
GEOFFREY BURLESON, PIANIST, has performed to wide acclaim throughout
Europe and North America, and is equally active as a recitalist,
concerto soloist, chamber musician and jazz performer. The New York Times has hailed his
solo performances as “vibrant” and “compelling”, and has praised his
“command, projection of rhapsodic qualities without loss of rhythmic
vigor, and appropriate sense of spontaneity and fetching
colors”. And the Boston Globe refers to Mr.
Burleson as a “remarkable pianist” and “a first-class instrumental
presence” whose performances are “outright thrilling.” His
numerous acclaimed solo appearances include prominent venues in Paris
(at the Église St-Merri), New York (Carnegie Recital Hall), Rome (American Academy), Athens
(Mitropoulos Hall), Mexico City (National Museum of Art), Chicago (Dame Myra Hess Memorial
Series), Boston, Washington, Switzerland, England, the Netherlands,
Spain, and
elsewhere.
Mr.
Burleson made his New York City solo recital debut at Merkin Concert
Hall in 2000,
sponsored by the League of Composers/ISCM (International Society for Contemporary
Music.) He has appeared as concerto soloist with the Boston Musica Viva, Arlington
Philharmonic, New
England
Philharmonic, and the Holland
Symfonia in the
Netherlands, performing repertoire ranging from Mozart, Weber and
Saint-Saëns to Gershwin and Klaas de Vries. In New
York, he has also appeared as soloist with the New York Art Ensemble, as part of the
Tribeca New Music Festival, and at the Knitting Factory as part of David Sanford’s Pittsburgh
Collective, a progressive jazz ensemble. Mr. Burleson's work
in jazz has also taken him as far as Baku,
Azerbaijan, where he performed as both soloist, and with vocalist
CoCo York, under the auspices of American Voices.
Mr. Burleson currently performs
as principal pianist with
the Boston Musica Viva and the New York Art Ensemble, as well as
IMPETUS, a
dynamic trio featuring vocalist Maria
Tegzes, and guitarist Dave
"Knife" Fabris. He is also
a member of Princeton University's
Richardson Chamber Players. Formerly, Mr. Burleson
performed in Greece and the United States
as principal pianist with ALEA III,
the contemporary
ensemble-in-residence at Boston University, for five seasons. He has
also appeared in duo performances with many prominent musicians,
including Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Malcolm
Lowe, former BSO principal flute Jacques
Zoon, violinist Bayla Keyes,
and cellists Matt Haimovitz and Rhonda
Rider. He has
collaborated with numerous world-renowned
composers, and has given solo and duo premieres of works by Gunther
Schuller, Vivian Fine, William
Kraft, David
Rakowski, Lior Navok, Hayes Biggs, Barbara
White, Jeffrey
Stadelman, Jason Eckardt, Evan Johnson, and others.
As a jazz pianist, Mr. Burleson has
performed
extensively at home and abroad, both as soloist and in many
ensembles. The Boston Globe has lauded his
jazz performances, praising his "solos filled with complex harmonic and
rhythmic figures", as well as his "compact and dramatic" arrangements
of works by such diverse artists as Eric Dolphy and Patti Smith.
Mr. Burleson was winner of the
Silver Medal in the International Piano Recording Competition, and won
Special Commendations in the Vienna
Modern Masters International Performers Competition. He
was also the recipient of a DAAD
grant from the German government to support a residency at the
Academy of
Arts in Berlin. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, where he
won both the Lillian Gutman Memorial Prize and the Azelia H. Thomas
Award, and the New
England Conservatory (MM), Mr. Burleson's principal teachers
include Leonard
Shure, Veronica
Jochum, Lillian Freundlich, Tinka Knopf, and Audrey Bart Brown.
Mr. Burleson has made solo,
chamber and jazz recordings for Albany,
New World, Music & Arts, Centaur, Oxingale, VMM, CRI, and Neuma that have
been praised by the international press, and include several world
premieres. He has been on the music faculties of
Queensborough CC-CUNY, Brandeis University, MIT, the Berklee College of Music, Clark University, and the College of the Holy Cross. Currently, Mr. Burleson teaches piano at Princeton University, and is Assistant
Professor of Music and Coordinator of the Piano Program at
Hunter College of The City University of New York. He holds
the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the State University of
New York at Stony Brook, where he studied with Gilbert
Kalish.
Mr. Burleson's piano is tuned and regulated by Paul Eccardt of Paul's Pianos.