Conor Hanick, piano

    Conor Hanick (b.1982, Iowa City, IA) is a concert pianist, chamber musician, and modern music enthusiast living in New York City. His playing has been widely praised, described by the New York Times and Gramaphone magazine as “excellent,” “brilliant,” “astounding,” and “colorful,” demonstrating “technical precision and musical conviction.” His performances of contemporary repertoire have been particularly acclaimed, reminding the New York Times’s Anthony Tommasini -- in a “riveting” performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Couleurs de la Cite Celeste - of “a young Peter Serkin.”
    As a soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble member, Hanick has been heard across the US, Europe, and Japan, performing in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kennedy Center, Lucerne Hall, and Kyoto Concert Hall. His interest in a variety of musical mediums has led to collaborations with the conductors Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, and David Robertson, and chamber music performances with the Maia Quartet, AXIOM Ensemble, and Chatter.
      In 2009 Hanick was invited to perform in the inaugural concert of Alice Tully Hall’s reopening celebration, playing Messiaen’s ninety-minute piano concerto, Des canyons aux etoiles… with David Robertson and the Juilliard Orchestra, a group he joined again in February 2010 for the world premiere of Hyeon Joon Sohn’s Piano Concerto in Lincoln Center.
    He has worked with John Adams, Barbara White, Pierre Boulez, Mario Davidovsky, Charles Wuorinen, Magnus Lindberg, and Pulitzer prize-winning composer David Lang. With Pierre Boulez, as part of the Lucerne Festival Academy in 2008, Hanick performed the composer's Dérive I, and worked with members of the Ensemble InterContemporain in works by Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, and Luciano Berio.
    The 2010-11 season has included concerts with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and Missouri Valley Arts Festival where he performed works by Mahler and Debussy with members of the Saint Louis Symphony. In October, he will join James Levine and the MET Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in Pierre Boulez’s Sur Incises.  
    Hanick has been a soloist with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Orchestra Iowa, the New Juilliard Ensemble, AXIOM, the Des Moines Symphony, and the Eastern Symphony Orchestra. A devoted promoter of contemporary music, he has collaborated with, commissioned, and performed works by composers from Northwestern University, Princeton University, Yale University, the Aspen Music Festival, Manhattan School of Music, and Juilliard, where he completed his Master’s degree in 2008 and is currently a full-scholarship Doctoral Fellow.