GEOFFREY BURLESON has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America, and is equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and jazz performer. The New York Times has hailed his solo performances as “vibrant” and “compelling”, and has praised his “command, projection of rhapsodic qualities without loss of rhythmic vigor, and appropriate sense of spontaneity and fetching colors”. And the Boston Globe refers to Mr. Burleson as a “remarkable pianist” and “a first-class instrumental presence” whose performances are “outright thrilling.” His numerous acclaimed solo appearances include prominent venues in Paris (at the Église St-Merri), New York, Rome (American Academy), Helsinki (Sibelius Academy), Athens (Mitropoulos Hall), Mexico City (National Museum of Art), Rotterdam (De Doelen), Chicago (Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series), Boston, Washington, Switzerland, England, Spain, and elsewhere. He has also appeared as soloist in many international festivals, including the Mostly Modern Festival, Bard Music Festival, Monadnock Music Festival, Other Minds Festival, Mänttä Music Festival (Finland), Santander Festival (Spain), the Talloires International Festival (France), the International Keyboard Institute & Festival (New York), and the Interharmony International Music Festival (Italy).
Mr. Burleson made his New York City solo recital debut at Merkin Hall in 2000, sponsored by the League of Composers/ISCM. Concerto appearances include the Buffalo Philharmonic, New England Philharmonic, Boston Musica Viva, Pioneer Valley Symphony, Arlington Philharmonic, and the Holland Symfonia in the Netherlands, with repertoire ranging from Mozart, Weber and Saint-Saëns to Gershwin, Yehudi Wyner, David Rakowski and Klaas de Vries. Mr. Burleson is a core member of the American Modern Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, Tribeca New Music, ECCE, the David Sanford Big Band, Ensemble Ipse, Princeton University’s Richardson Chamber Players, and IMPetus, a dynamic avant-cabaret trio featuring vocalist Maria Tegzes and guitarist Dave ‘Knife’ Fabris. Via the AKOKA CD, Burleson was nominated for a 2015 Juno Award for Classical Album Of The Year. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, New England Conservatory, and Stony Brook University (D.M.A.), his principal teachers include Gilbert Kalish, Leonard Shure, Veronica Jochum, Lillian Freundlich, and Tinka Knopf.
Currently, Mr. Burleson is recording the complete piano works of Camille Saint-Saëns, being released on 7 CD volumes on the Naxos Grand Piano label. The series has received high international acclaim from Gramophone, International Record Review, Diapason (France) and elsewhere, and has garnered International Piano Choice Awards from International Piano Magazine. Other solo releases include Roy Harris-Complete Piano Music (Naxos), and Vincent Persichetti: Complete Piano Sonatas (New World Records).
Mr. Burleson teaches piano at Princeton University, and is Professor of Music and Director of Piano Studies at Hunter College-City University of New York. He is also on the piano faculties of The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the Mostly Modern Festival, and the Interharmony International Music Festival (Italy).
