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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 Cité Céleste -- of "a young Peter Serkin."

As a soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble member, Conor has been heard across the United States, 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, Chatter, the NOW Ensemble, and the Metropolis Ensemble.

Conor began the 2010-11 season playing ten concerts with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, including solo performances of György Ligeti's complete Musica Ricercata, which the Pittsburgh Review praised for its "lucidity, power, wit and fine control." Shortly after he was heard at the Missouri Valley Arts Festival performing works by Mahler and Debussy with members of the Saint Louis Symphony, and in October joins James Levine and the MET Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in Pierre Boulez's sur Incises.

In 2009 Conor 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 with David Robertson and the Juilliard Orchestra, a group with which he joined again in February 2010 for the world premiere of Hyeon Joon Sohn's Piano Concerto in Lincoln Center. In addition to his two appearances with the Juilliard Orchestra, Conor 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, Conor 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. 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, Conor performed the composer's Dérive I, and worked with members of the Ensemble InterContemporain in works by Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, and Luciano Berio.

At age eight Conor began studying violin and viola in the Iowa City Community School District before starting piano at age ten, two years later becoming a private student of Daniel Shapiro and Rene Lecuona at the University of Iowa. In 2005 he completed studies with Alan Chow and Ursula Oppens at Northwestern University, graduating with honors in piano and journalism.

Now a student at the Juilliard School, where he completed his master's degree in 2008 and was awarded the Helen Fay prize in piano, Mr. Hanick is a full-scholarship C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow studying with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio.

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