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The American pianist, Craig Sheppard, studied initially with Dr. Lois Hedner and Susan Starr. He then attended the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia as a student of Eleanor Sokoloff, and earned both his Bachelors and Masters degrees at the Juilliard School in New York, studying with Sascha Gorodnitzki. In addition to working privately with Claude Frank and Lillian Kallir during summers at Tanglewood, Sheppard studied subsequently with Ilona Kabos and Sir Clifford Curzon in London, and also worked with Rudolf Serkin and Pablo Casals at the Marlboro Festival.
Following a highly successful New York début at the Metropolitan Museum in 1972, Craig Sheppard won the silver medal that year at the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in England. Moving to London the following year, he quickly established himself through recording and frequent appearances on BBC radio and television as one of the preeminent pianists of his generation, giving cycles of Bach's Klavierubung and the complete solo works of Brahms in London and other musical centers. During the twenty years he lived in England, he also taught at Lancaster University, the Yehudi Menuhin School, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in addition to giving master classes at both Oxford and Cambridge universities.
For over thirty years, Craig Sheppard has maintained a strong and enduring presence in the classical music world, with his unique combination of ebulliance and passionate energy, allied to a technical mastery and scholarly objectivity. He featured with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in the opening concerts of the 1996-97 season at the Opera House, along with the violinist Midori. He appeared with the the same orchestra 1998 in their inaugural season at Benaroya. In April 1999, he gave his long-awaited recital début at the Berlin Philharmonic, also to great critical acclaim. In 1999, he was presented by the Seattle Symphony in a highly acclaimed series of lecture/recitals at the Benaroya Hall. He has had a high profile in recent summers at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, playing the world premiere of Richard Danielpour's Songs of the Night among many works from the standard chamber music repertoire. He also performs regularly at the Park City (Utah) International Festival, and both teaches and performs every Summer at the Heifetz International Music Institute in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire (formerly Annapolis, Maryland). He has made five trips to the Far East since June 2002 - two to Japan, one to Taiwan, and one to Korea - giving lectures and concerts in major venues and univerisities in the region. In May 2004, he wound up a seven-concert series in Seattle's Meany Theater that was dedicated to the 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas, a popular series that met with great critical acclaim.
Craig Sheppard has performed with all the major orchestras in Great Britain, as well as Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the orchestras of San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, Buffalo and Rochester, among others in the USA, and with such conductors as Sir Georg Solti, James Levine, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Andrew Davis, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Erich Leinsdorf, Kurt Sanderling, Neeme Järvi, Hans Vonk, Aaron Copland, David Zinman, Gerard Schwarz and Peter Erös.
Craig Sheppard's repertoire is extensive, encompassing over forty solo recital programs and sixty concerti. In the past several seasons, in addition to the 32 Beethoven sonatas, his recital programs have included the complete Etudes of Chopin, Sergei Rachmaninov, and Debussy, and such major works as Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) and Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, the complete Schumann Novelettes, and Ravel's Miroirs and Gaspard de la Nuit (which will also appear soon on CD). His work with singers such as Victoria de Los Angeles, José Carreras, and Irina Arkhipova; trumpeter Wynton Marsalis; and ensembles such as the Cleveland, Bartok, and Emerson string quartets, has also constituted an important and ongoing element in his musical life.
Craig Sheppard has recorded on the EMI (Classics for Pleasure), Polygram (Philips), Sony, Chandos and Cirrus labels. Four CDs, all of live performances - including his Berlin performance of the Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), Beethoven's Diabelli Variations plus the Scriabin Fifth Sonata, Chopin and Scriabin Préludes, and Scarlatti Sonatas coupled with the Opus 39 - Etudes Tableaux of S. Rachmaninov - have recently been issued on the label AT (Annette Tangermann)/Berlin.
Craig Sheppard has appeared on numerous national and international piano competition juries. He is well known for his broad academic interests, particularly foreign languages. From 1993 he is Professor of Piano at the School of Music of the University of Washington in Seattle. |
