Pianist Inon Barnatan is widely recognized for refined, communicative, insightful playing that combines an extraordinary depth of musicianship and an impeccable, virtuosic technique. Hailed by The New Yorker as “a pianist of uncommon sensitivity,” Mr. Barnatan is often praised for his naturally expressive, poetic music making. With this instinctive understanding of the repertoire, he performs a diverse range of works from classical to contemporary, encompassing various styles and genres, in thoughtful and imaginative programs.
Since moving to the United States from Israel in 2006, Mr. Barnatan has performed with many of the country’s most esteemed orchestras and conductors, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and he has worked with conductors including Lawrence Foster, James Gaffigan, Jahja Ling, Rossen Milanov, Robert Spano, Juraj Valchua and Jaap van Zweiden, among others. He has toured with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields as a conductor and soloist, and has performed in New York at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y and at Lincoln Center, and at San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and Boston’s Jordan Hall, among many other important venues. In 2009, Mr. Barnatan was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, an honor reflecting the strong impression he has made on the American music scene in such a short period of time.
In addition to his American appearances, Mr. Barnatan has appeared as a soloist with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of New Europe, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra ... read full bio
Pianist Inon Barnatan is widely recognized for refined, communicative, insightful playing that combines an extraordinary depth of musicianship and an impeccable, virtuosic technique. Hailed by The New Yorker as “a pianist of uncommon sensitivity,” Mr. Barnatan is often praised for his naturally expressive, poetic music making. With this instinctive understanding of the repertoire, he performs a diverse range of works from classical to contemporary, encompassing various styles and genres, in thoughtful and imaginative programs.
Since moving to the United States from Israel in 2006, Mr. Barnatan has performed with many of the country’s most esteemed orchestras and conductors, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and he has worked with conductors including Lawrence Foster, James Gaffigan, Jahja Ling, Rossen Milanov, Robert Spano, Juraj Valchua and Jaap van Zweiden, among others. He has toured with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields as a conductor and soloist, and has performed in New York at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y and at Lincoln Center, and at San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and Boston’s Jordan Hall, among many other important venues. In 2009, Mr. Barnatan was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, an honor reflecting the strong impression he has made on the American music scene in such a short period of time.
In addition to his American appearances, Mr. Barnatan has appeared as a soloist with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of New Europe, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Barnatan’s second solo recording, Darknesse Visible, was released on Avie records in April 2012. Drawing inspiration from literature and exploring the interconnection of darkness and light, Mr. Barnatan performs a wide-ranging program of works by Thomas Adés, Ravel, Debussy and Britten/Stevenson. Darknesse Visible was named BBC Music Magazine’s Instrumentalist CD of the Month, and in his review of the CD, Anthony Tommasini from The New York Times wrote, “The thoughtful programming is typical for this insightful musician. But Mr. Barnatan’s extraordinary playing is what makes this release so rewarding.” Mr. Barnatan was also praised by NPR for his “extraordinary attention to touch, color and shading” on the album. To further illuminate and explore the themes of the works on Darknesse Visible, Mr. Barnatan collaborated with filmmaker Tristan Cook and artist Zack Smithey on a series of YouTube videos that serve as a visual component to the CD.
Mr. Barnatan performs works from Darknesse Visible in recital at the 92nd Street Y in New York in December 2012, as well as at the Ravinia Festival, the Kennedy Center, in California, Texas, Oregon, at Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw. Additional highlights of the upcoming season include a 16-city United States tour with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducting and playing Bach’s D minor concerto, and performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Bramwell Tovey, the National Arts Centre Orchestra with Pinchas Zukerman, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He will be joined by cellist Alisa Weilerstein for duo-recitals internationally, including at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Schubert Club in St. Paul, Minnesota, The Royal Conservatory in Toronto, among others, and he travels to South Africa for a solo tour that includes three orchestral performances and six recitals.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Barnatan was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program from 2006 to 2009, and is still a regular performer on CMS programs at home in New York and on tour. In 2009 he curated a festival of Schubert’s late solo piano, songs and chamber music works for the Society, the first musician other than the Society’s Artistic Directors to be invited to program concerts. ‘The Schubert Project’ program has also been performed at the Concertgebouw, the Festival de México, and at the Library of Congress.
Other chamber music performances include the complete Beethoven piano and violin sonatas at the Concertgebouw, the Bergen International Festival in Norway, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Delft and the Verbier Festivals and the Lyon Musicades. His rigorous U.S. festival schedule has included a broad range of concerts at the Spoleto Festival USA, the Aspen and La Jolla Music Festivals, and the Santa Fe and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals. He has collaborated with musicians such as Liza Ferschtman, Miriam Fried, Martin Fröst, Gary Hoffman, Janine Jansen, the Jerusalem String Quartet, Ralph Kirshbaum, Cho-Liang Lin, Paul Neubauer and Alisa Weilerstein. In 2008 he received the Andrew Wolf Memorial Award in Rockport, awarded every two years to an exceptional chamber music pianist.
Passionate about contemporary music, Mr. Barnatan regularly commissions and performs music by living composers, including works by Thomas Adès, George Benjamin, George Crumb, Avner Dorman, Kaija Saariaho and Judith Weir among others. Last season, he participated in Carnegie Hall’s “Making Music: James MacMillan” series, performing the composer’s Piano Sonata and chamber piece Raising Sparks.
Mr. Barnatan’s debut solo recording of Schubert piano works was released on Bridge Records in 2006. London’s Evening Standard wrote: “The young, Israeli born pianist Inon Barnatan is a true poet of the keyboard: refined, searching, unfailingly communicative… This is musicianship of the highest caliber.” Gramophone recommended the recording in its November 2006 award issue, calling Mr. Barnatan “a born Schubertian” and praising the CD’s “sensitivity, poise and focus.” His second CD of works for piano and violin by Beethoven and Schubert with violinist Liza Ferschtman was described by All Music Guide as “a magical listening experience.”
Born in Tel Aviv in 1979, Inon Barnatan started playing the piano at the age of three after his parents discovered he had perfect pitch, and he made his orchestral debut at eleven. His studies connect him to some of the 20th century’s most illustrious pianists and teachers: he studied with Professor Victor Derevianko, who himself studied with the Russian master Heinrich Neuhaus, and in 1997 he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Maria Curcio – who was a student of the legendary Artur Schnabel – and with Christopher Elton. Leon Fleisher has also been an influential teacher and mentor and in 2004 he invited Mr. Barnatan to study and perform Schubert sonatas as part of a Carnegie Hall workshop, an experience that has had a lasting resonance for Mr. Barnatan. In 2006 Mr. Barnatan moved to New York City, where he currently resides in a converted warehouse in Harlem. For more information about Mr. Barnatan visit www.inonbarnatan.com or visit his page on Facebook.
Last updated September 2012. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.
