The New York Times declared Jeremy Denk to be “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs.” Winner of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, Denk has also been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is an insightful writer on musical subjects as well as a performer; his memoir Every Good Boy Does Fine was recently published by Penguin Random House. At Caramoor he performs Bach’s monumental Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, for which The Guardian praised his “fiendish technique and expressive iconoclasm you’d expect from one of today’s classical superstars.”
J. S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I
Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists. Winner of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the Avery Fisher Prize, Denk was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Denk returns frequently to Carnegie Hall and in recent seasons has appeared with the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra, as well as on tour with Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms.
Denk is also known for his original and insightful writing on music, which Alex Ross praises for its “arresting sensitivity and wit.” He wrote the libretto for a comic opera presented by Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, and the Aspen Festival, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Guardian, and on the front page of The New York Times Book Review. One of his New Yorker contributions, “Every Good Boy Does Fine,” was recently made into a book and published by Random House in the U.S., and Macmillan in the U.K.
Denk’s recording of the Goldberg Variations for Nonesuch Records reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Charts. His recording of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111 paired with Ligeti’s Études was named one of the best discs of the year by The New Yorker, NPR, and The Washington Post, and his account of the Beethoven sonata was selected by BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library as the best available version recorded on modern piano. Denk has a long-standing attachment to the music of American visionary Charles Ives, and his recording of Ives’s two piano sonatas also featured in many “best of the year” lists. His recording c.1300 – c.2000 was released in 2018 with music ranging from Guillaume de Machaut, Gilles Binchois, and Carlo Gesualdo to Stockhausen, Ligeti, and Glass.
Jeremy Denk is a graduate of Oberlin College, Indiana University, and The Juilliard School. He lives in New York City.
To learn more about Jeremy Denk, please visit his website.
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