan, Korea, Abu Dhabi and Europe. Korevaar has performed as soloist with orchestras throughout the USA.
Currently a member of the Boulder Public Library's ensemble-in-residence, the Boulder Piano Quartet (with violinist Claude Sim, violist Martin Sher and cellist Thomas Heinrich) and University of Texas at Dallas's resident Clavier Trio (with violinist Arkady Fomin and cellist Jesus Castro-Balbi), David Korevaar has performed as guest artist with the Takács, Manhattan and Colorado Quartets, among other groups. He was a founding member of the Young Concert Artists Award-winning piano and wind ensemble Hexagon, with which he toured for many years.
David Korevaar's most recent CD's include Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin, Gaspard de la nuit, and Miroirs (MSR Classics) and Brahms Variations for Piano (Ivory Classics). His broad musical interests and extensive repertoire are reflected in his recordings, ranging from the two books of J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (Musicians Showcase) to the piano music of Lowell Liebermann, Volume 1 and Volume 2 (Koch Classics). He has recorded the romantic virtuoso compositions of Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnányi (Ivory Classics), and transcriptions (his own and Liszt's) of orchestral music by Franz Liszt, including the rarely heard 2nd Mephisto Waltz and Korevaar's solo piano versions of Festklänge and Orpheus (Helicon). Other releases include the first CD by the Prometheus Quartet featuring music by 19th-Century Frenchmen Camille Saint-Saëns and d'Indy (Centaur), an album of Lowell Liebermann's chamber music with flutist Alexa Still (Koch Classics), the complete sonatas for brass instruments by Paul Hindemith (Kleos), and the Brahms Violin Sonatas with violinist Anastasia Khitruk (Titanic).
David Korevaar's mastery of the piano is joined with a large and varied repertoire, and enhanced by his work with living composers and his own experience writing music. His interest in new music is reflected in his programming. In addition to his continuing association with the music of Lowell Liebermann, Korevaar has performed and recorded music by composers including Paul Schoenfield, Mike Barnett, Aaron Jay Kernis, George Rochberg, Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, Stephen Jaffe, Scott Eyerly and Libby Larson. He gave the New York premiere of three of Harrison Birtwistle's Harrison's Clocks as part of the Juilliard School's Piano Century series in 2000. He is a frequent participant in the University of Colorado's Pendulum new music series. For an idea of what he looks for in new music, read Korevaar's essay in the October 2003 New Music Box.
David Korevaar successfully balances an active performing career as a soloist and chamber musician with teaching at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he is Associate Professor of Piano. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Colorado in 2000, he taught for many years at the Westport School of Music in Connecticut, where he was Artist-Teacher. He also taight at the University of Bridgeport. He was honored along with co-author and webmaster Tim Smith of Northern Arizona University for a web-based exploration of the Fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier, featuring analytical essays and animations by Professor Smith, performance-related essays by Korevaar, and Korevaar's performances of the music. The site received top honors both in music and overall, including the Editor's Choice Award from MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching).
David Korevaar now lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife Elizabeth and their two children.. He is a Kawai artist. |
