Inon Barnatan, piano

“A breathtaking charisma that comes from gorgeously turned out technique, a masterly sense of color, and an expressiveness that can question, weep, or shout joy from the rooftops.”
–Philadelphia Inquirer

“One of the most admired pianists of his generation” (New York Times), Inon Barnatan is celebrated for his poetic sensibility, musical intelligence and consummate artistry. He inaugurated his tenure as Music Director of California’s La Jolla Music Society Summerfest in 2019.

Mr. Barnatan is a regular soloist with many of the world’s foremost orchestras and conductors, whose 2019-20 concerto collaborations included Mozart with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gershwin and Ravel with the Chicago Symphony, Rachmaninoff with the Royal Stockholm Symphony, and a recreation of Beethoven’s legendary 1808 concert with the Cincinnati Symphony. He recently served for three seasons as the inaugural Artist-in-Association of the New York Philharmonic, and made debuts at the BBC Proms, with the London, Helsinki, and Hong Kong Philharmonics, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Baltimore, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Nashville, San Diego, and Seattle Symphonies.

The recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, Mr. Barnatan is also a sought-after recitalist and chamber musician. This season he makes his solo recital debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, returns to Alice Tully Hall with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and reunites with frequent cello partner Alisa Weilerstein for tours on both sides of the Atlantic. He has previously given solo recitals at such major international venues as New York’s 92nd Street Y, the Celebrity Series of Boston, Chicago’s Harris Theater, the Vancouver Recital Society, and London’s Southbank Centre and Wigmore Hall. Passionate about contemporary music, he has commissioned and performed works by many living composers, premiering pieces by Thomas Adès, Sebastian Currier, Avner Dorman, Alan Fletcher, Joseph Hallman, Alasdair Nicolson, Andrew Norman, and Matthias Pintscher.

This season brings the release of Beethoven’s complete piano concertos, recorded with Alan Gilbert and London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Mr. Barnatan’s acclaimed discography also includes Messiaen’s 90-minute masterpiece Des canyons aux étoiles, captured live at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; Rachmaninov & Chopin: Cello Sonatas, recorded with Weilerstein for Decca Classics; two solo Schubert albums; and Darknesse Visible, named BBC Music’s “Instrumentalist CD of the Month” and one of the New York Times’s “Best of 2012.”

For more information, visit www.inonbarnatan.com.

Photos by Marco Borggreve.

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