Jonathan Shames Guest Piano Recital

The University of Florida School of Music welcomes pianist and conductor Jonathan Shames, who will present a piano recital, piano masterclass, and orchestra clinic during his residency. 

Piano Recital: Monday, October 5, at 7:30 p.m. in MUB 101 
Program features Copland’s Piano Variations, Schubert’s Sonata in C minor, D. 958, Janacek Sonata, X.I.1905, and Chopin’s Mazurka in C minor, op. 56, no. 3 and Ballade No. 4, Op. 52. 

About the Artist 
Jonathan Shames leads a wide-ranging musical career as pianist, conductor and artist-teacher. Since 2004 the Director of Orchestral Studies and Artistic Director of OU Opera at the University of Oklahoma, Mr. Shames has introduced Oklahoma audiences to a wide range of contemporary works, including Lori Laitman’s Scarlet Letter, Luigi Nono’s Il Canto sospeso, and Louis Andriessen’s De Tijd. He has premiered orchestral and piano works of Joël-François Durand, Betsy Jolas, Stephen Hartke and Daniel Asia; his recordings of Asia’s Scherzo-Sonata for Piano, dedicated to him, and of Anthony Brandt’s opera The Birth of Something, which he recorded with Houston’s Musiqa Ensemble, are available on Amazon Music. Mr. Shames has collaborated frequently with the Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, including a staging of Tate’s masque Clans with costuming by Chickasaw designers at the Chickasaw Nation’s Te Ata Theater in Ada, Oklahoma, and with Mr. Tate as vocal soloist. Mr. Shames also shares the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Recording for his work on William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and Experience.

Mr. Shames’ work as a teacher occupies an important place in his musical life. He taught piano at Oberlin, Rutgers, and Cornell and conducting at the University of Michigan and (currently) University of Oklahoma, led the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras and Marrowstone Music Festival for eight years, and continues to work as often as possible with youth orchestras, pianists and conductors. At the University of Oklahoma, he conducts opera and orchestra performances, tours with the OU Symphony Orchestra and often collaborates with OU’s School of Dance in works such as Balanchine’s ballets on Prokofiev’s Prodigal Son, Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. His conducting students have won international conducting prizes and positions in universities and music festivals both in the U.S. and abroad, and OU Opera has been recognized often by the National Opera Association. 
Mr. Shames’ musical development included piano studies with Theodore Lettvin and Leon Fleisher, conducting studies with Gustav Meier, and a conducting fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Festival, where he worked with Seiji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink. At age 19, he was invited to join the Opera Company of Boston as opera coach, pianist and conductor by the great impresario, stage director and conductor Sarah Caldwell. He later toured Russia with Ms. Caldwell, performing as pianist in Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk. Mr. Shames has performed and recorded as pianist with orchestras throughout the U.S. and Europe, among them the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Cologne Radio Symphony, the Belgrade Radio and Television Symphony, Boston Pops, and Seattle, Indianapolis and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras. Music directorships have included the Olympia and Wyoming Symphonies. Mr. Shames was a laureate of several competitions including the 1982 Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition; interviews and performances of his are featured in the widely-viewed documentary of the event. Mr. Shames studied philosophy as an undergraduate at Yale University.

Upcoming projects for Mr. Shames include the world stage premiere of Maria Teresa Agnesi’s 1756 opera Il re pastore at the University of Oklahoma and recordings of the complete piano works of Joël-François Durand for the Kairos label.