David Kaplan

Biography

David Kaplan, pianist, has been praised for his “grace and fire” by the Boston Globe, and by The New York Times for “striking imagination and creativity.” Recent seasons have brought him as a recitalist to Los Angeles, Berlin, Barcelona, Chicago, and New York, and as a chamber musician in the US, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark. He has appeared as a guest soloist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and performed at Miami’s Arscht Center with Itzhak Perlman. David is a veteran of many distinguished chamber music festivals and series: he has appeared at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, Barge Music, and the Canadian festivals of Banff and Orford. In addition, he has been a guest at Ravinia, Tanglewood, Bard, and the Mostly Mozart Festival, where he performed in Avery Fisher Hall. As a member of the New York-based Metropolis, Le Train Bleu, Declassified, and ACJW Ensembles, David has performed frequently in New York’s most exciting venues, from Zankel Hall to Le Poisson Rouge. Since 2011, Kaplan is Co-Artistic Director of Lyrica Chamber Music, a New Jersey concert series now in its twenty-seventh season.

Kaplan´s enthusiasm for contemporary music has led him to premiere dozens of works, including piano concertos by Timothy Andres (2008) and Alex Weston (2012). His longstanding piano-duo collaboration with Andres has also resulted in the critically acclaimed Nonesuch Records release Shy and Mighty for two pianos (2010) and the premiere of Retromusic for four-hands, presented by the Metropolis Ensemble (2012). The New Haven Advocate wrote that Kaplan and Andres "dazzle on the ivories." Other highlights have included his role as guest soloist in the Hans Abrahamsen’s Piano Concerto at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, and in Carnegie Hall premiering two-piano works of Ezra Laderman with pianist Greg Anderson. For the 2014-15 season, David commissions short pieces to embed within Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze from 18 extraordinary composers who include Augusta Reed Thomas, Andrew Norman, and Martin Bresnick.

Versatile far beyond the modern keyboard, Kaplan’s credits as a harpsichordist include Elliott Carter’s Sonata and the world premiere of Conrad Winslow’s Chariots, both for harpsichord and chamber ensemble, as well as numerous performances of Bach’s 5th Brandenburg with the Ensemble ACJW. He has been a guest at the Pianosalon Chritofori in Berlin, performing works of Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann on an 1880’s Steingräber and an 1850 Erard. Kaplan has drawn special notice as a Beethoven interpreter: he was featured in WQXR’s 2011 Beethoven Sonata Marathon, and by Vermont Public Radio and the Burlington Ensemble in live studio recordings of the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas with Benjamin Capps, which were described by the Rutland Herald as “masterful and deeply compelling performances, seldom heard at this level except by the great masters."

Kaplan expects to receive the Doctorate of Musical Arts from Yale, where he studied with Claude Frank. His earlier mentors include Walter Ponce at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Miyoko Lotto in his native New York City. In addition, he has had the opportunity to learn from many other distinguished pianists, including Emanuel Ax, Alfred Brendel, Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Ursula Oppens, Murray Perahia, Manahem Pressler. and the late Charles Rosen. Under the auspices of a Fulbright Grant, he studied conducting with Lutz Köhler at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Away from the keyboard, he devotes time to cartooning and cooking, and is mildly obsessed with classic cars. David Kaplan is a Yamaha Artist.