Matthew Odell

Elliott Carter: Tri-tribute, Night Fantasies, Two Diversions, Intermittences
Pierre Boulez: 3rd Sonata

The New Hampshire-born pianist Matthew Odell began his studies at the age of 10 and has since won acclaim for performances of a wide range of repertoire as a solo recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and chamber musician. He has been hailed as “excellent” by the New York Times and “brilliant . . . playing with total commitment and real abandon” by Gramophone. Highlights of past concert seasons include such diverse projects as Messiaen’s Des canyons aux étoiles. . . with David Robertson and the Juilliard Orchestra for the reopening of Alice Tully Hall, a performance in the New York Philharmonic’s Stravinsky Festival, and a recital series of the complete piano music of Messiaen. He also performed numerous contemporary works for piano and orchestra with the AXIOM Ensemble and completed a six-concert tour of Taiwan with the Hampton Trio. Upcoming concerts include the final installment of concerts of the complete piano music of Elliott Carter and Pierre Boulez, a tribute to Pierre Bernac and Francis Poulenc at Lincoln Center, and concerts in France, Spain, and Finland.

A passionate advocate of the music of our time, Mr. Odell frequently premieres works written for him. He has performed contemporary repertoire with the New Juilliard Ensemble, the AXIOM Ensemble, and the American Art Song Festival, a group he founded in 2004. In addition, he has also worked with many prominent composers, including Pierre Boulez, John Corigliano, Ned Rorem, Mark Adamo, Michel Merlet, and Robert Aldridge. Mr. Odell’s affinity for the music of Olivier Messiaen has been seen in a performance of his Visions de l’Amen with pianist Peter Hill and an upcoming recording project of the music of Messiaen and his students.

Mr. Odell is a founding member of the Hampton Trio, a group that was involved in presenting outstanding pieces from the established repertoire alongside newly-commissioned works. Mr. Odell’s special love of the art song repertoire has resulted in many recitals with singers from around the world, including the British bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk. For five years he served on the coaching faculty of the Académie internationale d’été de Nice in France, and he has performed in the Marilyn Horne Foundations’s festival The Song Continues at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Odell currently teaches at The Juilliard School and Keene State College and frequently presents master classes, workshops, and lectures at professional conferences and universities throughout the U.S and Europe. In May 2010 he graduated with a doctoral degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Margo Garrett, Jonathan Feldman, and Brian Zeger. He studied further with Marian Hahn at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, graduating Pi Kappa Lambda with both a master of music degree and a graduate performance diploma in piano performance. He also worked with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, with Ann Schein at the Aspen Music School, with Laurence Morton at Bob Jones University, and in master classes with Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Ian Hobson, Martin Isepp, Peter Hill, and the Tokyo String Quartet.

Mr. Odell has been awarded the Presser Award, the Sarah Stuhlman Zierler Award, two Peabody Career Development Grants, the Lucrezia Bori Grant, the Virginia Allison Accompanying Award, and a numerous fellowships and grants from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.

Tickets: $12 advance/$15 door/$10 students