- From: London
- Residence: New York City
- Web: http://www.tanyabannister.com
- Language: English, Japanese
- E-Mail: tanya@alpenkammermusik.org
Critical Acclaim:
When the "Rhapsody" needed diabolical bite, Bannister had the nimbleness and muscle to produce. When the music went for luxury -- as Rachmaninoff usually does, sooner or later -- Bannister delivered that, too. She not only made the filigree glitter, but she flecked even the speediest bits with contrasts of color.
The Charlotte Observer
...the excellent pianist Tanya Bannister shaped things with impressive virtuosity.
The London Times
...[Tanya Bannister] is clearly an artist to watch …Bannister plays up the music's dynamism and occasionally restless spirit - Barenboim's EMI Beethoven sonata cycle is readily brought to mind. Yet although she possesses enviable articulate and accurate fingers, she is also sensitive to the music's many lyrical asides. A most impressive Naxos debut.
BBC Music Magazine
Bannister is an expressive pianist who plays with feeling and emotional involvement. Her technical skills are equally impressive, and she had ample opportunity to display both during her well-chosen program, which ranged from Bach to Prokofiev.
Desert Morning News
Tanya Bannister, piano
Career Highlights
Pianist Tanya Bannister has been hailed as a "poet of her instrument" in the Deseret Morning News (Utah). Indeed, The Charlotte Observer recently wrote: "...when the Rhapsody needed diabolical bite, Bannister had the nimbleness and muscle to produce. When the music went for luxury—Bannister delivered that too." These myriad abilities have delighted audiences and critics alike from Paris' Salle Cortot to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Nikkei Hall in Tokyo, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in London and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York. Winner of the 2005 New Orleans International Piano Competition, the 2003 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the 2003 Wigmore Award from London's Royal Academy of Music, Ms. Bannister's record is as dazzling as her virtuosity.
Ms. Bannister has performed with numerous orchestras, including the New Haven Symphony, Charlotte Philharmonic, American Civic Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, Macao Philharmonic, Craiova Symphony Orchestra in Romania and L'Aquila Filarmonica in Italy. She performed recently at the Kurtág Festival in London as part of the South Bank series at the Royal Festival Hall, and her international summer festival appearances include Ravinia, Schleswig-Holstein, Amsterdam's Holland Music Sessions, England's Norwich Festival and Festival Encuentro de Musica y Academica de Santander, Spain.
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Current Season
Highlights for 2006-07 include Ms. Bannister's recital debut at the Kennedy Center, on the Washington Performing Arts Society series, as well as recitals in New Orleans, Oklahoma, Virginia, New Jersey and in New York, collaborating with fellow CAG artists the Parker String Quartet for the New Works/CAG at the Thalia held at Symphony Space's Nimoy Thalia Theater. With orchestra, she performs Mozart's Concerto K488 with the Baton Rouge Symphony, Mozart Concerto No.467 with the Louisiana Symphony and she also appears as guest soloist with the Acadiana Symphony in Lafayette.
Recordings
Ms. Bannister's debut recording, featuring three late piano sonatas of Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), was released by Naxos in January 2006, and BBC Music Magazine's April 2006 issue said: "Bannister plays up the music's dynamism and occasionally restless spirit - Barenboim's EMI Beethoven sonata cycle is readily brought to mind. Yet although she possesses enviable articulate and accurate fingers, she is also sensitive to the music's many lyrical asides."
Passion for Contemporary Music
Tanya has worked with many illustrious composers such as Ezra Ladermann and Sofia Gubaidulina and had works commissioned for her written by David del Tredici, Suzanne Farrin and Christopher Theofanidis. Last year Tanya premiered David del Tredici's 3 Gymnopedies and will be premiering new works on March 1st 2007 by Theofanidis and Farrin in New York's Symphony Space.
Special Projects
In the wake of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy soon after Ms. Bannister's victory in New Orleans, she banded together with three previous winners of that competition to form "Pianists for New Orleans." These artists have been performing together across the US to achieve their ambitious mission to raise $100,000 to help support the classical music community of New Orleans. More information can be found at "http://www.pianistsforneworleans.org."
Training
Born in 1977 in Hong Kong, Tanya Bannister began her piano studies at the age of five, and her early teachers included Gabriel Kwok at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and Sequeira Costa in the US. Ms. Bannister received her undergraduate degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Christopher Elton and Hamish Milne, and while in Europe, she also worked with Karl-Heinz Kammerling at the Mozarteum Salzburg and with Franco Scala at the prestigious Accademia Pianistica in Imola, Italy. Most recently she received her Master of Music degree from Yale University, where she studied with Claude Frank, and an Artist Diploma from New York's Mannes School of Music, where she was one of a handful of pianists selected by Richard Goode to study with him.
Past Seasons
Orchestral highlights from her 2005-06 season included Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Shostakovich Concerto No. 2 with the Victoria Symphony (TX), and a collaboration with pianist (and husband) Stephen Buck for performances of Mozart's Concerto in E-flat for Two Pianos, K. 365, with the Westchester Philharmonic. Featured recitals in 05-06 include St. Mark's Church in London, the Tuckamore Festival in St. John's, Newfoundland, the Chamber Music Society of Little Rock, Davidson College in North Carolina, Loyola University in New Orleans, and the inaugural concert of the New Works/CAG at the Thalia series in New York.
Other recent career highlights include recitals for the La Jolla Music Society's renowned Discovery Series, Rockefeller University's Tri-Institutional Noon Recitals, Patrons for Young Artists, Tri-county Concerts in Philadelphia and Merkin Concert Hall, as well as the Chamber Music Workshop at Prussia Cove in England, which is directed by the renowned cellist Steven Isserlis
