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The American pianist, David Berry, obtained his Bachelor of Music degree with High Distinction from the Eastman School of Music (2004); and his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees degrees in Piano Performance from the Juilliard School (2011), where he was a recipient of the C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellowship and Susan W. Rose Piano Scholarship. His piano teachers have included Martin Canin, Douglas Humpherys, and George Skafidas, with collaborative piano coachings under Russell Miller and chamber music studies under Seymour Lipkin, Jacob Lateiner, and Jonathan Feldman.
David Berry is an active classical pianist whose performances have been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center, Merkin Hall, the UW World Series at the University of Washington, as well as live broadcasts of WQXR (New York City). He has been a featured soloist with the Hudson Symphony Orchestra and served as guest artist and adjudicator for the Zelpha Wells Piano Competition. As a performer of new music, he has worked with or premiered works by a number of noted composers, including James Lee III, Jeffery Scott (Imani Winds), Adolphus Hailstork, and Grammy-award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon. He was a featured soloist in the Juilliard School’s Focus Festival, All About Elliott, celebrating the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter, and also featured in piano series’ hosted by author David Dubal at the Kosciusko Foundation and the Cervantes Institute. He was the Grand Prize Winner of the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, as well as a prize-winner in the Thousand Islands International Piano Competition.
An avid chamber musician, David Berry as collaborated with members of many of the nation’s leading orchestras, including the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony Orchestra. He has toured and regularly concertized as a resident member of the Jacksonville, Florida-based Ritz Chamber Players, The Harlem Chamber Players, and the innovative chamber music theater group, the Core Ensemble. As an arts administrator, he serves as Chair of Chamber Music Programs for the Gateways Music Festival at the Eastman School of Music, a biennial festival which celebrates the contributions of musicians of African descent to classical music, and features over 120 players from major American orchestras and university faculties across the USA.
In addition to his accomplishments as a classical musician, David Berry is an avid improviser of jazz, gospel, and popular contemporary piano styles, and also enjoys composing his own concert arrangements of hymns.
David Berry is currently Assistant Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Eastern Mennonite University. |
