“Bannister played with intelligence, poetry and proportion … was particularly impressed by the way she gave all the Brahms variations their own splendid little lives and characters while yoking them firmly into a grander totality . ” – Tim Page from the Washington Post
“Tanya Bannister, an exceptionally talented young pianist…is fortunate to have three attractive composition commissioned for her…and well recorded. …Bannister plays all these with a scintillating tone and a subtle sense of chording and dynamics. A beautiful piano tone is a rare thing these days, and she has it.”– American Record Guide
Lauded by The Washington Post for playing “…with intelligence, poetry and proportion,” pianist Tanya Bannister’s recent victories at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the New Orleans International Piano Competition confirm her status among the leading pianists of her generation. Receiving further distinction as an “Artist to Watch” on the cover of SYMPHONY Magazine, Ms. Bannister’s career has already brought her to many of the world’s great concert halls, with recitals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salle Cortot in Paris, Teatro Communale in Bologna, Tokyo’s Nikkei Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.
Ms. Bannister’s newest recording featuring chamber versions of Chopin Concerto No. 2, Mozart Concerto K. 449 and Schubert Adagio and Rondo. Her debut recording, featuring three late piano sonatas of Muzio Clementi had BBC Music Magazine declaring: “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.” Her latest recording for Albany Records, This is the story she began,features solo piano music of American composers David Del Tredici, Christopher Theofanidis, Suzanne Farrin and Sheila Silver; the New American Record Guidecomplimented her as “exceptionally talented…with a scintillating tone and subtle sense of chording.”
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which occurred soon after Ms. Bannister’s victory in New Orleans, she joined forces 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.
Born in Hong Kong, Ms. Bannister holds degrees from the Royal Academy of Music in London, Yale University, where she studied with Claude Frank, and New York’s Mannes School of Music, where she received an Artist Diploma as one of a handful of pianists selected to study with Richard Goode.
As co-founder and Artistic Director of AlpenKammerMusik, Ms. Bannister has created an intimate musical experience in which music lovers from around the world can spend 12 days in a small Alpine village engaged in the study of chamber music. Sensing a demand for musical opportunity amongst amateur and pre-professional musicians, Ms. Bannister designed an experience for the participants that includes collaborating closely with a globally distinguished faculty on preparing for final public performances.
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