Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity, and creative insight. His performances of a broad range of repertoire—from Beethoven and Schubert to Ligeti and the music of today—reflect a degree of virtuosity and intellectual curiosity that has made him a favorite among audiences and critics, who note his “keen musical mind and deep musical soul” (NPR’s All Things Considered).

Highlights of Wosner’s 2024-25 season are a tour of the northeastern United States and Canada with clarinetist Martin Fröst and violist Antoine Tamestit, performing works rooted in folklore and dance in new trio arrangements created by Wosner and Fröst. Wosner brings the same musicality, intellect, and sensitivity to his arrangements as he does his piano playing. He has arranged Beethoven’s Symphony Nos. 1, 4 and 6 as trios for cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax, and violinist Leonidas Kavakos. The latter two arrangements are featured on the trio’s “Beethoven for Three” recordings from Sony Classical. This season, Wosner also performs a recital program of Schubert and David Lang with baritone Benjamin Appl commemorating the centenary of legendary baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau at New York’s Town Hall, presented by the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts (PSC) where Wosner is Artist-in-Residence; a performance with the JACK Quartet on the Music Mondays series in New York, and performances with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Additionally, he tours Europe with violinist Joshua Bell, and continues to perform as part of the Zukerman Trio with violinist Pinchas Zukerman and cellist Amanda Forsyth.

Wosner has appeared with the major North American orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Berkeley, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, San Francisco, and Toronto, among others. He has performed abroad with the BBC orchestras, the Barcelona, Bournemouth, and Gothenburg Symphonies, LSO St. Luke’s, Staatskapelle Berlin, and the Vienna Philharmonic, among others. Wosner performs regularly at chamber music festivals, including Chamber Music Northwest, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

His acclaimed recordings for Onyx Classics range from Schubert sonatas, to chamber works by Bartók and Kurtág, to concerti by Haydn and Ligeti. Recent albums include a recording of Beethoven’s 33 Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120 also released on Onyx. The Diabelli Variations inspired Wosner to commission and record solo piano works from contemporary composers Derek Bermel, Anthony Cheung, John Harbison, Vijay Iyer, and Wang Lu, which were released on New Focus Recordings alongside Christopher Cerrone’s concerto for piano and strings, The Air Suspended, written for Wosner.

Born in Israel, Wosner enjoyed a broad musical education from a very early age, studying piano with Opher Brayer and Emanuel Krasovsky, as well as composition, theory, and improvisation with André Hajdu. He later studied with Emanuel Ax at The Juilliard School, where Wosner is also now on the piano faculty. He is a recipient of Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.  For more information on Wosner go to shaiwosner.com.

‍

photo credit: Marco Borggreve