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Ursula Oppens (born February 2, 1944) is an American classical concert pianist and educator.
Born in New York City (February 2, 1944), Oppens obtained a high school diploma from the Brearley School (1961) a Bachelor of Arts degree (cum laude) from Radcliffe College (1965) and an M.S. degree from the Juilliard School (1967). She began early piano studies with her mother Edith Oppens, a noted piano pedagogue, and went on to study with American pianist Leonard Shure. At Juilliard she studied with Rosina Lhevinne and Felix Galimir. In 1969 Oppens won the Gold Medal at the Busoni International Piano Competition and the Young Concert Artists competition, plus an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1976. She served as a Founding Member of the Speculum Musicae from 1971 to 1982. From 1994 until 2008 Oppens was on the summer faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center. She held the position of Distinguished Professor of Music at Northwestern University from 1994 to 2008, and in 2008 went on to take up a new post as Distinguished Professor of Music at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. Oppens is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ursula Oppens is renowned for her commissioning and championship of the music of American composers who were born predominantly in the early decades of the 20th century. The following is a list of composers who have been commissioned by Oppens or who have written works for her: Witold Lutoslawski, whose Piano Concerto was given its Chicago Symphony premiere by Oppens under the baton of Erich Leinsdorf in 1994.
Oppens's discography includes a recording on Vanguard of Frederic Rzewski's "The People United Will Never Be Defeated" and a version on American Piano Music of Our Time of Elliott Carter's "Night Fantasies." Overall, Oppens's body of recordings—which has received four Grammy nominations to date—forms a survey of American contemporary piano music which, in addition to the aforementioned listings, also includes the complete piano music of Elliott Carter and John Corigliano, and compositions by John Adams, Julius Hemphill, Conlon Nancarrow and Tobias Picker, among others. Oppens has also set to disc a group of Beethoven piano sonatas and piano pieces for the Music & Arts label. To date Oppens has recorded for the following labels: Cedille, Wergo, Music & Arts, Vanguard Classics, Mode, Montaigne, CRI, Nuevo Era, Naxos, Angel, New World, Arte Nova, Nonesuch, Albany Records, Mark Masters, Summit, Boosey & Hawkes, New World, DeNote, Watt Works, and Bridge.
SOLO RECORDINGS:
OTHER SOLO RECORDINGS:
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CHAMBER MUSIC RECORDINGS:
Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Franklin, President of the United States, Quincy, Massachusetts
Music, Dance, New York City, Jazz, Drama
University of Chicago, University of Iowa, Illinois, Big Ten Conference, Cornell University
Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Collage, University of Oregon, Cantata Singers, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Aaron Copland, Johann Sebastian Bach, Olivier Messiaen
Southwest Chamber Music, Pasadena, California, Southern Utah University, Fresno, California, William Kraft
Socialism, Johann Sebastian Bach, United States, Chile, Salvador Allende