Shai Wosner

Pianist Shai Wosner has a large repertory that stretches from Beethoven to Ligeti and beyond. He is noted for pairing repertory works with contemporary pieces in concert and on recordings. Wosner was born in Israel in 1976. His piano teacher in Tel Aviv was Emanuel Krasovsky, and he also studied composition, theory, and improvisation with Andre Hadju there. At age 21, he was admitted to New York's Juilliard School for piano studies with Emanuel Ax; he has remained a resident of New York ever since. A breakthrough came in 2007 when Wosner was named a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, which brought extensive opportunities to perform and record with the full complement of BBC national and regional orchestras. Wosner has also performed widely in the U.S. with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra, and in Europe with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Staatskapelle, among others. He has performed chamber music with the likes of clarinetist Martin Fröst, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, and cellist Lynn Harrell. He also has an ongoing duo piano relationship with Orion Weiss. Wosner participated in the initial workshops that led to the formation of conductor Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and he has collaborated with pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar. He appeared in 2002 on the Cypres Records label, on an album of Salvatore Sciarrino's piano music that also featured several other pianists; his solo debut came in 2010 on Onyx with an album of works by Brahms and Schoenberg. He has recorded mostly for Onyx since that time. Wosner's concerts are notable for pairing repertory works with new compositions, as in a tour with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra on which he performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major, K. 449, with the premiere of composer Christopher Cerrone's concerto The Air Suspended. Wosner has often recorded as a concerto soloist with the BBC Orchestras and as a chamber player. He issued several albums of Schubert's music on Onyx, including a 2020 recording of four of that composer's piano sonatas. Wosner returned in 2023 with a recording of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Op. 120. ~ James Manheim, Rovi